It’s our first birthday, and we’re celebrating over here.

We’re having a garage sale Saturday and getting ready to head to the cottage next weekend — keeping us occupied enough — but there’s also a ton of things going on in this fun region of ours the next week or so as we roll into Canada Day:

• Parent Source’s Canada Day Guide: Find out what your town has planned to celebrate our country’s 141st birthday, including where to go for fireworks
• Durham events from the local paper: Check out Metroland’s day-by-day event listings from across the Region
• Durham Tourism: All our local attractions
• Beach water testing: See if your local waterfront is safe for swimming
• SummerActive: Want out of Durham? This government of Canada website has event listings by age group from across the country

I hope all of you have noticed the growing sponsors on the left sidebar.

I am a small town, community girl at heart. Although a decade ago I physically ached to bust out of my hamlet and catapult into j-skool at Ryerson, I knew after less than five years of living downtown Toronto that Big City living wasn’t for me. I knew after five weeks at the Toronto Star that a Big City reporter job was not for me.

And so — having picked up a fiance along the way — we moved back to Durham. In that full-circle way of life, I landed my first Big Kid Job at the very first newspaper I ever worked for (at the tender age of 15).

And so began settling back into the community feeling I felt missing from downtown. That closeness has only intensified after moving to north Durham — now with a baby — back to the stomping grounds of my youth. We are planting roots here.

So you have no idea how awesome it is to have these wonderful local businesses on the site. To have other people value and validate what is so important to me, and what I strive to achieve with this site, is incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. And what better way to showcase Durham Region and the network of businesses that support it than share them with you?

I have purposely chosen not to go with a ad network. There is more money that route, but little if any control over content. There are restrictions on what you can say about your ads and advertisers (nothing, mostly), even where they can go on the site itself. I have no interest in that, and it defeats the purpose of what I am trying to create here.

Please take some time to visit them when you have a chance. A big fat thanks to all of you (and my endlessly patient and supportive sister) for the immeasurable help in reaching this point.

It’s BookClub week at Durham Mom’s Night Out, and this month we read The Five People You Meet in Heaven.

I started it last night and finished it this morning on the exercise bike. This powerful passage (pg. 126) really resonated with me:

“Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them — a mother’s approval, a father’s nod — are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.”

I really don’t think you truly understand your parents until you have children. How can you? How can you understand the sacrifice and love and heartache and pride and sadness and endless guilt that accompanies parenthood unless you experience it yourself? I’m not even two years in and I’m just starting to get it.

Having Lucy changed my life in endless ways, but one of the most profound was a renewed respect for my Mom and Dad. It put a new filter on my life, made me see it from a completely different perspective that wasn’t just through my eyes anymore, but theirs, too.

I view events differently — how incredibly difficult it must have been for my Mom to live in Mexico alone for all those months (contract work when I was in Grade 8), how terrified my Father must have been as, essentially, a single parent (which might explain locking us out of the house one evening and his oft scary attempts at home cooking — one such concoction prompted a long-distance call to my Mom, begging for permission not to eat it).

My memories are now altered in a much less self-centered way. Sometimes I’m bothered by this revelation — it removes some of the innocent, childhood sheen of growing up — but mostly I’m glad. It’s like catching a glimpse into a secret world. And now we’re creating one of our own that hopefully one day Lucy will appreciate, too.

Lucy woke up this morning covered head-to-toe in everything we ate yesterday. Oh, happy morning. Although her appetite wasn’t what it normally is, she was acting peachy and had no fever, so we still sent her to her Papa’s for a previously-arranged special playdate.

She barfed in the car (poor Lucy! poor Warren!), but is currently watching Happy Healthy Monsters and munching on apple sauce and crackers. I know this because I keep calling to make sure she’s not projectile covering every square foot of my father-in-law’s condo.

That worry and stress, combined with magazine production, means the vast majority of my brain is frazzled. So please feel free to find fun elsewhere this Friday:

The Baby Name Wizard’s Name Voyager: Type in a name and it’ll show you how popular it is going all the way back to the 1880’s. Cool tool.

The Aussies think Canada is dangerous!

Jim Gaffigan does Hot Pockets: We saw this guy on TV a while back, and I literally almost peed myself laughing so hard.

Durham’s dirty restaurants: I used to do this story when I was at the paper. Calling up restaurants and asking if they had a comment on getting busted for raw chicken dripping into lettuce containers was both disgusting and thrilling.

Eat Smart Winners: On the flip side, check out these local places who’ve won awards for healthy and safe eating.

Juno: Go see this. It has some of the most wicked dialog I’ve ever heard, and I’m pining for the soundtrack. We were all sniffling at the end.

I’ve spent an eye-crossing amount of time updating and adding to the links section the past week or so. They desperately needed to be done to preserve my sanity, and also in response to what Mr. Google says people are looking for (namely: stuff to do, places to go, and birthday party centres — all for Durham).

Things are now split into what I hope are easier-to-navigate categories for y’all:

Durham links: The main entrance, also found on the right-hand toolbar over there, and directly above, under the logo

Places to play: Municipal recreation programs, indoor gyms, dance, birthday party centres

Stuff to do: Get out of the house with grown-ups (including, of course, Durham Mom’s Night Out!), Early Years Centres, public libraries, event listings, travel/tourism links

Durham daycare/nannies: Places to find childcare, resources

Safety and support: Recalls, breastfeeding, car seat safety checks, postpartum depression, parenting etc.

Local businesses and mompreneurs: List of consignment stores, baby gear, online sales, local entrepreneurs

Health: Labour, fitness, beauty

Fave Canadian retailers: The Eh! online stores we love the best

Coming soon: Baby shows, crafts and photography. Got any to add?

Have a site you love you want listed? A category to suggest? Business to add? Leave a comment or drop me an email. These are ever-expanding.

Enjoy!

In what is becoming a tradition (see here and here), we take a spin through Durham Region Baby’s “Keyphrases used on search engines” to see what ridiculousness has landed people here. I’m not sure anything can top “erratic boobs” or “beddie poop car” but let’s see, shall we?:

why do my socks leave indents in my legs?: um, they’re too tight? Also, how did two people come here for this?!

canadian boobs: lots of those here, including the writer and readers alike. Even some American and U.K. ones! Shout out to the boobs! I wonder why the searcher specifically chose Canadian? I guess our kazungas are better than the rest.

sugar/milk/boobs and boob wall canada: anyone want to take a stab at that last one? Is there some sort of weird art exhibit going on?

best exercise to fix a flat ass: my favourite from this round.

boo-boo cheezburger: although this one is great, too.

black haired cabbage patch dolls: well, here’s a black one (hi, Maxwell!) and a haired one (hi, Alexabell!), so OK.

lawn darts: this post is the only reason I can come up with for bringing you here. And kudos to you for scanning that many O’s on the Google search list.

biolife products shoppers drug mart: several variations on this one, once again reiterating that I should get some sort of kickback from Shopper’s for this post. Or at least a coupon!

sunshine loli-pops and rainbows everywhere: this just made me giggle.

Hello! Happy Tuesday and one-week-until-Christmas. Looking for some online holiday fun? Behold!

S’mores nativity set: Hahaha!

The largest collection of Santa and scared kids: Seeing this makes me never want to take Lucy to see Santa again! Funny pics, though…

The Durham Region Police Department’s annual toy drive: On until Dec. 23

Typeflake: I wish I’d seen this before mailing our Christmas cards. So cool!

Growing paper petri dish ornaments: Neat idea. But these scare the bejeebus outta me.

Is it Christmas?: I’m assuming on Dec. 25 this changes to YES?

Defected good targeted: Harper (finally) promises to update Canada’s archaic laws around product recalls and fines. Too bad this didn’t happen in October or earlier in time for Christmas.

The Cookie Cutter Shop: Not specifically Christmas, but very much in season, no? If you’re looking for a flamingo, grand piano or ladybug, you’ll find it here.

Why I won’t let my child believe in Santa: via Babble.

Cute with Christmas: Cat fury! Tinsel butt!

It’s Wednesday, which means it’s Hump Day.

I did a story for Paying Job this week on humour in the workplace, and in doing so, tried to sign up for this Hump Day newsletter. Workplace email did not, apparently, appreciate the word hump, and steadfastly refuses to let the email in.

In honour of today and the fact that Lucy is home (we had to switch some days around my work schedule), here are some great sites to help you pass the mid-week hump:

Reuseable Bags: I’d like one of each, please (lead-free lunch bags! Laptop lunchables! Safe reusable water bottles!). And Lucy would really love a Kleen Kanteen sippy cup

Kids’ art as wrapping paper: So doing this for Christmas this year…

Boss Hairstyles: fantabulous place for hair cut ideas. Both Jen O. and I used it the past few weeks

Cute Overload: Bunnies and kitties and puppies, oh my! You have to see this site to believe it

Suicide Food: Suicide Food is any depiction of animals that act as though they wish to be consumed (check out the neon cow. You’ll get it)

Defamer: the L.A. gossip rag

The Consumerist: Shoppers bite back

Some favourite new blogs: i am bossy, Attack of the Redneck Mommy, the slack daily

The World Series: it’s all baseball all the time at Chez McDougall-Foster

Durham Mom’s Night Out: tonight is hot guy movie night

ps — don’t forget to share the cute!

This is what Lucy did while I wrote this post. Note the guilty look… And yes, we ARE still in our pajamas (mine, sadly, do not have feeties. Dammit.). What better way to spend a chilly morning?

We’re going bowling again tonight.

If you haven’t joined Durham Mom’s Night Out yet, what are you waiting for? ‘Come play!

Details, as always, are here. You can also reach us at our new email address: durhammoms@gmail.com