A start to the new year!

January was a rough start to our year but we are hoping to turn our luck around!  Kade started the month off on a GREAT note after about a year of trying he figured out how to pedal his tricycle on his own!! He rode his tricycle past three houses and it was such a great thing to see, not for the fact that he conquered a goal, but to see the happiness and pride in his face! What a feeling as a parent to see!
On January 23rd Kade turned 4, we can't believe it 4 ALREADY!  We did a small party at the train park, with family and few friends it was great to see Kade involved with his friends.  The kids had a blast pushing him around in his wheelchair.  I am always waiting for the questions from kids to ask why won't he get down and play but the best part was when a friend came to me and said "Can I play with him?, can't you put him in his wheelchair and let me push him around?" and so I did the cutest thing I have seen was a little friend who couldn't see over the handle pushing Kade all over the grass and both kids had a huge smile on their face!
Two days later Kade was sent home from school with a fever, a couple hours later we ended up in the hospital.  Kade had spiked a 104.4 fever and we couldn't figure out why, he had a cough and the doctors ran some tests.  They treated him for pneumonia in the hospital and we unable to come home until he could keep his temperature down and drink some liquids.  Kade kept a temperature at around 102 for almost 3 days.  Finally by the end of the week were able to come home and now are still on the mends of  healing.
We still have not received any results on our blood work that we took in December looking for new possibilities of what is causing Kade's delays.  We will keep you posted!

We don't want to leave our prima ballerina out of this blog as most of you following us know we have two kids!  Kaela has had a great month as well.  She has become so involved in her dance studio this year that it has been great to see her find her "thing".  Although I think she would like to move in to the studio, she would go every day if I would let her!  We are very proud of her success in dance but mostly proud of the book worm she has become.  She is in the middle of 2nd grade and loves school, she is does extremely well and was so excited that they retested her reading level and found out she is reading at a 5th grade level.. We are so proud!  She is looking forward to next month as February is "her" month, she turns 8 :), 


Thank you all for following us this month we hope everybody has had a great and healthy start to 2012!!
Love Kevin, Kelly, Kaela and Kade

Kade in 2011

Kade had a good year all in all in 2011.  It started off a little rocky, he had a seizure in February and it took a while to recover from the seizure.  At the beginning of the year Kade had started to make steps on his own in his walker.  We were excited and honored when Kade was asked to be the ambassador for Easter Seals AZ for 2011,  and their walk with me.  By the time walk was here in May Kade was able to walk in the walker for about 1/2 an hour.  We were excited and with the help of all of our family and friends that we raised $14,400 for Easter seals that stayed here in Phoenix, to help kids like Kade and their families.  Over the summer Kade continued with his therapies and we did another round of Oxygen therapy.
At this time we had not pursued any new avenues of finding what exactly was going on with Kade, but had decided it was time to start looking again.  Our neurologist had told us about a doctor in Seattle WA, who specializes in children with undiagnosed developmental delays.  He has a research study and we were hoping Kade would qualify to help find some answers.  After sending all of Kade's medical files to Seattle we have heard back.  The Dr. thinks that we may have an avenue to pursue.  In December of 2011 we have done some blood work and are waiting on the results, we will keep you posted as hopefully this avenue gives us some answers.
Kade started preschool this year and has really enjoyed going.  He attends a developmental preschool and really enjoys being around other kids.  With the help of his therapists at home and at school, they are helping us find the right type of speech device to help us communicate with Kade.  In early 2012 we will have made a final decision on what device will be the best for him.  We have also added glasses to Kades daily routine.  He wears prism glasses for about 4 hours of the day, the prism in the glasses makes the room shift up so Kade needs to lift his head up, and its so nice to see him with his head up and  he now notices the world around him!
We are looking forward to a great year in 2012.  We hope to receive a device that makes communicating so much easier with him.  We hope to find some answers and hope that Kade continues to be successful in the walker and it becomes his main way of getting around!
We will keep you all informed and thank you for following our journey!
Kevin, Kelly, Kaela and Kade Groff