Mark's Wedding

Jake was in his friend Mark Stacy's wedding over the weekend, and it was at the zoo. So that worked out real well for Kade and me. It gave us something to do while we were waiting on Jake to do the rehearsal. Here we are on the way to the rehearsal Saturday afternoon.

Kade and I sat in chairs on the end of the row so we could see Jake walk down the aisle. I wanted to make sure that Kade was able to see him. He definitely saw him. As soon as Jake started walking down the aisle, Kade started yelling Daddy! And then in the middle of the ceremony Kade hollered out "Hi Daddy" when it was quiet. So everyone heard him and started laughing! It was funny. Here's a picture of Daddy and Kade right after the ceremony. Kade didn't like the wedding music that was being played over the speakers, so he was scared to take his hands off his ears the whole rest of the night.

Here's our family after the wedding. Kade wasn't too happy because I made him take his hands off his ears for the picture. That's why he's making such a bad face!

Here's Mommy & Kade after the ceremony. He still wasn't too happy, but I almost got him to smile!

Once the wedding was over, while the wedding party was taking pictures, I took Kade around the zoo. He cheered up rather quickly, as you can see from the above picture! At first he wouldn't get on the turtle, but once I coaxed him onto it he loved it! It was really neat to get to have the zoo pretty much to ourselves. We were able to do things we wouldn't normally get to do, like walk down the railroad tracks and go off the beaten path. We didn't have time to go everywhere since it was starting to get dark, but we were able to see several animals, and I even got Kade to say giraffe!

Big Boy Bed

Last night we decided to change Kade's crib into a toddler bed since he kept climbing out of it. We were afraid he would get hurt. Here he is enjoying climbing in and out of his bed all by himself.

He likes his big boy bed, but he hasn't slept in it yet. Last night after I put him down for bed and left the room he immediately came to the door and started knocking on it and yelling Momma! Then he only cried for a few minutes before he fell asleep, but he slept in the floor all night long. Then today for his nap he did the same. I guess it will just take him some time to get used to staying in his bed. Hopefully he'll figure it out soon!

Here he is showing some of those climbing skills. He can't climb over the baby gates yet, but I'm sure it won't take him long to figure that one out too!

Zoo Trip

Today we took a trip to the Tulsa Zoo with our friends Chad & Noel and their daughters Araya & Kaya. Kade had a great time, and the weather was awesome. It was only about 85 degrees and was cloudy the whole time, so we didn't have to worry about it being too hot. It did sprinkle on us a little, but nothing to complain about. Here is Araya & Kade visiting the Rainforest exhibit, right before we got "chased" by bats.

I was able to catch a quick picture of Daddy & Kade while they were watching some fish.

Our monkey family

Here Kade was looking at the monkeys. They were by far his favorite. He actually cried when we left them because he didn't understand there would be more monkeys and lots of other animals to see. There were 2 baby monkeys, and he kept pointing at them and saying baby.

Here is Mommy & Kade standing by the shiny penguin that we had our picture taken by last summer. Too bad Kade is giving a look instead of smiling. He's really good at those! Kade liked the zoo and enjoyed all the animals except for the elephants, jaguars, and penguins. He still doesn't understand the whole behind glass thing and was scared when they came up to it. I understand being scared of the elephants and jaguars since they're pretty big, but I still can't figure out what's so scary about penguins!

My Little Monkey

Here are a few pictures of Kade relaxing on his couch while "sharing" a shake with Mommy & Daddy.

Here's one of his famous looks that he loves to give!

Another shake picture

He can now do somersaults, even on command. I told him to do a somersault so I could take a picture of him, and he just ran over and did it.

Doesn't he just look so innocent?

So Kade has decided to take after his daddy's climbing abilities. When Jake was young, he climbed on everything, and now Kade is doing the same thing. He isn't afraid to get on anything or to even jump off of it. Today while he was supposed to be napping I went outside to feed our dogs. When I came back inside I heard Kade's voice say Momma, and he was standing right there. He had climbed up the rails of his crib, jumped off the top, opened his bedroom door and made it to the living room and was looking for me. I was actually amazed that he had done all that. He did climb out of his crib 2 weeks ago but hadn't tried it since. I think we're going to have to change his crib to a toddler bed real soon! He also decided to move Boomer's pet taxi over to one of the kitchen cabinets so he could climb up on it to reach the can opener. And he tried to climb between the refrigerator and wall and got his head stuck on the way out. It never ends with him, and that all happened today! I have to say our life is never boring!!

First Trip to the ER

So this morning Jake and I were getting ready to go to my cousin's birthday party. While we were getting ready Kade was going back and forth between our bedroom and the living room. Jake saw that Kade had grabbed something out of our room and ran off with it, so he assumed it was something he wasn't supposed to have. He told Kade to show Mommy what he had found. So Kade brought a round battery to me that was a spare for one of his toys. I told him we needed to go put it away and took him to back in our room and watched him put it down. The next thing we knew Kade was standing next to Jake saying Dadda and pointing at his mouth. Then he gulped, started crying, and kind of gasped a little. Jake told me that Kade had swallowed something and wondered what it was. I immediately knew it was that battery. After Kade calmed down a bit he seemed to be fine but occasionally would point at his chest or mouth. We decided to go ahead and take him to the ER to make sure it hadn't gotten stuck anywhere or that battery acid couldn't get into his system. Once at the ER they took Kade's vitals, which were fine, and then sent us for x-rays. The battery was already in his stomach, which is good. We finally got to see the doctor, and she told us there was nothing to worry about. She said newer batteries are sealed, so the acid couldn't leak out, and we'd just have to wait for him to pass it. She told us it would probably take between 1-5 days for him to pass it. We only need to go back and get him checked if he complains of any stomach pain. But so far he is himself, and it hasn't slowed him down a bit. So we are very grateful that it turned out to be no big deal!

Here's an idea of what the battery looked like that he swallowed. It was between the size of a nickel and quarter but was thicker.

Bounce U

Today a group of us moms from church went to Bounce U in Tulsa. It has a lot of inflatables that kids can jump in, play in, slide down, etc. It was a lot of fun, except that Kade was scared most of the time and would hardly do anything but just cover his ears. They had some kind of loud music playing, so that scared him immediately, and he never could quite get over that.

But he started to enjoy himself a little while after we had been there. Here he was playing with a little girl through the netting. She would put her face up to it, and he would try and poke her. :)

He finally took his hands off his ears and decided to have a little fun! He still wouldn't go into any of the inflatables though.

This is my absolute favorite picture from today! He climbed into that car all by himself and just sat down. I thought it was hilarious how his head is barely sticking out of the car! He loved playing in that car. That kept him busy for quite a while.

Here Kade and I are sliding down the biggest slide. I thought it was a lot of fun, but Kade didn't like it one bit. This was when we first got there, and he hadn't decided if he was going to like this place yet or not. After we left I asked Kade if he liked playing there, and he said "uh huh." Then I asked him if he wanted to go back, and he said "uh huh." So I guess we'll try going again when he gets a little bigger. Hopefully he won't be scared then!

Wild Wilderness Safari

Today we took Kade to the Wild Wilderness Drive Through Safari in Gentry, AR. We had a lot of fun! Here Kade is in the petting zoo watching the baby pygmy goat.

We're still in the petting zoo, and Kade is "hugging" the kangaroo.

Here we are at the walk through part of the safari, and Kade and Daddy are watching the zebra. Kade really liked the zebras.

Here we are petting a baby tiger at the walk through safari. It was so neat!

Kade got to help drive while we were going through the Wilderness Safari. He really liked seeing all the different animals. They really have a lot. He especially liked all the monkeys! We definitely had a fun afternoon. We will have to go back again next year!

Bryson & Kade

This evening we went to our friends Brian & Jennifer Yeager's house. Kade and their son Bryson had so much fun playing together! Here Kade decided to jump in Bryson's pool with all his clothes still on!

Kade was having so much fun filling a cup up with water out of the pool and filling up the bubble blower with it.

Here he is enjoying the bubbles!

Kade and Bryson got to take a bath together after they played outside. Bryson was having fun putting bubbles on Kade's head!

Here they are both hanging out in their pj's watching a movie before bedtime. They had so much fun! Bryson said it was the best party ever!

Spray Bottle Fun

One of Kade's favorite things to do is play in the spray bottle water.

I guess it's easier than taking him swimming!

He squirted water until the spray bottle was empty.

He also likes to drink the water out of it too! Notice how wet he was!

Cheap entertainment! :)

Walks With Mommy

Tonight Kade and I went on one of our walks through the neighborhood while Daddy was at work. In this picture I told him to smile, and he scrunched his face all up with his eyes closed. I told him to open his eyes, and that's why his eyes are so wide and his mouth is opened!

I finally got a real smile in this one! So cute!

Here is what he was doing, with his eyes closed. He's so silly!

Then he decided to give me several good smiles in a row.

On our walk, Kade saw his first bunny rabbit. He really liked it and just kept pointing at it saying "Ohh." I got as close as I could before it ran away. We usually just see dogs and birds, so that was a treat!

Playing at the Splash Park

We spent the afternoon at the splash park playing and attending Kade's friend Araya's birthday party. He had a great time!

Since it has rained quite a bit here in the last few days, the water was a little deeper than normal. Kade loved running through it and kicking the water. I think that was his favorite part!

Here he is just running through the water again!

He didn't even mind getting water in his eyes too much!

Here he was running through the water that was coming down and was trying to fit in between the streams of water. It was so funny!

Just Like My Daddy

While Daddy was at work today, Kade decided to climb up in Jake's desk chair and pretend to play the XBox.

He's looking pretty serious about it in this picture! He loves to wear the head set.

He asked me to put the head set on him!

If the head set fell off, I'd have to put it back on him!

Now he's wearing the headphones and playing one of his computer games. He definitely already knows all about the computer.