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...