babies n' kids
21st
May
2009
Posted in: Local Shop n' Dine, babies n' kids, events
It seems like from here on in, there’s some family fun-ness happening in Durham.
This weekend is no exception.
Saturday is the much-anticipated Mom2Mom Sale in Ajax. All the details are here.
Many of Durham Region’s Farmers’ Markets open this weekend or next. All winter, when we drive by the location of our local one, Lucy yells, “Therrrrrrre’s the Market!” Can’t wait to get some fresh and local food again. Click here for a list to find your closest one.
Saturday is also the Region of Durham’s annual National Public Works Week celebrations, where you can tour various recycling, traffic, water and compost facilities. It may SOUND boring, but they’re actually lots of fun for kids to see where our stuff goes. Plus, you get to see big tractors and diggers and dudes in hard hats (perhaps that last one is something for the moms?).
Finally, and this one is for us north Durham folks (go Boonies!), there’s free compost to be had at the Uxbridge Arena from 8 a.m.-noon.
Take a spin through your local paper to find all the garage sales, too. This weekend seems to be the unofficial kick off to the season.
(Eric, I’m gonna be gone for a few hours on Saturday morning. Good luck with the kids!)
Don’t forget to visit our local events page here for more.
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Want to advertise your event to our targeted audience? Email info@durhamregionbaby.com to find out how!
25th
April
2009
Posted in: Local Shop n' Dine, babies n' kids, events, shopping
If you live in Durham Region or anywhere in south central Ontario today, you know it’s GORGEOUS out — currently 28 degrees up here in the Boonies! Unfortunately I’m spending some of the afternoon getting ready for tomorrow’s Mamas & Chicks Show, which includes this reminder blog post, which in hindsight is probably pointless because you’re probably all outside!
Eric, Alice and I will be there just inside the front entrance, so be sure to say hello and enter to win all this booty:
Another special thanks to our friends in the Durham Region parent-geared business community for the support and product donations. Don’tcha all love freeeeee stuff?
See you there!
20th
April
2009
Posted in: Local Shop n' Dine, babies n' kids, events, shopping
CONTEST CLOSED: FREE TICKETS ALL GONE!
It’s spring shopping time, and the Mamas & Chicks Show in Oshawa this Sunday is just the place to mingle with other moms and support local businesses (my fave!).
There’s free parking, tons of great prizes to win, more than 55 exhibitors, and the Cutest Spring Chick Competition to win a photography and art portrait. We’ll be at the very first table when you enter the show, so be sure to say hello.
Want to go and not pay? I don’t mean sneak in the back door (is that even possible with a babbling baby and ginormous stroller?), I mean get on The List for free tickets.
These contests are always so challenging. My brain hurts from coming up with this skill-testing question:
How much is admission for the suckers who have to pay because they won’t be on The List? You’ll find the cost somewhere on the show’s website.
The first 50 to send the answer to info@durhamregionbaby.com win, so enter soon!
Here’s what we’re giving away on Sunday:
See you there!
20th
April
2009
Posted in: Local Shop n' Dine, babies n' kids, events, shopping
Lucy had great fun drawing these names for the Baby & Toddler Show winners, which included grabbing a fistful of ballots and throwing them in the air like confetti. Note to self: 3-year-olds make terrible office assistants.
If you think one of these is you, and you haven’t received an email, that means your spam folder ate my note. And if you get home tonight and there’s a message from a stange woman with someone blowing spit bubbles in the background? It’s not a crazed person from the mental health ward at the hospital calling…that’s Alice and I.
Congrats to all!
I’ve got more goodies to give away at this Sunday’s Mamas & Chicks Show in Oshawa, including free tickets. Stay tuned!
14th
April
2009
Posted in: Blog: Life with Lucy & Alice, Local Shop n' Dine, babies n' kids, events, news from the change table, photos, the hubby, the outside world
The show went great. There were more than 1,000 people through the doors (I wonder if they count babies, too?), and the place was steadily busy until around 2 when nap time hit. I met a ton of people, said hi to some readers, and received lots of interest in both sites (and giveaway entries, too! Winners announced tomorrow).
Thankfully Alice was like this most of the day. She slept for a bit in the morning in her car seat, then Eric took her to the mall for a while so she could doze in the stroller. I keep meaning to write about how she’s freaked out at strangers since, oh, birth, and how worried I was about how she’d react to everyone. But like a true baby, she surprised us all.
My (pregnant again!) friend Colleen sent the girls these fabulous matching Easter pajamas from Old Navy (there’s an egg with sunglasses on, and the caption says, “I’m a cool egg”). Lucy is so tickled when she and Alice match. I’ve got to find more paired clothes for them. This was at bedtime on Saturday after a long day at the show, and Alice is quite understandably done.
She was in a much better mood in the morning.
Lucy went absolutely bonkers over the eggs the Easter Bunny hid for her. She shuffled around the house in her bunny slippers, squealing each time she found one (”Look, Mumma, ah-nudder one!”). The Easter Bunny was supposed to keep track of how many eggs s/he hid to make sure Spencer Dog did not come across any, but s/he was slightly tired. And Lucy loved the hunt so much, she’s spent the last two days re-hiding all the eggs herself, then finding them (or asking us too, all along the way showing us where they are). Makes for much hilarity and eye-rolling, as the kid hides the eggs in the same places over and over again. Still, I think we’re down three or four.
They’ll probably show up at Christmas.
10th
April
2009
Posted in: Blog: Life with Lucy & Alice, Local Shop n' Dine, babies n' kids, baby gear, events, work
The last package arrived yesterday evening, and I can’t believe all the goodies I have to give away to you at the Durham Parent Baby & Kids Show tomorrow: more than $1,000 worth of treats!
Please stop by and say hello to Eric, Alice and I, and enter to win all this awesome stuff, OK? There are 13 prizes in total, so your chance of winning something is, as Lucy would say, awe-sommmme!
Special thanks to all the local businesses who generously donated products and services. We couldn’t be prouder to be offering such kick ass goodies to our readers from the fantastic network of parent-geared companies in Durham Region.
2nd
April
2009
Posted in: Contests, Local Shop n' Dine, babies n' kids, events, shopping
Friday update: The tickets went so quick that I asked for and received another 20 to give away…and still have 10 left this morning. So it’s not too late if you haven’t emailed!
It’s just over a week until the Durham Parent Baby & Kids Show. And I’ve of course got free tickets to give away! Actually, this is the best contest ever, because everyone wins — if you don’t get a free pass, I’ve got a $1 off coupon for everyone.
I have a TON of great stuff (spa baskets, baby blankets, fitness and clown gift certificates, fun clips) to give away from local businesses, too, so you must stop by to see Eric, Alice and I (I’m not crazy enough to bring a 3-year-old to a show for 8 hours, so Lucy is blissfully spending the day with my Mom).
- kids are free, and adults just $5 ($4 with coupon)
- free parking
- free face painting
- meet the Easter Bunny between 10 a.m. – noon
- meet Nanny Robina from the Mom Show
- free stage presentations & classes, including mom & baby pilates, dancing, potty training Q & A and more
- free goody bag for the first 500 guests
- more than 50 exhibitors (including me!) offering shopping, education and entertainment
- enter to win a 3 foot chocolate Easter Bunny (seriously…THREE FEET OF CHOCOLATE)
- door prizes
- enter the smoothie contest and Big Crawl Diaper Race to win amazing prizes (click here for details)
Here’s how you win: Visit the show website, and find out where the show is being held (city and venue). The first 20 people to email me (info@durhamregionbaby.com) the correct answer pay nothing at the door.
Emails after 20 will receive a batch of $1 off coupons.
Good luck!
25th
March
2009
Posted in: Blog: Life with Lucy & Alice, Local Shop n' Dine, Product Reviews, babies n' kids, creative, moments, photos, shopping, the outside world, toys, toys
For her birthday from Jen O. et. al., Lucy received a gift certificate for Build a Bear. So a few weeks ago, off we went to the Oshawa Centre — just the two of us – for a girly morning with Jen and Eirinn.
Making the animals is quite the thing: There’s a stuffing machine (Lucy was scared of because it makes so much noise) and a big production with sewing a heart inside and kisses. Then a washing/grooming station (which Lucy was also scared of), and TONS of clothes and accessories. The place is a bit of a female-sentimental-pusher, reminding us how much we loved playing and dressing animals as kids. I can’t believe I paid $12.50 for an outfit for a stuffed CAT. I’ve never spent that much on an outfit my own kids! But Lucy loved it. Here is she is with “Pink Star” and Eirinn with “Dorothy Lamby Inch Kinch” (go visit here for the story on that one…).
We ate lunch, shared frozen yogurt (yes, Lucy DID eat an entire small on her own, eating all of us under the table, as they say), then Lucy and I stopped in the bathroom for an impromptu photo shoot.
I’d forgotten, these past months of chaos with Alice, how much fun Lucy and I have on our own. She is such a bright, funny and sensitive little girl. The whole day was just wonderful, from her uninhibited excitement to holding hands in the mall and cracking jokes with Eirinn and Jen. My heart swelled all day.
The end of us did happen. But there’s no reason we can’t recapture it every now and then.
23rd
March
2009
Posted in: Blog: Life with Lucy & Alice, Local Shop n' Dine, babies n' kids, daycare, work
In all my spare time (hardeeharhar) I’ve been working really hard on this site and Durham Region Daycare, getting them ready for when I attend two shows next month: The Baby and Toddler Show in Ajax, and the Mamas and Chicks Show in Oshawa.
I’m terribly excited. And nervous. I’ve supported and promoted local shows for years through this site, and to now be invited to attend is a Big Deal. There will be hundreds of parents to showcase to — including a bunch of you, as I’ve got free tickets to dish out soon!
All of it is for y’all, you know. I mean, writing about Lucy and Alice and my life is for me, too, but I started this site because there was nothing else like it for parents when I was pregnant with Lucy (there still isn’t). I couldn’t find local baby stores or daycare information, where the Early Years Centres were or that there was a special movie time for parents and babies. Or that there was a local mom like me who had tried them out and shared the experience, or changed her fifth poopy diaper in a row and was ready to run away, waving her chapped-from-washing hands in the air.
Like many women and most mothers, sometimes you just have to do things yourself. Almost four years, 1,092 posts, 3,443 comments and a sister business later — here we are.
So, shucks. And thanks.
It’s sometimes challenging to balance the business side with the fun side here and over there. But I think it works. Some days there are almost 400 people who visit this corner of the giant Internet. Granted, some land here by searching “baby butt cake” and “sugar boobs” (and you wouldn’t believe how popular “caramel popcorn recipe” is!) but others by “durham baby shows” and “play centres in whitby” and that’s incredibly gratifying for all this work.
I’d love to make a million dollars. I’d love to have both sites support my family so I don’t have to leave the house for work in the fall. Doesn’t every small business owner?
Here’s what’s new around here and there. I hope you’ll poke around and check things out, and let me know how it all looks (and if any of it’s broken, because working at 11 p.m. when you’ve been up three times a night means sometimes things get fudged up). And use them as the resource sites I’m striving for them to be:
- Looking for a local toy store? Baby CPR classes? Place to meet other parents? It’s all on one page under the new Local resource directory. You’ll see the categories splashed underneath the banner up there, too — if you’ve got a link or category to add, let me know
- On the top left sidebar, you can now search the almost 1,100 posts
- There’s now site map on the top right sidebar to navigate around easily
- Durham Region Daycare got a colourful and visual upgrade with photos! All the daycare providers who have pics of their kids and locations are randomly highlighted on the front page. In just six months, the site currently has daycare provider listings for 10 cities and towns in Durham, which I’m thrilled with
12th
February
2009
Posted in: Local Shop n' Dine, babies n' kids, events
The Diaper Disco is returning to Whitby this Saturday — a great place to spend Valentine’s Day with the family.
Kids and adults are invited to get up on the dance floor together to shake their booties to such timeless favourites as The Jackson 5, Donna Summer, and the Bee Gees. Our friends from MusiGo Kids will be there, too — Lucy adores their album.
 Music is kept at a baby-friendly level, while the Candy Bar serves up fun treats such as candy necklaces, gummy worms and juice boxes. A diaper change and breast-feeding are is set up in an exclusive private VIP lounge (I love that if my kid poops, it entitles me to something exclusive. IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME.)
Sound like fun? Visit www.diaperdisco.com for more details.
p.s. — a portion of proceeds will be donated to the Valentine Neonatal Care Unit (NICU) at Mount Sinai Hospital.
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