A Little More Light, A Little More Sleep (Hopefully!)

Cordy has always been an early riser. No matter how much we try to adjust her schedule, she's always up before the sun. Sometimes as early as 5am. It wasn't a problem when she was younger and wouldn't leave her room, but now she wakes up, opens her door, and wanders into our room. This is how the conversation goes most mornings:

"Mommy, Daddy, it's a beautiful day. Will you take me downstairs?"

"Cordy, it's still nighttime. Go back to bed."

"But my eyes are open."

"You're big enough to go down on your own."

"I can't...it's too dark."

"Go turn on the living room light."

"But the stairs are too dark."

And at that point Aaron usually gets up and goes downstairs with her. She's right - the stairs are too dark for her, and we don't want her falling down them in the dark. We've been dreaming of inventing a device that, when she opens her door, would trigger a series of lights along the stairs to light up so she could go downstairs on her own and buy us at least another 15 minutes of sleep.

While we don't have a device like that, we have found one that works nearly as well. The Sylvania PalPODzzz portable nightlights are both nightlight and wandering flashlight all in one. There are two cute designs: a ladybug and a rocketship. As you can probably guess, Cordy wanted the rocketship.

The PalPODzzz is made up of two pieces. The base is a nightlight and also recharges the flashlight when it's connected. The flashlight is small and perfect for tiny hands to hold. The unit has a light sensor so that the nightlight is brighter as the room is darker. It also conserves energy by keeping the nightlight off during the day. The nightlight could best be described as a gentle glow - it's not quite enough light, so Cordy still has her other nightlight in her room, too.

The flashlight is not the same as an adult's flashlight. While it provides enough light to brighten dark areas, it's not so bright that it will burn your retinas if shined in your eyes. It automatically activates when taken off the base, but it also has a button on the side to turn it on and off. (And on and off and on and off and on...)

The flashlight has a four hour battery life before it needs to be recharged. The only downside is sometimes Cordy will grab the rocketship off the base early in the night, and then fall asleep with it on, so that in her (our) time of greatest need, it won't work and we endure the bedside wake-up again.

I love this little flashlight. Cordy can now use it to go down the stairs in the morning and find the light switch. Flashlights are favorite toys of hers anyway, as evidenced by our house full of dead flashlights, and the rocketship design makes her want to use this one over all others. I appreciate that the PalPODzzz is rechargable, saving me from buying batteries for yet another device my daughter will leave on all day.

I'm thankful that PBN asked me to review the Sylvania PalPODzzz, because it has solved a big problem in our house! Now if we could only find a device to make her breakfast and turn on the TV...

Check out PBN for more reviews on this product.