Gub and I made it over to Ballard a couple of days ago and hit our regular stops: shoe store and toy shop. At Mon Petit Shoe, the spot for well-shod young ones, they are having a sale of 25-40 percent off a nice selection of clothes and shoes in sizes 12 months through 11 years.

Our stop in at Clover was productive as usual: Gub fell in love with a number of balls, flipped out about the nice doggy, and we found the perfect birthday present for her cousin. While there, we overheard some talk about the upcoming Children's Safe Product Act, which is going to be up for consideration in Olympia this year.

I didn't get the whole story, but the idea is that this bill will require stricter standards for toy safety, from lead levels to phthalates. The idea sounded great to me, but apparently some local toy stores are concerned that the new requirements will be so strict -- stricter than current EU standards -- that toy companies who cannot guarantee their products will not be able to do business in Washington.

It is not clear how the bill will be enforced, but there will be fines for stores that knowingly sell contaminated toys. To hear concern about this bill from purveyors of super-safe toys was interesting to me. Clover has always been a huge proponent of non-toxic toys, and their products are already selected for safety. I will definitely read more about it, and I will post more here if I find good information from both sides of the argument.

Back at home in West Seattle, Rosa at On the Way Maternity dropped a line to let me know that they've extended their sale through the month of February: Everything but nursery furniture is 30 percent off. They have some pretty sweet strollers over there if you hurry. . . .

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