Ever wondered where babies come from? Or need a rather no-holds-barred, to-the-point guide for your kids?

The Germans (is anyone surprised at this?) show you, in hilarious picture book form.

(Note: If you are educated on where babies come from, you’re smart enough to know picture book+ that = the book has nekkid people in it. Illustrated, yes, but the drawing of the smiling baby emerging from spread le…it’s probably not safe for work, people, is all I’m saying.)

Link via reader Athena of How Soon is Now. Thanks!

My sister-in-law’s best friend, Sarah, has a daughter just a few days older than Lucy. Sarah’s been reading here forever (hi Sarah!), and last summer nominated Durham Region Baby to the Just Mommie’s Top 100 Mommy Blogs 2007.

And wowee, lookiee here: We’re number 31!

Sweet.

Thanks so much, Sarah!

p.s. — Sarah is a huge proponent in cloth diapering, and recently started selling them via the innovative Diapering Decisions. Check them out. I am seriously considering trying them for subsequent babies.

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.

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!

I get Baby Toolkit’s posts via email, and was absolutely stunned to read this in my inbox late last week. I had no idea any of this happened, and thought all of you should know, too:

To the utter astonishment of friends and relatives, Jim and I quit chocolate cold turkey in 2001. We were chocoholics of the first degree. When I cleaned out the kitchen for all our chocolate we found over 14 pounds — not counting things containing cocoa.

At first I thought I would lose my mind. One night someone walked past me in a Circuit City smelling of Butterfinger bar and my consuming envy made me want to tackle them and bounce their head off the floor a few dozen times. I’m not a violent person, so this bizarre desire definitely meant I had momentarily relocated to downtown, central Crazy.

Chocolate was to me comfort, reward, and love. My beloved grandmother used to keep chocolate bars stashed for the grandkids, so it’s hard not to associate a Nestle Crunch with the pure joy of visiting grandma. My grandma loved kids, all kids — so much that she dedicated her life to schools and orphanages in Africa. I’m sure she had similar treats for the kids there.

As a result of my grandparents’ work, I always had a heightened sense of Africa. My mom never said “Eat your dinner, there are starving children in Africa.” Instead, I overheard conversations about war, coups, government closure of schools and orphanages, poverty, famine, police that show up in the middle of the night, imprisonment, execution, and families that had become kin to ours fleeing their nation through dangerous means both legal and illegal. I have always felt thankful not to have been born there, and I deeply respected my grandparents’ courage to work in such a dangerous place.

So…when I found out that virtually every American chocolate bar is tainted with child slavery (enacted in Africa), I didn’t want to believe it. Knight-Ridder had a series of articles outing the use of child slaves to harvest cocoa and coffee beans* in the Ivory Cost and Mali. It’s fallen off most of the news site because its age (2001), but it’s been reprinted here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Angie sent me this, a post from True Mom Confessions:

“I just left my sleeping baby in the crib and drove to the grocery store for some lunch. It took exactly 5 minutes. The entire time I kept envisioning the house on fire or my husband coming home and finding me gone.”

11 people clicked Me Too.

To quote Angie exactly:

“O…M…G… I’m not perfect but never, never, never, never.”

Under no circumstances ever in a bajillion years would I do this. Same with leaving a baby in a car. It might be inconvenient to wake up a dozing infant or lug them out of a car seat, but come on…why would you ever even risk something like that?

Would you? Have you? Know someone that did? I’ll allow a fake email address in the comments today if you want to reply anonymously.

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

Friday night, 8:15 p.m. We’re in the kitchen cleaning up after dinner. We’re grumpy because the neighbourhood kids keep screeching and waking Lucy up (yes, I’m not even 30 and I forget summer nights as a child. Ridiculous, huh?).

Carly: You know, for the most part, I really don’t like other people’s children.

Eric: Me neither. They’re annoying.

Carly: I like Eirinn, though. She’s adorable. And I’ve known her since she was little-little.

Eric: Yeah, I tolerate Eirinn.

Carly: *glares*

Eric: *shrugs matter of factly* She’s smarter than me.

Tornado Eirinn: did you know that Jen O. is blogging? I have converted a follower! Hallelujah! Praise the Interweb! Jen is just as hilarious and sweet as in real life. Also, Eirinn is an adorable tyrant

Dollar racks @ Mulberry Bush: this great baby/kids consignment store in Pickering has dollar racks of summer clothes on clearance until next Tuesday, July 31

Snot siphon: OK, it’s called Nosefrida, but it’s really a tube you shove up your baby’s nose and suck the boogers out. But don’t worry! There’s a filter so you won’t get snot in your mouth! Raise your hand if you have a baby or toddler who will willingly allow a tube to be shoved up their schnozz

Unclutterer: Very, very cool website on streamlining your life.  Neat posts about an almost paper-free office, 10 things to do in 10 minutes, clutter-hiding furniture (seriously, check out the recharging station!), and my favourite: home organization

Instructables: want to make shadow sculptures? Rock candy? Know how to kiss or get jammed money out of a vending machine? Go here. Totally addicting

More confessions: from the creators of True Mom Confessions come True Dad Confessions, True Bride Confessions and True Office Confessions

Drunk babies: Apparently hand sanitizer, if ingested in large quantities, can cause drunkness, alcohol poisoning and even death in little tots. For goodness sake, please don’t smear chemicals on your children’s hands ever, but especially not just before a meal!

I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?: Hilarious, tears-of-laughter-inducing photos of cats. I know it sounds ridiculous. Which is why it’s so damn funny