Thorin has been washed of all his sins

We had Thorin's baptism Sunday Feb. 1st, finally! At 7 months he almost didn't fit in the baptism outfit. This outfit is the one that all the kids have worn on my mom's side of the family, thankfully it's knitted and stretches a bit!
A huge thank you to Lindsey and Blaine for agreeing to be "Super Star"'s godparents. It's a tough job but he seems pretty easy going. ;)
We had a great brunch after church at Mimi's house which was so good (the ham was delicious as always!) and thank you to all who contributed! Honor, Mikey and Honor's friend Alison had fun playing with the dance cam on Mimi's new big screen tv upstairs while the adults had some nice time with friends and family. It was just a really nice day and I wish we could have visited with everyone longer.

Crazy Wartown kids!

Wow.  First, the background.  Kelly Sq. is infamously known as the nastiest, craziest, most miraculous intersection in Worcester.  A few seconds of this clip should give you a feel for it.

Now that you have an idea, this story about two kids, whom, I hope, lost control and went barrelling through during rush hour is one of those that boggles the mind at the luck they had getting as far as they did.

The comments are thick on this one.

Are you kidding me??

So I finally took Mikey back to the Dr.'s yesterday since he wasn't getting any better and was not eating or drinking a thing. We had to resort to feeding him baby food and forcing him to drink some Ensure. So....the diagnosis.....double ear infections! So yet again Mikey is on Amoxi for 10 days to clear up his ears. And then today was Thorin's 6 month check up and I wasn't expecting anything to really be wrong with him since he seems to be getting better but guess what.....double ear infections! Now Thorin is also on Amoxi for 10 days along with Darren! He went to the Dr.'s today also and found out he has pharyngitis. Great. Now all the boys in the house are on antibiotics, lets hope the girls luck out this time!

3 Sick Kids

This has been a very trying week for me and I'm sure for Darren as well. All 3 kids have been sick since Tuesday. Mikey was so bad that I took him to the Dr and confirmed what I thought they had....croup. I know it's really not that bad, it just means the cold settled in their throats instead of their sinuses or chest but it sounds so horrible! It scares the heck out of me when I hear them coughing and gasping for air in the middle of the night. Thankfully that only last 2-3 nights but those are very, very long nights especially when it goes through 3 bodies at different times. I hope we're nearing the end because there's 3 people who really need Mommy, there's only so much of Mommy and she's getting very, very tired. It would be great if Mommies were equipped with as many arms as she had children. God knows where they'd come out of but I would welcome them with no questions!

Geez, what a weekend!

So last week including the weekend are kind of a blur! Friday was calling hours for GG. It was really nice to see people I haven't seen in years, some might even be close to 20 years! I wish it was under better circumstances which every one always says but obviously it was GG's time to go. We're so glad we were all together December 27th and that she had a WONDERFUL time at Mimi's (Jan's) house with all her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Amazingly every one of was there on that day and like I said GG had a great time which isn't always the case. Anyways, it was nice to see so many people come out and pay their respects to our GG. The funeral was beautiful and a huge "Thank You" to Mary Alice from Grace Church in Attleboro for giving the eulogy. I don't think any one of us would have been able to stand up there and do it.
Later that night Darren, Holly, Stacy and Lou went out to celebrate my birthday. We crashed some one else's birthday party as a great way to celebrate mine! Actually it was a friend of Darren's from back in college. We had a great time and there was someone else there too that was celebrating her birthday so that was 3 of us with birthdays within days of each other! I don't think we got home much before 1am which is very rare these days! We paid for it though when we got home. Honor forgot to put her pull-up on and was sleeping in our bed so you can guess what happened. Also Mikey was sleeping next to her so he was all wet too. Honor was coming down with a cold so she was coughing constantly after being woken up by us coming home. Thorin also woke up but it was his normal time to wake up anyway it was just three times more complicated since everything else was going on. So he got upset too along with every body else and there was lots of crying and coughing and "Moooommmmyyyy"'s going on. Oh well.....if that's the price we have to pay for having a good time I'm fine with that.
At least we had a reasonably quiet Sunday and I was happy not to have a hang-over for my 30th birthday!

Rest in Peace G.G.

We just got the sad news today that my Grandmother, affectionately called GG (Great-Grandma) by the kids, has passed. She would have been 88 years old this Thursday and even though she made it this far it's still tough to hear that she's gone. She was always a huge part of our lives growing up even if we liked it or not. She was always a reliable source of Stelladoro breakfast treat cookies and a big kiss on the lips. She was tough to deal with at times but at the end of it all we just say "Well, that's Gramma for ya" She will be missed greatly, she was the true matriarch of our family. I'm glad we have many pictures of her with the kids and I hope Honor is old enough to have some fond memories of times with GG.

Changes for Honor

Honor changed preschools not too long ago and she went in with the 4 year olds at the new school. We decided this week to move her down to the older 3 year olds even though she'll be one of the oldest kids there. I hope she makes some good friendships, it doesn't seem like she's really made any strong bonds with any one so hopefully that will change in the coming months.
Thorin and Mikey both had ear and eye infections last week. It was the first time that both boys were sick at the same time. Thorin was the first to start showing signs of being sick but I thought it was just because he was teething! The bottom 2 front teeth finally broke through and he's been very miserable through the whole process. Anyway, he woke up the other day with his eyes glued shut and swollen...it looked like he got into a fight a definitely lost! Thankfully Stop and Shop is offering free antibiotics right now until March so I only had to pay to see the doctor and the meds were free!
Thorin's getting so big already! Like I said before he's got teeth now and gobbles down a stage 2 jar of food at lunch and almost finishes a stage 3 at dinner on top of about 32 oz of formula a day! He's definitely the biggest of the 3 kids, it'll be interesting to see when he and Mikey get older how that all plays out.

Where the heck did December go??

So December went by in a flash since there were so many things going on. Let me recount them for you in case you missed some of the details.....
Dec. 3rd we left for Philly for Chris and Megan's wedding which was on the 6th. We figured we'd make a vacation out of it and enjoy the time down there instead of being rushed. It was very nice that the Double Tree gave us the $99/night for our entire stay when they usually charge $199 or more per night! While down in Philly we took the kids to the Please Touch Museum. It was a lot of fun....kind of on the same idea as the Boston Museum for Children but I thought it was geared towards even younger kids so Mikey really had a good time too. My favorite was the very well done Alice in Wonderland exhibit in the basement. There was a maze and imbedded in the walls of the maze were different memorabilia of Alice in Wonderland like tea sets and dolls, etc from the past. There was also a maze of mirrors and a room that made you look taller as you walked into it....great for pictures! And of course there was a tea party with the Mad hatter and March Hare, very well done!
The wedding was beautiful and perfect (and short)! Honor did a great job walking down the isle with her new friend "Big Caitlin" We had to make the distinction between Kaitlyn and Caitlin and that's what Honor thought worked best LOL! Honor was a big hit on the dance floor at the reception....everyone kept asking me where she learned her moves! Half the time I didn't know what she was up to because everyone wanted to dance with her, I even lost her at one point and some one told me she had gone to the potty. Amazingly she made it there and back my herself!
The day after the wedding was Mikey's birthday so we had a cake for him. I guess it wasn't really a cake, more of a very large chocolate chip cookie. I figured if no one ate it it would transport better than a cake! Also since we were staying across from a Dave and Buster's (and those of you who know me well know that I can't help myself when it comes to D&B's) we took the kids over there to play a few games and win some prizes. And then it was time to head back home.
We had our Christmas/Mikey's birthday party with our friends on the 13th. I got pretty buzzed on wine but I guess that's what happens when you go over to Rachel's for a party ;) The girls always have a great time when they get together and now more than ever it's great to see them all together. Mikey got his first of many Imaginext toys which I have to say are great toys for boys who like dinos and dragons! Honor got her "prized" Christmas Carol Barbie and Thorin got lots of great baby toys that he's just starting to play with.
Christmas came and went so quickly I still can't believe it's over. (I guess I can't let it go since we still have our tree up). This was a great year because Honor really had a grasp on who Santa is and what he does. He did forget to leave one of her toys, the cupcake maker, under the tree and left it at Mimi's house by mistake. Mikey got all he asked for.....a green football and a dinosaur. Honor got her castle and cupcake maker and Thorin got his boy dolly with a smiley face. It was the cutest thing when I opened up Thorin's doll and handed it to him, he smiled and screeched, grabbed the doll and started gumming on it's face immediately. It was a hit, Santa!
We then had our traditional Tonge Family Christmas Party the Saturday after Christmas. This is when Mimi's side of the family gets together and exchanges presents. I was excited to get a juicer and Darren was very happy to get the bone conduction headphones he's been wanting forever. Mikey got more Imaginext Dinos and balls and trucks, Honor got more girly things and Thorin got clothes which was very much appreciated since he's already in 9-12 month clothes when we was barely 6 months old.
We didn't do anything for New Years again. Darren and I did stay up to watch the ball drop and to see Dick Clark's last broadcast on New Year's Eve. We had some wine to celebrate and then went to bed. Maybe some day we'll be more exciting :)

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!