Corbin is ONE

Corbin turned one on 1/13/09. It is hard to believe a whole year has passed and yet, I can't imagine life without him. He is such a sweet, cuddly, easygoing little boy. The week before his birthday we started brushing his teeth. It is one of his new favorite things to do. Here is a picture I took of him brushing his teeth the day before his birthday.


On his birthday, I attempted to style his hair. I'm not very good at doing hair, but I still think Corbin looks cute. Here are some pictures of him and his dad. In the second picture, Juan was smiling a "Corbin" smile.



We took Corbin and Jovi to Chuck E. Cheese that afternoon, but by the time we got there they had fallen asleep in the car.


We let them sleep for a little while and then woke them up for fun and pizza. Unfortunately my camera battery gave out after only a few pictures, but here are the ones we were able to take.



On Saturday, the 17th we had a family party for Corbin. My family was there along with Juan's family including his sister from Minnesota. Having his sister there was a complete surprise. Juan's family all ended up spending the night so we could spend time together. It was a lot of fun.

Corbin was reluctant to eat his cupcake. He liked playing with it, but didn't really want to eat it. Juan had to show him what to do and then help him with it. He seemed to like it ok, but all the new people around and the fact that he woke up only half an hour before made him kind of reluctant to try stuff.





He liked opening presents and thought his new tool bench was pretty cool.




Here are some family pictures taken that weekend.

SAVE HANDMADE TOYS AND CLOTHES

Legislation was passed last year because of all the Chinese toy recalls. It was meant to increase standards for toys and clothing comming into the US, which involves a lot of third party testing to confirm lead levels and other dangerous substances and batch labling so that you could trace where each item comes from. Sounds good right? Well, it would be if the legisilation only effected toys made in Asia or if it only effected mass produced items or large companies, but instead this legislation was written so that it essentially effects anything marketed and sold to and for anyone 12 or under, toys, books, clothing, sporting goods, car seat covers and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things. This legislation is retroactive so that all untested items made before the law goes into effect on February 10th will become illegal to sell. Third party testing is very expensive, $300-$4,000 per item, every "batch" sold must be tested and the testing required destroys the product. The penalty for not complying includes extremely large fines.

So what does all that mean? It means that thousands of small business will go out of business because they cant afford the testing costs, even if they are using items they KNOW to be lead free and safe (as all toymakers I know do), testing must occure on the end product, not the components. It means that ALL custom children's items, toys, clothes and cloth diapers will be against the law. According to the law, each custom item would have to be tested, but since it is, costly, destructive testing...well, I'm sure you get the idea. Say goodbye to toys or clothing from Etsy and children's craft fairs, this law does not distinguish between the hobby seamstress/ toymaker and the multimillion dollar corporation, if you sell the items specified you will fall under the legislation.

I am truely shocked that this has not recieved more media coverage, but I believe it is because no one wants to put their name behind what could be seen as "relaxing" safety standards on children's items. But that is not what I want, I just want toys made in the USA and Europe, toys that were safe and are safe to continue to be legal to sell. Small European toymakers are already leaving the US market because this legislation will not recognize the standards already in place in Europe and requires them to retest all items according to these new US testing proceedures.

What can you do? The Handmade Toy Alliance was created by small business, US toy makers who what to change the legislation. They have a form letter you can send to your Congress Person and Senator. You can post a comment HERE so that this story will be on CNN. You can join them on facebook HERE. You can sign their online petition HERE.

I am lucky enough to know a few people who make and sell children's toys and clothing in real life and online. I thought that once my little ones were in school, I might join them. This legislation could wipe out a whole portion of an industry, I am sure it is not what the lawmakers intended and it must be fixed!

Christmas is a time for family: part 2

On Saturay we went to the apartment of Juan's aunt to visit her and Juan's grandparents who had come up from Eagle Pass. It was their first time to meet Corbin. Juan's brother and his family were there as well. His grandma made homemade tamales, rice and beans. It was SO good! Juan's grandparents don't speak very much english and Juan has to translate for us when we talk to each other, but they are such nice people it is always good to see them.




On Sunday we went and had a wonderful afternoon and evening with Juan's family at his mom's house. His mom's Christmas tree, was beautiful!!! Growing up we always had a memory tree with ornaments made by us each year, but themed trees can be so beautiful. We have a meory tree right now, but I like both types of trees so much. maybe someday I'll just have to have two Christmas tress so I can do both.

Christmas is a time for family

Continuing where I left off on my last post... On Christmas Day we all went and visited my Grandma in the hospital and got to see my mom there. Normally we all go to IHOP for Christmas brunch, but there were no IHOPs around the hospital so we went to a Denny's close by so that my mom could come with us, but get back to my grandma quickly.








Here are some cool effects I can do with my camera and was trying out that morning:




That afternoon, some of us went and visited my grandpa at his apartment:

Happy New Year!!! Catching up from December

Ok, after a month of not blogging, I had so much to say that I kept putting off making a post till I had lots of time to devote to it, but then I had more to say and so needed an even larger chunk of time and then it just grew more an more... Well, I am done putting off posting. I might not get through everything, I might have to post a couple of times this week and next (gasp!), but hopefully, in a week or two I might get this blog caught up.

I will start with what I did in December. As I had already stated, I was planning to make quite a few of the Christmas gifts I was giving out. I subscribe to the You Can Make This newsletter and they said they were selecting 50 people to participate in a contest to try and make as many of your Christmas gifts for less than $50 as possible. If you were selected, you got a bunch of their e-patterns for free and a chance to win some other cool prizes. It sounded fun so I applied and was selected; yea! They asked that I post to a blog about my experiences BUT since I didn't want some of my regular readers who were going to be recipients of my gifts to see what they were getting... I made a new SECRET blog. It is one reason why I didn't post during December, because I was already posting on the secret blog, but it is no longer secret so you can check it out if you want to. BLOG

I didn't even sort of finish all the projects I wanted to get done (that second post on the secret blog is laughable), but everything worked out anyway. I think eveyone was happy with their gifts and that's what counts right?

Meanwhile, we had our last preschool class/ Christmas party for 2008. I had so much fun teaching these kids last year, I'm sad to see it end, but I look forward to our new 2009 preschool which I know will be great too. Here are some pictures of the kids in their chef hats and aprons (my Christmas gift to them) as we got ready to make sugar cookies that day.







My grandmother was diagnosed with cancer the first week of Decmeber and went in for surgery the second week in December. While they were able to remove all the cancer, my grandmother had a bunch of complications with the surgery and is still in the hospital. Monday, they did another surgery to fix some of the problems she was having and we all hope and pray that she will be able to start getting better now and be able to leave the hospital soon. My mom has been staying with her at the hospital almost every night since she went in. Normally my grandmother and mom are big parst of our Chirstmas eve celebration, so this year it was a little sad not to have them there, but we still had a good time.

I got a subcompact digital camera for Christmas, a Cannon Powershot SD1100 IS and I love it. It fits in my purse and now I am never without my camera. It also has a bunch of cool picture option that I'm still figuring out and I can take short movie clips, something eles I'm working on learning to use. It is an awsome gift and all the following pictures were taken using it.

Christmas Morning: