San Diego Zoo

Zoe waves 'hi'

Last weekend we were able to travel out to San Diego to visit Matt for an enjoyable three-day weekend. The weather out there truly is perfect. Tho, my brother craves some seasons. Not that we have that much more, but I say he should try out some of ours ;) Here are our zoo photos. What a spectacular place to visit - very large, and they really incorporate the plantings in with the animals.

workin' 9 to 5

or something like that...
We've all been busy in the daily grind, hence the lack of posts. But I'll get to it soon enough. We're getting into our morning and evening routines. Mornings are a juggling act so everyone can wake up, shower, eat, get dressed, etc., etc. Evenings we try to fit a lot into too little time. Zoe eats about 10 oz every day at day care, and is doing much better at taking a bottle. She laughs a ton now, which is such a reward - it really does make you forget those tough first couple of months. Almost... ;) She loves her jumper, and we think we'll be progressing away from the swing to the activity center thing soon.
Meanwhile, both Kyle and I have felt the slowing economy at work, though through different end results. These are challenging times, but I honestly feel like people are more scared to do anything, rather than can't do anything. At least right now - if it keeps going like this it could very well end up the other way around. Let's all hope not!

that sun sure is tasty

a new video for Zoe fans

Week 19ish?

Honestly, I'm having a hard time keeping up with this whole week thing. So, here are some photos from about week 19, though it could be 18 or 20? Enjoy!

Zoe's figuring out how to manipulate this whole food delivery system herself

Dad, do you know what begins with 'L'?

hmmmm, Zoe's not so sure about those Lola kisses,
but Kyle sure thinks they're hilarious

new lead testing rules - good idea, bad implementation?

I've been hearing alot about the new law regarding lead testing on children's clothing and toys. While I agree that a law about lead is a good idea, I'm not convinced that this law is the way to go about it. There are some great stores in Austin that sell locally made, quality toys and clothes. They could greatly be hurt because of this law, even though these products do not contain lead, and have never had the problems that big toy and clothing manufacturers have had. I think it's sadly ironic that the big toy manufacturers which were the ones that have caused the lead scares are now the only ones that will be able to afford the lead testing, while the small-time producers (for example, the great etsy crafters - these I've just randomly searched for, but there are tons of other great products out there) who never had the problem to begin with could be put out of business. While I'm not sure what the solution is that would still maintain safety standards, I hope some sort of amendment to the law will occur soon so we can still enjoy quality home-made goods.

For more on this, see the info below (via the Handmade Toy Alliance) or check out this CNN article:
In 2007, large toy manufacturers who outsource their production to China and other developing countries violated the public's trust. They were selling toys with dangerously high lead content, toys with unsafe small part, toys with improperly secured and easily swallowed small magnets, and toys made from chemicals that made kids sick. Almost every problem toy in 2007 was made in China.
The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number.
All of these changes will be fairly easy for large, multinational toy manufacturers to comply with. Large manufacturers who make thousands of units of each toy have very little incremental cost to pay for testing and update their molds to include batch labels.
For small American, Canadian, and European toy makers, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business.