CPSC Update

Well, it looks like the CPSC just granted a one year stay for testing and certification requirements for some children's toys and clothing. That's great news. I'm glad they're hopefully going to revise the law. There are certain things that will still require testing after Feb. 10. Secondhand clothing will be one of those. For more information about the stay go here. And for more information from the Handmade Toy Alliance go here.

CPSIA

{Begin rant}

As many of you know I like to make (and sell) baby clothes. I really enjoy doing it and find it is a fun creative outlet. I had a shop on ETSY and got a lot of great business. I decided to take a break while we were in San Diego and after Calder was born.

I was recently thinking about getting back into the swing of things but then heard about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). This is a law passed by congress in August 2008 requiring a lot of safety and lead testing on any item intended for kids. The testing costs anywhere from $300 to $4,000 per item batch. This seems fine if you are a large manufacturing company making large batches of toys, but for someone who makes each item individually and uniquely it is detrimental. I understand CPSIA was designed after many toys were showing up dangerous and poisonous from Chinese toy manufacturers in 2007. I agree that there should be a law to protect that from happening, but seriously, did they not think about the little people?

Well, I'll stop complaining about it and tell you two things you should do.

1. Write to your congress person if it's important to you. I've never been one to write to my congress person. It's not that I've never felt like issues were important enough I just never got around to doing it. There have been a few times I thought I should write but never did. I totally understand that this issue may not be a big deal for most people. But, if you want to buy handmade items or items from smaller manufacturers in the future, you might want to write.

2. Go to ETSY and buy stuff. The law goes into effect on February 10. I hate to say it but I think the closer you get to that date the better deals you'll find. There are a lot of people trying to get rid of inventory because they know after Feb. 10th they won't be able to sell. So, support the little people.

{End rant}

Gimp

I downloaded a program called Gimp a while ago and tried to figure it out but got frustrated and gave up. I recently revisited it and found it is much easier than it used to be. Gimp is basically a free graphics editor similar to Photoshop.

I imagine most of you read our blog through an RSS feed and therefore don't see the actual blog. I have totally revamped it using Gimp and had a lot of fun. Because I had so much fun and want to get better at it, I would love to create headers for anyone looking for a fresh look. Obviously I don't have much experience, but I'm willing to try! Let me know if you're interested. Oh, and if I make a header for you and you decide not to use it I won't be offended at all.

That is one long kid

Calder is somehow a few weeks off on his pediatrician appointments so he is a bit early for his 4 month checkup. But we went yesterday and here are his stats:

Height: 25.5 inches (99th percentile)
Weight: 14 lbs 1 oz (60th percentile)
Head: 90th percentile

Yeah, so he is doing great. He is really long, which I knew. For the last few months his one piece sleepers have been too short but fit width wise. He is now wearing 6-9 month sleepers because that's what fits in length. All well.

Professional Pictures

This last week Danielle came over and took pictures of our family. I am so impressed with how they turned out. She is so talented. I also love her background story of becoming a photographer. I highly recommend her to anyone! Here's a link to her recent work. Thank you so much Danielle!

3 Months

I can't believe how fast time is going by. Calder is now three months old. Yikes. He is so much fun! I love how quickly he is discovering his body. He loves his hands and can use them to grab what he wants and bring it to his mouth. He can roll over from his stomach to his back and is very proud of himself when he does. He is such a happy baby. I love it! And, as you can tell from the first picture, he has started to drool. I can't wait for it to get warmer so I can take him outside to explore the world.

New Year Resolutions

Every year I think 'I don't feel like making resolutions this year'. And then, like every other year I got caught up in the fun and made some. Here's my list of resolutions for 2009.

• Read the Ensign every month
• Be a better friend / listener
• Have a house that is visitor ready all the time
• Lose 10 lbs. (would it be a resolution list without this one?)
  
• Read to Calder every day
• Get back to doing creative things regularly
• Wear makeup more often
• Find a fabulous pair of jeans to replace my favorite ones that are falling apart

My resolutions come with questions. First, what type of makeup remover do you use? The honest reason why I don't wear makeup more often is because I hate that even when I wash it off at night I feel like it's not completely gone. When I shower in the morning I still have mascara that runs below my eyes. Does this happen to everyone? Maybe I'm just using the wrong thing.

The second question is: what is your favorite place to buy jeans? I mean, what is your favorite place to buy those amazing jeans that make you feel like a million bucks. Also, has anyone bought designer jeans on Ebay? If so, did you have a good experience?

Jason turns 27

Another Travel Adventure

As I've mentioned before, I have problems traveling. See here and here. It is not related to anything I can change or do and it is definitely a problem with me since Jason can travel just fine without me but I have problems alone or with others.

We were scheduled to go to Oregon on Dec. 22nd. Of course there was weather problems on both ends of our trip and our flights got canceled. When we tried to call Alaska Airlines to reschedule their lines were BUSY! No kidding. It's not like we got the message telling us to hold and the next available representative will be with us, but it just rang busy. So, after trying for 30 minutes or so, we finally got through to the aforementioned message. It only took us 1.5 hours from then to get a person on the line and rescheduled for the 26th. They did try to give us a flight through Anchorage but we kindly declined and flew through Seattle instead.

The fun doesn't end there! Both of our flights from Chicago to Seattle and then Seattle to Portland were delayed, so we didn't have any problems getting there, we were just late. But, somehow our car seat didn't make it. So after filing a claim they took Jason into a room full of random junk and showed him the carseats. He could then choose one for us to use during our trip.

I was nervous checking the car seat to begin with because I have heard they aren't very nice to them and since you're supposed to buy another one if it gets in an accident, how am I supposed to know whether it had an 'accident' while being loaded or unloaded. But, we did it anyway to avoid having to haul the stroller along as well.

Jason chose the best looking carseat available but of course it doesn't have a base. I'm sure he was much nicer than I would have been. I was so mad. So, we drove the 3 hours to Hermiston and back with a less than safe carseat. The roads were slick for the hour and a half of our drive. UGH What a mess.

They did call us that night to let us know that they had it waiting for us when we came back to Portland to pick it up.

The trip back wasn't so bad. All of our stuff made it but we were delayed in Seattle for a long time. We didn't get to Chicago until 1:30 or 2:00 AM. We were supposed to get there at 11:00 pm.

I'm sure Jason can't wait for Calder to get older so the two of them can go back to traveling without me. It's such a mess. Calder was a perfect little boy while were were flying. He had a meltdown on the way from Hermiston to Portland but we all survived.

Christmas With The Castellaws

And finally, we spent the last half of our week with my family. It was also accompanied by good food and lots of fun. For some reason I stopped taking pictures, so I don't have a lot of them with my family. We did do professional pictures, so when I get those, I'll post them.

Grandma Kate

When we got to Hermiston to stayed with Jason's mom first. It was great to see her again. Of course we had good food and lots of fun there too.

Visiting Grandpa John

On our way to Hermiston we stopped at Jason's dad's house in White Salmon, Washington. It a very cute little town across the Columbia River from Hood River, Oregon. We had a great time visiting and eating great food.

Christmas Time Bliss

We were in Chicago for Christmas. This was not the original plan and therefore we didn't have much to open. Jason got a few law books from Amazon and Calder got his exersaucer (thanks Grandma Kate) and pajamas.

We got together with friends in the afternoon for brunch which was wonderful and delicious.

This is one of my Christmas decorations. It's pretty cool. The pieces all come apart and fit together like a puzzle. Calder didn't particularly like riding in the sleigh but his parents thought it was funny.
These are Calder's Christmas pajamas. I promise he doesn't have the world's largest bottom, but with cloth diapers it's hard to make it look small. I made the pants out of flannel. The top is from Grandma Jan.