A toy for mom and dad

No...not that type of toy...talk of those is reserved for Mom's Night Out dinners. OK, so the husband LOVES toys. Man gadgets if you will. His birthday was last weekend and I was all about getting something he would like. Not just "great gift honey," but "wow where did you find this and how did you know about a gadget before me!" He happens to also regularly complain about our caveman video camera. In all fairness it is from the year of the flood (5 or so years old which is ancient these days). More importantly though, is that we have not taken video of our kids since the 3 1/2 year old was 2 or so and the little one (7 1/2 months) has never had a real video taken of her. I am not sure how this is possible but considering that the one we have requires those mini discs and a day to charge it, it collects serious dust.

With all of that said I found the PERFECT gift. Understand that by perfect, I mean it was a man gadget, it was fun, it filled a need we had and it was not going to break the bank. The Pure Digital Point and Shoot Camcorder http://www.puredigitalinc.com/. This camcorder is the size of a deck of cards, holds 60 minutes (they also make a 30 minute version) of video and has a USB port that attaches directly to your computer to download. With all of four buttons and a 2X zoom this thing fits in my purse or the husbands pocket and the best part was the price - $175 (ours was on sale at Red Envelope http://www.redenvelope.com/ for $135). No, I am not kidding. Tonight we downloaded the videos and it could not have been easier. All of the software and instructions pop up as soon as you plug in the USB port.

For those who are wondering about the quality of the video - I did a lot of research prior to purchase and many reviews talked about the video quality. I am THRILLED with the quality. I mean come on - for $135 my kids punims are crisp and clear and the sound is nice and it fits in my purse. I mean I am not expecting Spielberg quality here. More importantly though the husbands exact words were "this thing is great and really easy - I love it!" As for me - She shoots...she scores!