And The New Chapter Begins...

It may seem like we have fallen off the face of the earth...but it's just not true. We have, however, begun the next chapter in the Cabrera Saga with our recent move to the beautiful state of Washington. Mothers Day this year marked the beginning of the end in Missouri. Maddie and I flew home from California after completing my final internship there. We met Grandma and Grandpa in Kansas City the same day and we all drove to Springfield to begin a marathon week of packing and cleaning. We packed, cleaned and loaded a 26 ft Penske truck by Thursday, that same day Jaime's parents came into town, Friday we went to graduation and graduation dinner, and Saturday we pulled out of Springfield, MO for the last time. It was a great 3 years, filled with lots of milestones (graduate school, Jaime finishing his AA, our first child), but we are glad to be moving on to bigger and better things. Since being in Washington the fun hasn't stopped. Jaime's parents visited for the first week, the following week we went back to California for my brothers wedding, we came back and spent last week cleaning in Washington (the cars, the house, our room). We are settled for now at my parents until we find a place of our own. We are working on looking for houses and getting something we can settle into and grow into as a family. This coming Monday, the 15th, I start my new job officially and while doing that I will be studying for my board exams and getting over that final hump. Jaime gets to be Mr. Mom for the next few months until his school starts in September and gets to look for houses and everything else in between until then. It's quite the roll reversal for now and we'll get use to changing everything around. In the meantime, it's nice to have more normal schedules together and to have family around to be with. Normally I would attach some pictures and all that good stuff, but since we are living in limited space we are living with the lap top and until I get some pictures on this computer a worded update is all I can give. As soon as I get some pictures I will download and update with the more interesting info. Until then...

Coming to the end....

Well it's been a little while since we last updated the blog. As usual life gets in the way of all the things we'd like to get done. However I can say that despite all that does go undone the very most important things are taken care of. These days that includes playing as much as possible with Maddie and spending as much time as a family as is possible given time constraints.
As is implied with the title to the blog update we are coming to the end of our time in Missouri. Jaime has continued to work is late shift at the bank but that will all come to an end the first of April when he gets to return to more normal hours. Of course that will be temporary as well since he will not have to stay there longer than May. He was recently accepted to Eastern Washington University where he will begin classes in the Fall. We are all so proud of him and we are looking forward to swapping positions after 3 years of me in school and him working his tail off to support us. As for me I finished my most recent rotation here in Springfield and went straight back to classes to do some ending working. We had to present our case studies, our research and take our comprehensive exams which I am still working on and will be finished with come next week. After that, I leave on the 26th with Maddie to go to California for my final rotation of my grad school career. We will be there six weeks and then we get to return and graduate on the 15th of May. The end is in sight and it is just a matter of counting down the time.
When we return from California, we will be followed by my parents who will be coming to help us pack up that week and the day after graduation we plan on pulling out of Missouri for the last time and heading to start the new chapter in our lives in Washington. I have been offered a job working at a rehabilitation hospital in Spokane and will start about mid June, hopefully after passing my board exams. Things are coming together as we had hoped they would.
Most importantly Maddie is growing like a weed. She is such a happy baby and is talking all the time. More like she is screeching and "ga ga-ing" all the time. But she does it so well. She has most recently, in the lasts two weeks, mastered crawling, cruising and occasionally standing on her own. It's only a matter of time before she'll be ready to get a job and start supporting us. She has also recently taken to giving kisses when asked and learned to clap on demand (more or less). The next is to learn to wave bye - bye which we are getting close on. Now that she is mobile she keeps us on our toes though she doesn't venture out of the living room much due to the fact that she gets sidetracked by everything on her way out she never makes it far enough. She has also started to take after her daddy and has managed to bonk her head on something everyday since learning to pull up on things and move around. I suppose a few bruises never hurt anyone. Other than that we are just hoping she hits 20 pounds soon so that we can put her in a forward facing car seat since she hates sitting backwards now. We are looking forward to her meeting her cousins this six weeks we are in California as well as her great-grandma and her aunties and uncles.
Until our next update, enjoy the video of Maddie from four to six months. The next one will be from six to nine months. Til next time...

Back to Normal

Well, ever since Maddie and I returned home things have been back to normal. Last we wrote Maddie gave a synopsis of her trip to Virginia. Since then we have had several other fun adventures. We celebrated our first Christmas together as a family. What a big difference when you get to spend the day seeing the newness of everything through a childs eyes. I think this was definitely a memorable Christmas. You only have a baby's first Christmas once. After Christmas came and went we of course celebrated the New Year in style. I am surprised we actually made it until midnight. Of course we did not make it long after that, but we had fun watching Gone With the Wind and eating lots of unhealthy food.
Once the holiday celebrations were over we had to get ready for reality to kick in again. We took Maddie to meet her new babysitter. I got prepared to start my new internship and Jaime prepared to begin working the late shift again. Since January 5th it has been nothing but routine around her, except when Maddie decided to throw us a curve ball, which isn't that often. I have been working on completeing my fifth internship here in town at the local hospital. I am loving it and am wondering if I have not found the type of PT I would like to do once I graduate. Jaime has been working hard taking care of Maddie during the mornings and then works, again, until 11:00 at night. He usually sneaks into a quiet house where everyone is sleeping. Although he does usually get to sleep until 6:30 in the morning while I am up and about getting ready at 5:00am. We have quite the routine throughout the day and without it I think we might be running around not sure what we were doing. Thankfully through all of it no problems have arisen with Maddie. She has been the healthiest child around, getting only occasional runny noses that last no more than an evening or morning and she has had one fever that lasted a day. I think we are seeing our lives blessed for having had Faith to start our family during such unpredictable times in our lives. My thoughts have always been that there will never be the perfect time to do things, especially having kids, so as long as we are feeling right about it then everything will work out. That's not so say that we haven't had our share of "what are we going to do's". But things have always worked out and we have the most beautiful, fun loving daughter to prove it.
Maddie has been doing so well. She is so close to crawling that we are just sitting back and waiting for the first things to come flying off the shelves that we forgot to protect from her curious little hands. She has gotten so big and has the most infectious smile and laugh that we try all day just to make her giggle. We cherish all the time we have with her and all the moments we get to see her and her personality grow.
So for now we are counting our time left here in Missouri until we can be back around more family. We are planning and waiting for the next stage in our lives when I will be done with school and Jaime can finish his. When roles will be reversed and I will be working full time and Jaime will be Mr. Mom, staying home and most importantly finish up his school so that we can swith roles once again and I can stay home and not have to be in school or working. Until then we will enjoy our time we have left in Missouri and hopefully try and visit some things we said we wanted to and have yet to have the chance to do. We'll also continue to chronical all the milestones Maddie has been making on a regular basis and continue to enjoy watching her grow.

My Journey to Virgina

So mommy and daddy said I was in charge of typing up the blog for our trip to Virginia. It was a trip of many firsts for me. I got to take my first plane ride which went very smoothly if I should say so myself. I slept through both parts of the flight and never fussed once. I had a good time looking out the window at all the passing clouds. The night before I also got to stay the night in my first hotel room. I had a queen size bed all to myself - it was great. Once we arrived in Virgina daddy got me and mommy all set up in our new room where we would be staying for the next two months while mommy completed one of her internships for school. It was fun staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandpa and Auntie Sara took care of me during the day while mommy was at work and we had a couple other friends come and help as well since I am such a handful wanting to play all the time. My first week there I got to celebrate my first Halloween - I looked like a big pumpkin in my shirt that Auntie Allison sent me. While I was there I got a new Little Einsteins gym to play on and I love to jump all day and play at the different stations. I grew so much while I was there that mommy had to raise the seat twice so my feet would be in the right position. I also learned how to roll from my tummy to my back - which is a pretty big deal since I hated to me on my tummy for any length of time. I learned how to sit up all by myself, although occasionally I still fall over and need help getting up. It's a good thing they surround me with a lot of pillows otherwise I'd have a lot of bumps on my head. Then one day while mommy was playing with me I showed her the other thing I learned how to do which was to suck my thumb. It tastes so good sometimes and mommy just loves to clean up all the slobber I make. After almost four weeks of being there without daddy he came to visit mommy and me on her birthday. They left me asleep with the grandparents so they could go out to a fancy dinner one night and another night they got to go to the Kennedy Center to see a play. It was mommy's big 30th birthday so I gave her lots of kisses and hugs. That weekend we also got to take a road trip to York, PA to visit grandpa John's family. I loved riding in the car on the way there but the ride home wasn't as much fun. The best present mommy got for her birthday was on the day that daddy left to go home she had to go to the emergency room for a little while that night because she had a kidney stone which apparently runs in the family so I hope I don't have one when I get older. Everything worked out okay and mommy was feeling better a day later.

That week was Thanksgiving and I got to celebrate my very first Thanksgiving by having my first tastes of mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. I met my great Grandma Consuelo on my daddy's side of the family (if that wasn't already obvious) and daddy's cousin Dean. My great Aunt Julie and great Uncle Mike came to pick mommy and me up the next day and we drove to Pennsylvania where they live. I got to go and see the Liberty bell and Constitution Hall. It was fun. Mommy got to eat an authentic philly cheesesteak. I had so much fun at aunt Julie and uncle Mike's. I got to play with their dogs who were so interested in me but they didn't like me trying to grab their hair. I got to sleep in bed with mommy which was alot of fun for me but I don't think mommy slept as much as I did since I am a bed hog.
I also got to meet mommy's friend Sharyn a few times since she lives really close to grandma and grandpa. It was fun to go out to lunch and stare at all the people and try all the food mommy would let me taste. I almost forgot, while daddy was visiting I got to have my very first serving of rice cereal, and boy was it good. I love to eat my cereal every night before I go to bed.
We spent another few weeks at grandma and grandpa's after daddy left. But even though he wasn't with us I got to talk to him alot on the web cam that we have and show him how big I was getting and all the new things I could do. Sometimes mommy would hold me in her arms and she'd tickle my sides and neck and I would giggle for daddy. I know he missed us but mommy took lot's of pictures to show him later.
Daddy came back just before Christmas to pick mommy and me up and take us home. That weekend we got to take a tour of the White House in Washington DC as part of mommy's birthday present from auntie Sara. I had fun looking at all the Christmas decorations inside there We had alot of fun driving around DC and I got to go into Union Station to have breakfast and we almost took a train but daddy said no. I almost got to go up in the Washington monument but it was too cold for me outside so just mommy and auntie Sara went. We got to celebrate Christmas early with grandma and grandpa. I loved trying to grab the Christmas tree if they let me get close enough to it, but that didn't happen too often. I got to open my very first christmas presents there and it was fun to eat all the wrapping paper - it was my favorite part. That and trying to chew on all the boxes. A few days before Christmas mommy and daddy packed all of our things up and we left to go home to Missouri. I miss my grandma, grandpa and auntie but it was sure nice to sleep in my crib again even though it was weird the first night. Since then mommy, daddy and I have been hanging out at home until mommy has to go on her other internship. This one is at home so I get to stay with Daddy and play all day with him this time. Well I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip to Virginia. I sure had alot of fun and I hope I didn't leave anything out.

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

Ok, so we had Grandma and Grandpa visit from Spokane. We had all kinds of fun! We went shopping, we went to dinner, and let's not forget breakfast at Cracker Barrel!!! TWICE!!! Needless to say that is always a good experience. It was great to have them here with us so they could see how much progress little Miss Maddie has made.

Mommy and Daddy got to go on a date while the Granparents were here. We went to dinner at Nakato's (the local Japanese steakhous) and then went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was nice to get out and enjoy ourselves.

We also had the opportunity to go to Branson Landing to take family pictures. Branson Landing is a local outdoor shopping area that has fantastic restaurants and is a beautiful place to walk. They even have a nice water fountain that does a show a few times a day with music and water shooting according to the musical beat.

Go Dodgers!!!

So this last week we dressed up in Dodgers outfits to cheer for the team! The ladies looked decidedly cute in their sports gear, as you can see. It worked on Sunday, but we're a little behind in the series, so keep your fingers and toes crossed!

Grandma Kathy and Grandpa John are coming to visit on Wednesday of this week. We are looking forward to their visit and showing off all the things Maddie can do now!

Next week, finals are over and we get to go to Virginia. We're excited and also a little sad because our little family will have to be apart for two months. It will be very hard, but that's why we bought our new webcam. We will be able to see each other every day. Hopefully the two months will go by quickly. The one good thing is that Grandpa Jaime, Grandma Linda, and Auntie Sara will be able to have Maddie close for so long.

The Video

Here is the video that I had done about a month ago. I boycotted all homework and spent a few hours putting the first few months into something we could send to everyone. For those of you who have not seen it, Enjoy!!