Smiling

Turn down the sound before playing this. The baw, baw, baw's are loud and annoying. (Actually, anything in my voice is a little grating to my ears.)

My Pretty Husband

I still think Alan is so beautiful that it makes my heart skip a beat when I look at him. Especially now when I see what a wonderful daddy he is.

Cortland Pics

Marla sent Cortland this little outfit that used to be Alan's. Put's me in the mind of Shaft...



Here is C on the blankets Kiwi made for him. Aren't they pretty?


And here is just an all around happy baby!

Hope everyone has a great day! Love, Cortland

The Eyes Have It

I found the neatest site to figure out what color Cortland's eyes will be.
He has a 37.5% chance for blue eyes
12.5% chance for green eyes
50% chance of having brown eyes.

Maybe C will get to keep these pretty blues.


Try it and tell me if any of your kids beat the odds for brown eyed dominance.

Petco, Where the Pets Go - To Die

Tonight at dinner I was reminded of an email I sent to the CEO of Petco.

Gotta love PMS. Every once in awhile I see something from my past that just screams "I need to be on meds! Now!"

Mr. Myers never did respond nor did any of the other 12 Petco people I cc'ed on the letter. Not even a standard "thank you for contacting us and now we're going to put you on the spam email list!" email. Dead fish everywhere. Sad. :(

September 16, 2006

Dear Mr. Myers:

I was in Petco store #1628 in Cordova, TN on Germantown Pkwy this afternoon to purchase fish. I was appalled at the horrible condition of the tanks. Literally half of the fish for sale were dead. Many of the remaining fish were gasping at the top of the tanks. Most of the remaining live fish were obviously not healthy.

Two freshwater Puffer Fish were dead in the bottom of their tank while the other fish were eating the fins off of their carcasses. I watch a mother scrambling to explain to her two small children why these fish were eating each other. The children were, for obvious reasons, very upset, as was the mother.

I advised the person at the register that the fish tanks were in terrible need of attention. He apologetically told me he was the person in charge of the fish department and he was aware of the tanks condition, but that the store was short staffed and he had to work as a cashier. I imagine that he didn’t ring up any fish, as there isn’t a huge market for the dead variety. Short staffing on a Saturday is not an efficient way to manage a store.

Obviously, I walked out of your store without purchasing fish, or any other merchandise for that matter. A store and company that has such an obvious disregard for living animals, regardless of the species, is not where I choose to spend my time or money.

Dead fish may be an unimportant issue for some, but, for me, it is an indication that Petco does not care about the quality or integrity of its products and services. Therefore, the store does not care about the customers or their pets.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I hope that this store is simply an oversight in management at store #1628, and that a solution will be implemented to rectify this inexcusable situation.


Sincerely,

Skye C.

I should have sent a heads up to the RESCUE Aid Society instead. They would have gotten results.

On a different subject loosely related - Back in the olden days, before VCR's, I had the LP record of the Rescuers and followed the story along in a picture book. I still know all of the words. And I still cry at this part-

And this part-

Driving in Memphis

It took every bit of control I had not to grab the pizza box blowing through the red light intersection I was stopped at and write "THE SPEED LIMIT IS 50!" and poke it in the drivers side window of all the nimrods in front of me who were going 35mph.

No amount of medication can keep me from wanting to run over some Memphis drivers. Germantown Pkwy is my own personal hell.

Snow Day!

It's snowing big, fat flakes this morning!

Alanisims

Alan just told Cortland, "winner, winner chicken dinner." instead of neener neener neener.

He makes me smile.

Cortland Smiling

I sound like a crazy person on these videos just so everyone can see the baby smile. The things I do for you.

Courtland, MS

I got to play this new game today called Elefun when Cortland and I visited Dian and Elaina in Courtland, MS. This elephant sits on the ground with its trunk in the air spitting out butterflies that you have to catch with a butterfly net. Of course Elaina totally won because every time the butterflies came out I would get so excited I'd forget to catch them. Someday we are going to have that game and I'm going to make Cortland play it with me for hours. Mwhhhh-haaaaa.

Elaina just turned four and is the cutest little girl. She fell in love with Cortland and always wanted to hold him by herself.

Cortland was crying a little after he ate and she must have listened to everything I said because about three hours later when Dian was holding him and he was fussing, Elaina promptly told her that "she just has to make a bubble."


Elaina never did get that Cortland is a him and not a her. When left alone with him for a few minutes Elaina managed to sneak a pink bracelet on his arm. After that she and I went off to see if we could find a tiara and some princess shoes small enough to fit the baby, but sadly we were unsuccessful or we would have a picture of him with more than just the jewelry. Dian just kept shaking her head saying Alan was going to have our heads on a platter.


And a random picture of Grace and me taken by Kiwi a few weeks ago.

By Special Request...

Grandpa didn't know I was videotaping. Isn't he cute?!


Alan was trying to record a smile. We'll keep trying.

The rare picture of Cortland with his Mommy


And finally a picture of Cortland with his friend Elise who we went to visit today.

Random

Cortland smells like a potato chip when he needs a bath.

Not as Mad as Before re: CPSIA

Today I spoke to Paul, the very friendly owner of the Once Upon a Child franchise in Cordova, TN and asked him if the new law was going to affect his business. He said that he had a panic attack back in August when the Act was 1st passed, but the Attorney General of FL just recently clarified that resell shops will not have to retest the merchandise they are selling. They will just have to be confident that the products are in complience as they are still held to the same standards and the manufactures.

Armed with this new knowledge I came straight home and did a little research and here's what I found out:

10connects.com out of Tampa Bay, FL reported late yesterday that, per Julie Julie Vallese, Director of Public Affairs for the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission), "Used resale items are different than retail products, under the law. The new law does not require resale stores to test products."

Vallese goes on to say that resale stores "do not have to carry certification from a third party testing lab." However," she says, "Those retailers [resale store owners] cannot sell products that do not meet new lead requirements."

This is very good news for the resale and consignment shops and for the consumer who thinks it's ridiculous to pay for new clothes when resold clothing is still in excellent condition.

This makes me so mad! re:CPSIA

I cannot believe that due to the law passed by The Consumer Product Safety Commission all resale shops will have to throw away all childrens clothing collected prior to Feb 10, 2009 unless they pay HUGE fees to have the items tested for contaminates.

The law, aimed at keeping lead-filled merchandise away from children, mandates that all products sold for those age 12 and younger -- including clothing -- be tested for lead and phthalates, which are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable. Those that haven't been tested will be considered hazardous, regardless of whether they actually contain lead.

I totally get that in the light of all of the lead contamination in the last few years that we should all be more aware of what we allow near our children. I get it. But I also think that it's a little late and a lot wasteful to destroy clothes that have already been worn and prevent them from being worn again.

I would like to see the statistics that say how many children have been harmed from contaminated clothing. I want to see the numbers that justifies this enormous, gigantic, unmeasurably huge squandering of resources. Because that's what this is. I can't even wrap my mind around the wastefulness our government is dictating with this way too broad of a law. Sadly, I think it's just par for the course when it comes to bureaucracy.

ARTICLE

Consumer Product Safety Improvemement Act

ETA: Thank you DJ ezP. With your statistics in the comments section I was able to research a bit further and found an article from USA Today which states that the significant decrease in elevated lead levels in children is largely due to the 1978 banning of lead paint and the phasing out of lead in gasoline in 1975.

The article indicates that continued lead contamination is in housing built prior to 1978 with existing lead paint still in the home - and more specifically lead paint on windows - is the cause of the majority of the elevated lead levels in children tested.

In the early 1990s, Milwaukee pioneered a technique for making homes lead-safe. While it includes stabilizing paint on walls, porches and other surfaces, it primarily focuses on replacing windows or repairing them by shaving down the wood and repainting it, then covering the inside of the frame with vinyl or aluminum.

The city pays homeowners $160 a window to repair or replace them — an offer extended to landlords, too, unless a child in their building turns up with elevated blood lead. Then the landlord must pay the costs; if he fixes that property, he's eligible for city aid for other properties.

"That's kind of when they really see the light," says Sara Mishefske of the Milwaukee Health Department. If a landlord refuses to do the work, the city can get a court order to do it and bill him.

By all indications, the program has been a success. In 1995, 39% of city kids had elevated blood lead; by 2006, it was down to 6.6%. Total cost: $53.5 million — about two-thirds of it from federal grants.

Walking through a home undergoing window replacement, city lead inspector A. Thomas Brandt says the focus on windows makes sense. "It's cost-effective, it does the job. It gives us the biggest bang for our buck," he says. "Ninety-nine times out of 100, the child is poisoned by this window."

He's backed up by years of research showing that opening and closing windows generates enough lead-paint dust to poison children decades after the paint was applied. (Lead helped paint adhere better and last longer.)

"It's like a lead-dust machine, even 40, 50, 100 years after the lead was put into those windows," says )Rick Nevin, a Fairfax, Va., economist who has done extensive research on lead's role in rising crime rates. Windows, he says, are "a huge part of the problem."

I'm confused how lead paint in a home translates to throwing away ALL childrens clothing made prior to Feb 10. I'm going to have to think on that one for a while to find a correlation. I'll get back with you.
ARTICLE FROM USA TODAY

More ETA:
I checked the CDC website to see how many clothing recalls there have been due to elevated lead levels. Nine. Nine recalls in almost 12 years. Nine.
CDC RECALLS

Bumpits!

I love new hair products.

Oh my gosh. I know the hair style isn't new, I mean I've seen the pictures of my mom with her peddle pushers and hair, but is this a new product? How cool is this? The only snarky thing I can say is what were they thinking when they picked the telephone number? Bum Pits.

Fun Grossness

The 1st time I pulled a 2 inch booger out of Cortland's nose I called my mom and told her that when it sort of touched my hand with it's slimy coldness I just about threw up. I told her I was worried that that was more proof that I didn't have the mothering instinct. She just giggled at me and told me to just wait. And now I know why.

She knew that after a bit more sleep deprivation the time would come when boogers would become a thing of entertainment. She was right. This morning, armed with the green Bulb-of-Death, I pulled a 2 1/2 incher out of Cortland's nose and was so excited that I had beat my previous 2 inch record. And it didn't even slap me in the arm. Take that Booger!

I think I need a certificate to hang on the wall. Or one of those wall rulers. Or a computer game with a high booger score. Yeah, that's what I need. A booger game.