One of our favourite north Durham stores (yay Boonies!) is re-opening in a brand new locale tomorrow.

For more info, visit www.cuddlybunny.com, or call 905-985-9956 — say hi to Marnie and tell her we sent you!

It’s a big show weekend, with both Mamas & Chicks on in Oshawa, and Market Moms on in Uxbridge this Saturday, November 7.

And we again have free tickets for both! There are 150 up for grabs from Mamas & Chicks, and 10 from Market Moms.

Both of these shows highlight the best of our local parentpreneurs. They’re stroller-friendly, have food, loot bags and ample parking. Start your Christmas shopping early — shop local, avoid the malls, and support your fellow parents. The scenery is beautiful this time of year, and I encourage you to take the day to drive to both!

Here’s how to win:

• For Mamas & Chicks: Visit www.mamasandchicks.com and click through the pages to find out how many times Durham Region Baby is listed on the site
• For Market Moms: Visit www.marketmomsonline.com and find out the name of the venue where the show is being held

Email the answers to info@durhamregionbaby.com ASAP for your FREE ticket to each show.

These are popular contests, and tickets usually go within 24 hours — enter quick!

A week from today is the Durham Parents of Multiples giant consignment sale in Oshawa! This is the fall sister sale to the spring one held in May.

Bring a wagon and reusable shopping bags, leave the kids at home (if at all possible — you need your full attention for scouring the racks and digging through toys; but there are tons of kids there), and be prepared to stock up on tons of kids and maternity clothes, toys, books, gear and more.

Sat. Sept. 12
Oshawa Curling Club @ 226 Bond St. E.
9 a.m. – noon

The line up starts early, so get there as soon as you can to be one of the first in the door. Big ticket items such as strollers and outdoor toys go first.

Durham Parents of Multiples is a non-profit organization providing support services for families with twins and higher order multiples in the Durham Region. We strive to help each other through the unique challenges of raising multiple birth children and share in the many joys. For more information visit www.drpomba.com.

Lucy once again enjoyed reaching into the ballot box and throwing paper in the air fishing out winners. Alice was on her belly nearby, and almost ate three names. Good thing y’all wrote in pen!

Here are the prize winners from the Mamas & Chicks Show (check your email, ladies):

• Cathy R: Haircut, shampoos & accessories from Melonhead Children’s Hair Care
  
• Tara P: Funky maternity shirt from Spegg Wear
• Laura M: Free portrait session, and Kelli M, Melanie F, &Sarah K.: gift certificates from Shelly Ferguson Photography
• Nicole G: Tagalicious Blankie from Balaboosta Baby
• Lisa G: Eight-week workout session from Mommy and Baby Fitness
• Tang S: Baby wrap from Wee Ones by JaJoC
• Nicole W & Alicia C: Two one-hour treatments and coupons from Feet First Reflexology

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:

• Haircuts, shampoos & accessories from Melonhead Children’s Hair Care
• Funky maternity shirt from Spegg Wear
• Free portrait session and gift certificates from Shelly Ferguson Photography
• Tagalicious Blankie from Balaboosta Baby
• Eight-week workout session from Mommy and Baby Fitness
• Baby wrap from Wee Ones by JaJoC
• Two one-hour treatments and coupons from Feet First Reflexology

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!

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:

• Haircuts, shampoos & accessories from Melonhead Children’s Hair Care
• Funky maternity shirt from Spegg Wear
• Free portrait session and gift certificates from Shelly Ferguson Photography
• Tagalicious Blankie from Balaboosta Baby
• Eight-week workout session from Mommy and Baby Fitness
• Baby wrap from Wee Ones by JaJoC

See you there!

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.

• Vanessa B & Carrie D. win haircuts, shampoos & accessories from Melonhead Children’s Hair Care
• Samantha T. wins an Alien on Board maternity shirt from Spegg Wear
• Lynn W. wins a spa gift basket from Finest Expressions
• Tiffany W. wins hair & soother clips from Clippopotamus Hair Clips & Accessories
• Julia H. wins the homeopathic gift certificate and cough syrup from Keri Wilkins Homeopathic Services
• Reena M. receives bath & hand yummies from Breathe Natural Bath & Body Products and MarketMomsOnline
• Rebekah W. wins the free portrait session, while Liz A., Dana N., Chantelle A., Lorenza S., and Susan W. win gift certificates from Shelly Ferguson Photography
• Sherry H. pics up the Tagalicious Blankie from Balaboosta Baby
• Traci A. wins a gat, headband and clips from Sugar & Spice Bows & Accessories
• Jenny W. wins an 8-week workout session from Mommy and Baby Fitness
• Julie M. wins gourmet chocolates from My Pretty Sweets

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!

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!

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.

Next weekend is Eric’s work’s holiday party, a sort of post-Christmas dinner-dance-mingle thing at a fancy convention hall. To visit his work and meet his co-workers is a rather ridiculous feat involving a few day’s notice, registration and possible DNA sampling (kidding on the last one, but it’s not far off…) because of security, so it’s exciting to go and meet the people he talks about all the time.

Jan. 10 sort of snuck up on me, and when I saw the shindig was just a week away, a mild sense of panic took over. In stereotypical female fashion, I have nothing to wear. Literally.

Nine weeks since giving birth, my body is in that dreaded post-partum in between stage: Maternity clothes are either too big or push things up in ways they are not supposed to when one is not pregnant (belly, I’m talking to you) (and really, who wants to wear maternity clothes when they’re no longer with child?), and regular clothes are still yelling, “Hell, no, sista!” and giving me the finger from the bottom of the drawer.

I’m lumpy. And still sorta jiggly. With big boobs. Have fun clothing that.

So after a nice brunch at Golden Griddle with family this morning, Eric and I took advantage of Lucy staying over at my parents’ tonight, and hit up the Pickering Town Centre to find me A Fancy Outfit.

(Note: After adding a second child to the mix? Doing anything with just one is so. damn. easy.)

Here are my post-baby-body tips for clothes shopping:

• It takes 9+ months to put on all that weight, and it’ll take 9+ months (at least, and longer if you continue to breastfeed) to take it off. Go easy on yourself. You earned those lumps!
• Stay away from the low-waisted pants. Probably forever, as in my case, but especially right now. They are not and may never again be your friend. Once you accept this, shopping will be infinitely easier. Granted, it may take some determination to find pants that don’t show your butt crack like The Kids Are Wearing These Days, but they are out there. And I don’t mean pants that come up to your arm pits a la elastic waistband granny polyester trousers, but a mid-rise pant that sits just below the belly button
• Bring someone with you. It’s so easy to get discouraged and frustrated, and having a supportive person along is really helpful

I ended up with a jersey-like black dress pant ($30, Ricki’s), and a fuchsia, gauzy shirt ($15, H&M) that ties at my waist (not under my boobs) in the front (not at the back, both of which are too much like an empire-waisted maternity shirt, a style I will never, ever wear again for this exact reason).

I’m really happy, and can’t wait to get really dressed up for the first time in well over a year.