MarloElaine

Sammy is still anxiously awaiting his replacement Thomas and Friends toys and gifts from RC2, the makers of the lead-based paint recalled train toys. Now we have to take away even more toys from our children. Mattel, parent company of Fisher-Price, is recalling almost one million children’s toys for having lead paint.

“According to Mattel, all the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China. The recall, the second biggest this year involving toys, covers 83 products made from April 19 to July 6.”
NY Times
“Toy-maker Fisher-Price is recalling 83 types of toys — including the popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters — because their paint contains excessive amounts of lead.”
Yahoo Finance

Mattel has published a list of the affected toys. For more information, call Mattel’s recall hot line at 800-916-4498. If you believe you have some of these items, then scroll all the way down to the bottom of Mattel’s list to start the request for a brochure and a pre-paid electronic merchandise return label to send back your product.
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Happy WW!

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

This is our first submission to Wordless Wednesday.

Almost every day in the news, there is a new story of credit card fraud or identity theft. It could happen to anyone. That’s why it is so important to monitor your own credit, as well as all the members of your family, including your children.

Children are perfect targets for criminals because the identity theft can go undetected for a long time. ABC News reported a story which reports incidents of ID theft that happened to two different families. The identity theft victims were a 3-year old and a 11-month old.

For adults, it’s so easy to request a credit report online using the AnnualCreditReport with the website. You are allowed one free credit report from each of the three reporting agencies every year. You can order your credit reports online, by phone, or by mail using the posted instructions. However, if you are under the age of 13, you can only submit the paperwork by mail.

Getting your kid’s credit report

Last fall, I requested reports for both of my children from all three credit agencies. I had to do this because we never received Sophie’s original Social Security Card. It must have been lost or stolen in the mail.
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