Another LONG awaited update...

Bear with me.. this one will be long. I haven't updated this thing in four months.. so I have LOTS to talk about!! LOL. I am having to reflect back upon Kade's memory book to help me along the way.
6/17/09- Kade was five months old when he suffered his first fracture.... a broken tibia. *sigh* I hope this is no sign of what is yet to come for me... but I have a sneaky feeling I am in for it from this boy! Kade had been doing really well at standing up while holding him. So, Steve decides to let him stand holding onto the couch. He places him in standing position in front of the couch, and Kade is holding on. Steve is sitting in the floor directly behind him with his hands pretty much placed on his back. Steve yells for me (I was making sandwhiches for lunch that day) and I come in the room to see a very happy smiling baby excited to be holding onto the edge of the couch. I of course.. run to get the camera. I didn't even have time to get the camera up when he started falling. No big deal, Steve was there... and he caught him. Only his left leg stayed planted while his body and right leg fell to the right. We heard a very loud "POP" and he began to scream in pain. I dropped the camera, Steve scooped up baby boy! We were all three crying while I examined his leg. He wasn't moving it.... but there was no immediate swelling. We decided to take him to the ER anyways b/c he wasn't moving it and he was crying. We put him in the car seat very carefully, and he finally stops crying. We load him in the car and notice he moves the leg. "WHEW!" I said to Steve. "Okay, time out. I need to take him back in and re-evaluate his leg." Upon examining it, I think he is okay, so I decide to NOT take a trip to the ER, but call his pediatrician who tells me to come in to his office. We take Kade, and he orders an x-ray on him. They do the x-ray .... it is negative. I looked at the films, and saw something somewhat questionable... but didn't doubt the radiologist b/c children's bones/growth plates can be somewhat confusing and make you think there is a fracture when in fact there isn't one there.. so we go home. Kade will still NOT use that leg. This goes on for a few days. Kade turned six months old on July 18th. By the time he got in for his six month check-up on the 29th of July, Kade still wasn't using the leg. So we brought it up at the appt. Dr Patz decided to refer him to Dr. Buckley (pediatric orthopedic doc) to evaluate him and see what further testing we should do. We got an appt to see Dr. Buckley on the 10th of Aug. The day before we were scheduled to go in and see him, Kade started using that leg to kick and was bearing weight on the leg. I had almost decided not to even take him in to the appt the next morning, but decided to be safer than sorry (just in case he stopped using it all of a sudden). They did another x-ray on his legs. Sure enough- you could see where the fracute was healing.. it was calcified. Which it is common not to see "toddler fractures" until they start healing. It was a small hair-line fracture in his left tibia. But had healed great, no displacement. So, no need for a cast/surgery/ or any further evals by the ortho doc unless problems started back up with him bearing weight on it. So yay. His fracture had healed on it's own before we actually knew it had been broken. LOL.
Six months old: Kade finally said "MAMA" for the first time. Also started saying "baba" and "nana" among other baby jibberish. He finally sit up all by him self this month. Still not crawling... although he would lie down on his belly and turn himself sideways on the floor. Oh- at his 6 month appt we were told he was doing great. Weighed in at 18lbs and 14 oz and was 26" long.
7 months old: Kade got his first taste of Baby mum-mums this month and OMG!!! He loves those things. He goes absolutely nuts if he sees the package!!! He also likes the teething biscuits too.. and can make such a mess when he eats them. Who knew little cracker-like snacks could be so messy. He also got to move up to stage 2 foods which he LOVES!! There is so much more variety! He first started clapping his hands. He loves peek-a-boo and patty cake! I can just say the words "pat-a-cake" and he would start clapping his hands. He is trying so hard to scoot this month. He does really good "mini-push-ups". Rolls over so much more this month. It gets him where he needs to go that is for sure. He is such a daddy's boy. It sickens me sometimes, but hey- they can't all love their mommy like Madi loves me! LOL. He first said "bye bye" this month. And actually waves bye too. He stares at his hands in such amazement. He flips them over and looks at the other side.. and can do this for like ten minutes at a time. LOL. Moved into our "new home" (so we thought) on the last day of his seventh month. He was finally going to have his own room!!! YAY!
8 months old: We closed on the three bedroom house we were selling on Kade's 8mo bday. OMG it was crazy. We had drama with something the mortgage company did wrong the night before we were closing. The day of that closing we got word it was fixed, but they had another error and we were going to come out about $300 short of what we had expected to get at closing. We were not happy, but just ready to get it over so we could close on our home. We go to closing.. sign all the papers.. and got NO check. We had to leave and run errands, eat lunch, and came back two hours later and still NO check. We sat in the attorney's office for almost another hour before finally we received our money. Kade got to where he would NOT sleep in his room. I got tired of him not sleeping and attributed it to the fact that he would not sleep lying flat and had to be in that bouncer to sleep. I got tired of his "addiction" to the bouncer and decided to sell it. So.. bye bye bouncer. Also, he outgrew his bath tub and since he was sitting up on his own so well, I just kissed that thing good bye as well. He started taking his baths in the big tub just like his big sister does! Kade did NOT adjust well at all to the no-bouncer sleeping. So, eventually, he wound up in bed with us. I was so sure he was teething. He was fussier than normal... and drooling and knawing on everything. In fact, he had been doing this for months now, but still no teeth. He started crawling backwards at first, even walked backwards when placed in his walker. He can semi-pull up if I am in the floor with him. He pulls up on me to a semi-standing position. He usually gets around by scooting everywhere. He will "crawl" one step forward, sit down, and repeat. This gets him around everywhere. He leared "uh-oh" and loves this word and uses it over and over. Learned to say "woof-woof" and "yay". If he hears anyone say " bye bye" he waves. The financing fell through on the house we had moved into and thought we were buying.. so we had to move out and moved into his mom's house down the street. The kids liked this at first since they were living with Nanny. Kade got his first toy car this month... a fire truck. Steve was VERY proud to buy his boy his first car. He went to wal-mart to get some milk, and came back with that truck. I thought that was sweet because he thought of his boy while he was out. He must have been in some "mood" that week because a few days earlier I had sent him to Walmart and he came back with a movie for Madi.. "Snow White" to be exact if I remember correctly. Madi started her very first dance/gym class this year. She is attending The Little Gym and loves it. I always hated ballet until I saw my little girl dancing around. IT is beautiful!!! SHe loves gym too. Kade learned cause-and-effect this month. Realized he could throw his cup from his high chair, it would hit the floor and got a reaction from Mommy or daddy. So he continued to do this repeatedly. And even learned to say "uh-oh" when he did it! I have seen a bit of a Mommy's boy coming out in him somewhat towards the end of this month. I like it! :) Kade absolutely loves watching Madi. He just laughs at her all the time.
9th month: Kade has really progressed this month! He has learned so many things and so quickly. He needs to really slow down!!! I thought the boy was never going to learn to crawl... well, he finally did it! He crawled slowly one day, fast the next. In fact, the first time he crawled fast (to get away from his big sister that was chasing him) he stopped and had a look of amazement upon his face like "wow... did I just really go that fast?" It was so cute!!! He tried yet another new addiction for him.... PUFFS. I remember Madi loved these, but OMG... not like Kade. He throws a fit if he sees the bottle. And SCREAMS if he runs out!!! He has started eating more table foods this month since his doctor informed us he could eat this stuff even if he didn't have teeth.. yep still no teeth. And no sign of them either even though he continues to fuss, drool, and knaw on everything in site. Doc says this is normal. His kids didn't get their first until 13 months. LOL. Kade loves mashed bananas, toast, cheese, oranges, heck- anything the boy can get really. Even butterbeans. LOL. Kade has started throwing toys/ his pappy" and then goes to retrieve them. Its so cute! He started dancing a lot this month. He sways side to side. Anytime you mention dance or he hears music on the radio or on tv, he goes to town dancing. One day it was just Steve, Kade and I in the car. I looked back and Kade was dancing in his car seat to the radio. LOL. He moved up into a bigger car seat. We finally got tired of struggling to buckle that big boy into his infant carrier. He is still rear-facing.. don't you worry about that. But it won't be long... he is over the weight limit.. now just waiting on the age limit and for him to walk so his neck muscles are well developed! He started drinking some from a sipi-cup. Juice and water mostly. He says "what" "pappy" (pacifier), "Maaadaaa" for Madi, "Woah" for hello, "nana" for nanny and for banana. LOL. Does the "come here" sign. Gets in crawling position, pushes his boom boom straight up in the air and flattens his feet. Looks like he is trying to stand up. He first stood up on his own. I had him in his "prison" and he uses a pillow from the couch to help him up. Then while his Nanny was packing up some items she didn't want out into a cardboard box... Kade decided to pull up using the box. He then progressed to pulling up on the couch.. and does it better and better this month. Trying to coast somewhat too.
10th Month: Kade is now pulling up on anything/anyone/ and he does it so well. He even uses door frames to pull up on. He is coasting very well now. He migrated just this morning from holding onto the tub to the toilet. He is gettting braver and braver. Letting go of things and and can even stand on his own for just afew seconds without holding onto anyone or anything. We still have no teeth. I dont think he is ever getting any. I have from time to time thought about cutting the gums open and pulling the teeth out myself. LOL KIDDING. But he is REALLY fussy this weekend, so Maybe, just maybe they are finally on their way. Still swelling in his gums from time to time. We found a house that we really liked, put an offer in and they accepted. We will be moving to Hazel Green if all goes well in closing with this house. We are set to close on the 17th of Dec... which is one day before Kade will be 11 months old. I can't wait to get our own house again. We tried the ferber method the other day... it was horrible. Kade cried and so did I. Hated doing that to him, but he finally fell asleep, but he cried while I stood by his bed. He screamed when I left the room, so none of that for me. We had a great Thanksgiving. Kade enjoyed his first bit of dressing and absolutely loves cranberry sauce. Oh- and he loves his Aunt Jeanie's Three layer delight. YUMMY! Madi is still loving her dance/ ballet class very much. I signed her up last week for the next semester. I am going to let her continue to go to The Little Gym for a dance/gym class until the fall semester starts back. I am then enrolling her in just a dance class until she is in the first grade. Then she will start one dance class per week and one gymnastics class per week. She does so good at it. In her tap, she does more of a STOMP than tapping. Her ballet moves are actually pretty good. I am very impressed and so are her teachers since she is half a semester behind the other girls. She is very attentive and tries to do exactly what the teachers do. All the teachers absolutely love her. I actually see favoritism shown towards her.. which I kinda don't like because I don't want my daughter known as a "brown noser" ever.. but it is nice in one sense because all the teachers are constantly spending time with her helping her do things. She is good in gym too. Esp doing flips and on the bars. She can't seem to figure out how to put her feet on the bars and walk on them though. Guess I need to find a playground with low bars and teach her this. Her dance kicks are really HIGH kicks. The teacher actually had to "call her out" and tell her to calm down because she almost kicked one girl in the head. LOL. I have pics.. I will post them in another blog later on. Until then, feel free to check out my facebook for updated pics.
Closing on the house is coming up really soon. We found a nice house with 2500 sq ft, 1/2 acre in a great subdivision. It is a 10-15 yr old house and needs updating. We close on the 17th, but probably won't move in until the first of the year before school goes back in session. We are painting the entire house before we move in and will be re-doing the kitchen. I will post before and after pics. Some updates will be done later on a few months/years down the road. We are proud of the home we have found and can't wait to get our hands on it and put our touch/updates to it!!! Well that's all for now folks.... as if this wasn't enough.