Thorinova's exhaustive workout

He was so exited by all the post christmas joviality Thorin bounced himself to sleep. Have a good nap!
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Christmas eve graffiti

I stopped by Harvest on the way home from Medford and liked the tone of this favorite tag of mine framed by the puffy sky. Cherry holidays all!
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Loungin' in the room

The first morning in the motel room and the girls are gone! Again. The men are taking a well deserved rest, enjoying that hotel bed that someone else makes.

The Doubletree had great rooms, a living room foyer with a pullout and a separate bedroom, ideal for managing getting the kiddies to sleep. The bed was a real post bed, not the pad on a box that victimize most hotels. However they never seem to really detail the place, there were dustbunnies in out of the way spaces, and other artefacts that passed level 1 cleaning, not that big a deal. Not when we had a corner room looking out over Plymouth Meeting, and Dave & Busters to unleash coin banditry on. Apparently the kids mark their space within the first few minutes as Caryn commented on how our room smelled like a motel room for about 5 minutes, and dirty diapers soon after.

On the way to Philly

At a rest stop just north of Jersey Thorinova needed a change, and he gets welcomed back to his carseat by lulu. This is the second lulu we've had and all the kids have loved her. Thorinova loves to suck on her legs, which neither Honor or Mikey did. Do you ever find yourself wondering if you could find the person who did the voice for a toy? There needs to be an imdb for children's toys.

Posting from da crackberry

Wheeee! The crackberry from a very nice fellow in Vero I contacted on celltradeusa.com arrived today. A sweet toy, but mostly for work, as I don't allow myself many toys without purposes. Expect many more posts from here on out. Here are some craptacular pix of Thorinova's first rollover this morning.

Halloween

Here's a great picture of the gang! We all had such a great time Trick or Treating! Honor was Mulan, Mikey was a mummy and Thorin (who you can't see) was Tigger. I can't imagine a better place to go for Halloween, we have so much fun in Grafton and it's great how everyone on South St. is so festive. Honor and Mikey had such a wonderful time playing with their friends in between houses. Mikey finally got the hang of the whole Trick or Treating thing by the last 3 houses, for the longest time he thought he was supposed to go in their house, not just take the candy and move on. I was very happy with my 2 cups of wine and fresh popcorn watching a bit of "Young Frankenstein" on someone's front lawn. Next year I don't think Darren and I will use temporary tattoos, they were not the easiest thing to get off!

Thanks to all who helped!

I can't thank everyone enough for helping out at the Fundraiser last Saturday. We definitely had a profitable night and I know my friends are infinitely grateful for the help too! It seemed as though everyone had fun and I'm so glad that both magicians showed up and kept the kids and adults entertained! It was a lot to organize but with all the help I received it wasn't that bad! We had so many items for the bake sale we actually left some for church the next day for coffee hour even though we didn't make it there, we were so pooped! I'm very excited that Darren won the "Jill's Helping Hand Professional Organizing Services"....I'm sooooo in need of that!!! And it was so funny that Dan and Courtney won almost everything at the raffle but hey, when you buy as many tickets as he did you're bound to win a bunch! Thanks you guys!!! Now that this is over I have to go back to doing all the other stuff that's been neglected like laundry and dishes....as you can tell I'm really excited about that. I'm writing on the blog when I should be downstairs getting the laundry. But oh well, I'll make it down there soon!
Mikey's doing great without his cast, he still prefers his left hand but that's to be expected. It's so strange how skinny his arm was when they took it out and he was absolutely fascinated when they cut the cast off and he could see his arm again! We (or I guess just I was) were thinking of keeping the cast but it's so dirty and smells awful! I think we've taken enough pictures of it and it can go in the trash. Thanks to everyone who signed it, it looked so cute with the peace sign, the beeping car and silly monkey.
Honor's doing great, she almost grown out of some of her clothes because she's eating so much lately! Which is really good because everyone who knows her knows she's picky and normally doesn't eat a lot! There's a pair of pink jeans that she loves and it seems like every time I put them on her I have to loosen up the internal elastic belt.
Thorin's doing what babies do best, eating, sleeping, and pooping. But he's starting to interact more which is always fun! He loves to watch his big brother and sister and they love to hug and kiss him and bring him his pacifier and toys, what ever they think he'd like! It's very cute! And he's starting to smile more and coo a bit which Honor loves!! She keeps asking me what he said as if I can talk "baby"! I always tell her that he's saying hi to her or saying "Honor I Love You!!" She thinks it's the coolest (She actually told me that she thought it was cool!) It's amazing the stuff kids pick up at school!

The first of the Harvest Festivals...

Ok, so no festivals yet, but the fall events are afoot and we finally made it to the Davis Maze. The theme this year was the Olympics and the highlights were the little stops through the maze where they had little games to play, which borrowed from the kids town at the Farm. This stop was a real winner, with foam swords, trampolines, and carnivale mirrors. Heres Honor doing her "Dragon".




So I'll give away the secret...stay to the left! Secret? I guess, but everyone was telling everyone else, and the first quarter of our time we never hit any of the fun stations since we took some wrong turns. Here we have Honor and Mikey amid foam swordplay, after Honor bested Caryn


We finished!






Caryn makes the best apple butter, and the apples are looking good this year. Tougas was in full swing and we could have filled their big bag in just minutes if we wanted to. The playground was near maximum capacity and Mikey, being Mikey, took a siesta and we lost track of him for a few minutes. Not fun. The pumpkins have a ways to go, but look impressive next to the crew.

Phew! What a Busy Week! (last week)

So last Monday Thorin had his 2 month appointment and everyone was guessing how much he was going to weigh because he's huge! I was the winner guessing 12 pounds and I was actually kidding when I said that! I can't believe he's gained that much but he's still only in the 10th percentile for weight. He's in the 75th percentile for height though so I think all the formula he's guzzling down he's using to grow vertically....he's already in 3-6 month clothes and another 2 or 3 inches and he'll be out of those too! I keep joking saying he's a half a Mikey at 2.5 months....Mikey weighed 24 pounds at his last visit.

Mikey's doing great with his weapon, I mean cast. We went to the doctor again on Friday to get another x-ray and she decided not to take the cast off just yet. He has another 2 weeks with the darn thing and she said she will definitely take it off next visit on October 10th! I'm excited about that because the Fundraiser for Kaitlyn is the following day so he'll be cast free!
Talking about Mikey...we thought we should start writing "Mikey language" down.
Gahbah: Thank you
Muddah: Mom
dah-dah baby: "it's ok baby"
bappou: apple
nah nah nah dada: goodnight daddy
backaball: basketball, baseball, soccer ball, etc....
auhhh: yes
GoGo: Dora
DayGo: Diego
BOO!: Boots (he loves Boots!)
Nohnah: Honor
niging: singing
weenging: swinging
topdaroof: Stop it doggies!
That's all I can come up with right now...I'm sure there will be more to come!

So we also went to the clothing swap and the toy swap with the MOMS club. Thank God for the MOMS club! I outfitted Mikey and Thorin for the fall and winter and did pretty well for Honor too. I also picked up lots of toys to put away for birthdays and Christmas! Can't beat that!

Honor had her first school project to do! It was very cute, the teachers really do a great job at the Early Learning Center. We had to bring home a backpack that had a book "I Like Me", a journal to write reactions to the book, a doll to add something to and a scrapbook to add a picture of Honor with the doll or reading the book, etc. We dressed the doll up in a pumpkin outfit for Halloween and Honor put on her Mulan dress. We took a picture of them together and added it to the scrapbook, very cute!

We also had Uncle Chris and Aunt Megan's shower last week. I'm so glad it went well, we were rushing around a bit at what seemed the last minute but it all worked out! I think we came up with the best favors (even though it was only for the guys)....chocolate and scratch off tickets! Next time we do a party I'm not going to listen to anyone else and do the scratch offs for everyone. I think lots of the ladies were jealous but they got magnetic picture frames that'll last longer than the tickets! :) Honor had a great time as the bow collector. I think Aunt Megan will have a beautiful bouquet to use at the rehearsal!

Mikey's cast

So we went to see the Orthopedic Dr. on Tuesday and they were really pleased with how much Mikey's bones had already healed but put him in a cast any way. I was kind of hoping we didn't have to do the cast but they don't want him to re injure it and for those of you who know Mikey well, or just know of him, know that there definitely would be a chance he could re injure it. He really hates it and asks me to take it off but it's hard to explain to a 21 month old that it can't some off. He has found that it's a great noise maker if he bangs it on certain things and he often inadvertently uses it as a weapon. He has gotten a kick out of people writing on it so now I carry a Sharpie with me so when we see people who we know would like to put their mark on Mikey's arm we're ready. :)

and not to leave Honor out....here's some pictures I took of her today.

Name change to "The Valley Dwellers"

Some of you may have noticed we changed the name of the blog to "The Valley Dwellers" (I'm sure most of you didn't)
Well, Darren was doing some "Slocum" history research and found that the name means "Valley Dwellers". Originally it was thought the name came from the comb used for harvesting the Sloe berry which would kind of explain the variations like Sloecomb, Slocomb, etc...but apparently not. We thought it fit us since the new house is pretty much in a valley so there you go.....

Simon almost sets the house on fire with his pee

We thought this was worth posting.....
A couple of nights ago I was laying on the couch dozing off a bit watching the Republican convention and start to hear some "pops" and sizzling. I realize very quickly that it's coming from behind the TV and see the flashes of light coming from some where back there. I leap from the couch to the floor in front of the TV so quick I don't even remember putting Thorin down. For those of you who haven't seen the house, we have the TV inside the fireplace because it fits perfectly and keeps the kids out of there. Well apparently it hasn't kept the cats out of there because that's where I found Simon during all this. At first I thought he was being electrocuted because he was just sitting there and there's all these sparks coming up from the power strip where everything's plugged into. I call Darren to come down and help as I'm grabbing Simon and tossed him somewhere behind me. Just as I get Simon out of there the power strip goes up in flames for what seemed like 10 minutes but it probably was only 10 seconds. Darren comes down, gets the power cord undone, lifts it up and says "what's all this liquid?" I think it's melted "something" he smells it and finds out it's pee!! The stupid cat went back there to pee on the power strip!!! Then we find out that's not the first time! There's poop and pee behind there from days ago! How does a fire place and a power strip say "Hey cat, pee on me!" ? Well, at least the TV's fine and it all happened in the fireplace but Simon has now lost his chances of coming up stairs for any length of time!

Mikey's broken arm

Some of you have already heard that on Saturday morning Mikey broke his arm. We have a portable dishwasher that usually (not usually...Always!) is locked up in the bathroom so neither Honor or Mikey can mess around with it. Well.....Friday night everyone wasn't feeling great, we all have colds so Darren and I decided to leave the dishes until the morning and left the dishwasher in the kitchen instead of wheeling it back to the bathroom. Saturday morning comes around and Mikey decided to get up before everyone and make his way downstairs. Soon after he got downstairs Darren and I hear a thud, crash and Mikey screaming! He must have unlocked the dishwasher door, pulled it down and kept pushing it down because that's the only way we can figure the he pulled the whole machine over on it's door with the door on his arm. We are so lucky that it only got his arm! Because of how it fell on him it hit in 2 places, his hand and right above his wrist. I rushed over to the Urgent care with him while Darren stayed with Honor and Thorin. Luckily again we got there just in time before they got busy there and we were rushed from one place to the other. At first the doctor thought he was fine and would just have a bad bruise but sent us to x-ray anyway. After the x-rays we found out both bones were indeed broken right above the wrist. They rushed us over to the treatment room where they fitted him with a splint that hardened over 24hrs to conform to his arm, which is so much better than having to put him in a cast! He's miserable of course because he also has a cold and an ear infection right now so the poor thing is on Amoxi, tylenol and cold meds to keep him comfortable.
Here's some pics of Mikey with his splint and also some of Thorin at 2 months old!!

Thorin Nova Alanson Slocum

Here are pictures of Thorin when he was only minutes old. We're still trying to figure out who he looks like....he definitely doesn't looks like Mikey when he was born so we're going to have to dig out some pics of Honor

He was born 7/8/08 at 2:29am
Weight: 6lbs 14 oz
Length: 19.5 in





Labor and delivery story for those who are interested:
Around 8:00pm on the 7th I started having my usual nightly contractions. These normally lasted a few hours and stopped by the time I went to bed. We finally went to bed at about midnight and the contractions were still going about every 5 minutes. By 12:30 I couldn't lay down anymore and felt like things were getting serious, I was up every few minutes peeing or pooping (which I know is a sign of your body getting ready) but I still didn't wake up Darren, I guess I didn't want to face the fact that this could be it. A little after 1am I figured I should get him up since the back labor started just like I had with Honor and knew it was time. We called Mimi, Beth and the doctor to let them all know what was going on. By 1:30 we were on our way to St. Vincent's Hospital with my contractions about 1-2 minutes apart and all back labor. Once we got into the ER and over to registration I started really getting anxious, knowing it wasn't going to be too long until my body was going to give this baby the boot! I asked the lady if someone was coming down to get me because I needed to get to L&D now! They sent down this lady with a wheelchair for me who was probably in her 70's and walked as fast as a snail in molasses. Luckily she didn't put up a fight when Darren told her he was going to push me and off we went through what felt like a million doors and hallways. Once we got into the room they made me change into a johnny and pee in a cup which was very difficult to do between contractions! I kept telling them to get the Dr. in here to check me because I go quick and feel like I have to push. The nurse ended up checking me since the dr. wasn't coming too quickly and found that I was 9.5 cm already and told me I could push if I felt like it. She went to get the hook to break my water but it was too late! My water exploded seconds before Thorin made his entrance at 2:29 am. One more push and he was out and crying! No time for IV, no time for monitoring me or the baby or to get a team together for the delivery! I couldn't believe when Darren told me he was a boy, at first I thought he was kidding...the nurse asked if we knew what we were having and Darren looked and said I do now! It's a boy!
For being born exactly at 36 weeks Thorin's doing amazing, never needed any time in the NICU and has been eating like a champ! As long as all goes well we'll be heading home tomorrow.
It's been nice and quiet here at the hospital but I'm ready to get home!

Baby #3's almost here!

Just a few more weeks and we'll be a family of 5! Crazy!! I went in for my appointment this week and found out my blood pressure's creeping up, no big surprise there. At least it's been under control up until this point much better than it was with Honor or Mikey. It just stinks that now I'm on bedrest. My dr. was worried that I was measuring small so I had an ultrasound yesterday too. Things look good, the baby's head down and s/he is measuring just over 5lbs. And no, we don't know the sex. I don't think the tech could tell me if she wanted to since the bum and feet were in the way. It'll be so exciting to find out boy or girl with everyone else! Darren and I decided that I'm in charge of the girl name, he's in charge of the boy name. I made my final decision yesterday but I think he still has yet to decide on his. But he really doesn't have to worry since I still feel this one's a girl.
We're also getting ready to close on the house next weekend!! So many things happening! It's nice though that we don't have to get out of the apartment immediately so we can take our time moving. It's also nice that we're only moving about 4 miles from the apartment!
Honor's having a great time in school. This week they were learning about bugs. They each have a caterpillar that they are watching grow and become a butterfly! It's tough to get out of her what they did at school when I pick her up but she was excited about telling us about the bugs! :) Also last week she was so excited to tell us she had an important job as the door holder. She got to hold the door and let all her friends out to the playground and they all said thank you! It was a very big deal!
Mikey's enjoying his time making Mommy crazy being the monkey that he is. Any chance he gets he's up on the bathroom counter, sitting in the sink, turning the water on and soaking his diaper. He's also figured out 2 words that get him attention, Ow and No. Now any time he wants attention for something he says OW! even if there's nothing wrong. And he voicing his opinion about pretty much everything with a shake of the head and a definite No!


















Darren's been miserable for the past week....he's getting over a horrible brush with poison oak. What we think happened was the dogs got it on their fur from the Tufts field where we take them running a lot. Then Darren got the oils on his arms and spread it from there. Honor and I got a bit of it too but not as bad as he did. Thankfully the worst of it is finally over and his neck and arms are healing. Next time we're going to be a lot more careful, we don't want to have to go through it again!
My Athena's business is going fantastic! My first party was amazing! All the ladies had such a great time and I was so happy to help them with whatever problems or questions they had. It's a nice feeling knowing that you helped other women feel more comfortable and more confident about themselves and in turn make their partner happier too. I can't wait to do more parties in July since I'm taking the rest of June and part of July off (hoping that's when the baby comes!!) ...Have you been touched by the goddess? ;) www.athenashn.com/goddess/2131 (I love what I do!)

What we've been up to....

Geez! I can't believe it's almost June! So for those of you who remember the fiasco we went through with the other house.....we bought a bigger, better one!! The only thing is that it's in Millbury, not in Grafton. I know lots of people keep asking what's the big deal, it's one town over, but we just love Grafton....nothing really against Millbury. We are right over the border from Grafton into Millbury, the house next door is actually in Grafton! Any way, we couldn't pass this house or this property up. It's a 4 bedroom farmhouse with almost 4 acres with it. The previous owners had horses so there are 2 corrals, 3 stables and plenty of room to expand! It's funny how things seem to always work out.
We're closing on the house the end of June which gives us hopefully a few weeks before the baby is born! Right now I'm 30 weeks, (boy time flies!) and when we move I'll be about 35 weeks. If this one's anything like big sis and big bro s/he will be here at 37 weeks. But it'll be so nice to bring the baby home to the new house!
Also most of you know about my new business venture. I went to a party at a friend's house (you know who you are....) and had a fantastic time all the while thinking....hmmm, I could do this...and then...who wouldn't want to do this?? So now I'm proud to say that I am Goddess #2131 with Athena's Home Novelties. It really has to be the best home based business opportunity out there. The parties are so fun, not your typical Tupperware or Tastefully Simple or Avon, this is stuff that can change your life! It's about making women feel good about themselves, making them more self confident, making them feel like Goddesses!! I really believe that Athena's can do that. The products are top notch and everything is confidential (unless you want to share) I like to say that I sell bath and body products along with products that keep couples together and happy for a long time :) My website is www.athenashn.com/goddess/2131 and if you click in the upper left corner "shop athena's" and you can see all the products and order if you'd like or contact me and I'll help you with anything. You can book a party and have the party that everyone will be talking about for years! I do girls night out parties, couples and bachelorette parties. So much fun!!! Especially couples parties...have you and your other half been in "those stores" and bought some thing just to bring it home and have no idea what it's used for or just laugh every time you see it because you're embarassed? I actually went to training over mother's day weekend so I know what all those things are used for! :)
Ok, enough about that (can you tell I'm excited?)
Honor's doing really well in school. Everyday she comes home with a new song. Today I think it was Baa Baa Black Sheep...she already knows her alphabet and can count to 50! Next week she moving from Nursery school to Preschool, 1 of the teachers moves with the kids to the new room so they're comfortable and they'll get 1 other teacher that's new. They really think about making a safe comfortable environment for the kids at the Early Learning Center, I'm happy we went with them.
Mikey's doing great! He's learning new words like "ME" and "NO" which he likes to use often! He also has his favorites like cup, ball and bubbo (which is balloon). I swear he's going to be a jock when he gets older....always wants to play catch or bounce a ball and he's not even 18 months yet! Well, almost 18 months. But he already can throw a ball, kick it and he's working on dribbling! Crazy! He still loves to climb....he's so strong! He can pull himself up into the kitchen and bathroom sinks, which he tries to do any opportunity he gets. Darren even found him almost on the top of the fridge the other day because he pulled himself into the kitchen sink, on to the counter, stepped on the toaster and knocked stuff over (which made Darren jump up to see what was going on) and he was pulling himself up onto the fridge! It'll be exciting to find out what #3 has in store for us!!

First Day at Davis' Farmland 2008!!

This is Snickers the llama :) I love llamas!

So I picked Honor up from school early and told her we were going on an adventure! She kept asking if we were going to the park and if we could go to Dean park which is the big playground around here. When we finally turned on to Redstone Hill Rd. where the farmland is she started to figure it out.



Honor actually stopped for a minute and let me take a picture before we went in. It was such a gorgeous day 0ut and I even got a bit of a sunburn on my arms!
Our first stop, after face painting, is usually the calf pen. The baby cows are so cute!!


The clowns petting them are pretty cute too. :)













I was great this year that Mikey is able to do more, he had so much fun feeding the sheep and goats!! But for some reason he's scared of the black sheep....every time one came near him he would run for me and bury his face in my leg!
Honor did a great job this time milking the milk goat named Milkshake (that was a lot of milks in a row.) She even got a high-five from the farmer.
We were (or I guess I was) pretty excited to know that Snickers the llama was now in the "advanced cuddle corner." The cuddle corners are pens that you can go into and feed, cuddle and pet the animals in there. We had a great time seeing Snickers up close and getting "llama kisses."
We also got to see every one's favorite cow Annie. She's a Dexter cow that LOVES to eat! She'll stick her tongue out for you to pour as much food in there as possible and then stick it out again for more. She did eat the rest of the food we had but it's was ok since we were off to the play area.
The first day each year I take a picture of the kids at the growth chart there...it'll be great to look back at each one years from now. I was lucky to get Mikey's though, he was more than ready to go play in all the play grounds.
Here they are in the "camp ground play area"







Mikey's vacuuming the wood chip in the little village area.





Honor's enjoying herself in the little pond they

just added this year. I'm not sure how I feel about that one yet but at least she had a ball!


We even got to see Moo Moo before we left.










And here's the aftermath of having some good clean fun!!

Updated pictures

These pics are from today when we went across the street to play at the playground. Honor was really excited about using chalk but Mikey decided it was more fun to throw them down the storm drain!