It's a simple device, but I was always worried about how effective it really was?  And how do I go about cleaning this thing?  We purchased another one that could come apart to clean, but everytime we squeezed it to use, it fell apart at the seam.

One day my wife did some research and found this device by NoseFrida called "The Snotsucker Nasal Aspirator".  Essentially, instead of the bulb doing all the sucking, your mouth is.  Sounds a bit gross, but it's quite effective.  You have control over the strength of the suction and it's easily cleaned.  What it does not solve is having your baby sit still while you stick something up his nose.

Here's the breakdown of the device.  It comes in it's own protective case for travel and safe keeping.  The aspirator is 4 parts, the mouth piece, the hose, the tube, and a filter.  The mouth piece is obvious, that's the part you suck on.  The hose (13" long) connects between the mouth piece and the tube (5" long).  Inside where the tube connects to the hose is a filter.  This filter is a sponge that you can clean.  (The product comes with 3 spare filters.)

I have to be honest, I don't have the stomach to use this.  I've tried a couple times and I start gagging.  It's mental, I know.  But when my wife uses it, it works like a champ!  Once done, I just take it apart and run it under the sink with warm water and it's clean.  It's also recommended (and by our pediatrician) that you use a bit of saline solution to loosen up the snot.  We tried applying using drops, but for our baby the best way was to spray up into the nostril.  Regardless of the methods, our baby doesn't care too much for the process.  I wouldn't want anyone squirting liquid up my nose, then having it sucked out.  If anyone out there has a better solution, I'd love to hear about it!

The systems allow for some granularity when it comes to  camera control.  You can adjust brightness, motion sensitivity, recording times, and video resolution.  It even offers limited pan & zoom.  You also have the option of sending email alerts.

There are 3 types of cameras to choose from: indoor, outdoor, and spy.  The spy camera is a hidden camera that looks like a digital clock.  My biggest wish is that Logitech would come out with better looking or a larger variety of cameras.  The system supports a maximum of 6 cameras which you can mix n' match.  The indoor camera comes with a base stand where you can sit it on a shelf or table or you also have the option of mounting against a window via a suction cup.  Each camera will run you about $200.

The neat thing about the cameras is that you don't need to run cables throughout the house, nor do you need to setup a wireless network.  The master system and the cameras communicate to each other via the electrical system in your house.  The catch is, the cameras need to plug directly into the wall outlet and not into a surge protector or any sort of power strip.  If you do, you might run into problems with the system seeing the camera.  In my house, I have 3 cameras downstairs and 2 upstairs.  Originally I put the computer (running the master system software) in a downstairs office and everything worked great.  Later on, I moved this computer upstairs, but for some reason, issues with the system seeing all the cameras started.  Needless to say, the PC is downstairs again.  My word of advice, before you go buy a bunch of cameras, test one out first from different parts of your house to make sure you don't have any connectivity issues.
Now that the system is up and running, how do you view the videos remotely?  WiLife offers an online system that allows you to view live video feeds of your system for free.  If you want to view recorded videos, and/or store videos online, that will come at a price of about $80.00 per year with  a "platinum" membership.  If you have a Windows based cell phone, you should be able to access the WiLife website to view live feeds of your home.  In our case, we have iPhones which do not have a native way of viewing our cameras.  As a workaround, we use this service called "LogMeIn".  I installed this on both my home PC and my iPhone.  The PC software is free, but the iPhone app is not.  This service allows me to remote control my home pc using my iPhone.  By doing this, it's as if I'm sitting in front of the PC at home.  Of course the video lags a bit, but it works!

The main drawback of the system is that there is no sound in any of the videos.  You can see, but can't hear what's going on.  Another is the price.  With multiple cameras, the overall system can get pricey.  The starter kit will run about $280 which is the master software and one camera. The advantage is that you don't need to run any video cables anywhere, just plug into the nearest power outlet.  Personally, I think this is one of the best systems out there.  It's just peace of mind for knowing what's going on at home with your little ones.  Let me know what you think of this post.

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As you can see, it takes up most of the tub space, but it only uses a fraction of the water compared to filling up the tub itself. The nose has a device that when squeezed will make a quacking sound. It’s made with two air filled reservoirs, one for the sides and head and another for the base. I like the fact that the base is inflated because this also provides cushioning for our son when sitting. Plus with it being made of rubber, it isn’t a slippery surface when standing up. According to Munchkin, they call it the safety duck because it’s got a temperature patch (seen as the blue dot in the bottom of the duck) which turns white when hot water comes in contact. Personally, even warm water will turn it white, so I’ve grown to ignore the patch and just feel the water out.

An important comment is that you can’t just sit it below the faucet to fill. As you can see, the head and tail gets in the way, so you’ll need to fill it by hand. We use a small bucket which takes a couple minutes to fill the duck so for me, it’s no big deal.

This is actually our second duck. The first one sprung a very slow leak. I tried to use a repair kit but the leak was right on the seam where I couldn’t get a good patch on. But for $15, we just bought a new one, and it’s been going great.

Oh and when it’s not being used as a bath tub, we used it once as an ice chest holding drinks for a birthday party!