I never realized, as I am contemplating it now, just how important a good water bottle is, until I became a Mother. Soon after learning I was blessed with my first born child, it all of the sudden became important to have a good water bottle to drink water from to nourish my body and my growing baby inside. In those early days, with the knowledge I had, Nalgene was the brand I drank from. It was durable, easily portable, and most importantly, non-breakable. I pretty much stuck with my Nalgene until I became aware of the dangers of BPA in plastics and how this and other dangerous chemicals could leach into my precious drinking water, and thus into our bodies. My love for the stainless steel bottle was then born. Even with my little ones, we made the switch from those cute and colorful, inexpensive plastic sippy cups to the Thermos Foogo Brand, which sometimes seemed to break the bank when needing to buy several of these or replace their parts. Thankfully, I do remember Thermos being so good about selling and sending replacement parts for their cups. Although it seemed to cost a fortune, I knew our choice of stainless bottles would be the best option for my children’s health, as well as for keeping plastics out of land fills and contaminating our environment.  As the years went on and the need for more and more sippy cups grew, so did the size of my little ones and their need for bigger and bigger water bottles. We then moved on to another trusted Thermos product, the nice big stainless steel bottles. They lasted for years, not too offended by their many bumps and dents on them. They were a safe container to carry my husband and my daily water as well as my older children’s. But then came a new worry…Just how do you identify whose water bottle was whose? We would be off on a road trip down to the hospital for a midwife visit almost two hours away, and when someone was thirsty, I’d have to just guess whose bottle was whose. I used to just hand them out and try and let the children keep track of their own bottle. I even attempted to write on the broken bottoms with a Sharpy. But alas, that would disappear after a run or two through the dishwasher. And then another concern, the bottles were just plain….well, PLAIN. They just didn’t look pretty, didn’t brighten a room, and I certainly couldn’t tell them apart when they were sitting on the kitchen table and trying to figure out who they belonged to. Now, enter my dear, favorite water bottle….Well, first let me tell you how I was first introduced to it. During a trip to TJMaxx, while looking through the cooking aisles, my eyes saw a lovely sight, a bright, cheerful pink silicone covered glass water bottle. The brand name was Life Factory and it was actually made in France, not another country known for its less than top-quality products which tend to break or fall apart soon after purchasing them. Hmm, I thought to my self. I could really use another water bottle. So, that was how it all began. Thanks to Amazon.com, I have since purchased a different color of these beautiful Life Factory water bottles for each member of my dear family. Gone are the days of not knowing whose water bottle was whose and starring at those drab, dented stainless bottles (though they did get the job done, so I can understand if you’re still a fan of them). Hello are the days where my table is graced with the beauty of the lovely, colorful silicone covered glass bottles that Life Factory so carefully produces. Now, carefully, that is a word that reminds me of one bit of sage advice…You must handle these bottles CAREFULLY. You shouldn’t drop them on your hardwood floors, or worse, the asphalt driveway. You shouldn’t wrench them into or out of your dishwasher without expecting the need to replace them. Oh, and you shouldn’t fill them with delicious, ice-cold well water when they just came out of a piping hot dishwasher, okay? And lastly, you shouldn’t leave them in your van when the temperatures are expected to drop below freezing. Otherwise, you could expect to replace yet another of them on Amazon, which, trust me, I’ve had to do more times than I’d like to admit. So, there you have it, our family’s favorite water bottles that can be color-coded to each child. No longer will you have to hear, “Which glass is mine on the table?” Your children will be able to look from a distance and see their happy, brightly-colored water bottle and quench their thirst with life-giving water. And as for the benefits of drinking water, well, that’s for another post.

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