The month of April

I can't believe how quickly this year is going by! It seems like we just celebrated Christmas and now Easter has come and gone and summer is just around the corner. April was a fairly uneventful month for us. The kids and I took a trip down to Houston in the middle of a storm to see David while he was home. Joshua was thrilled beyond words to see his Grandma and was so sad when we had to leave. Abigail decided that she loves her Uncle Peter too :) He held her most of the time we were there! We have been keeping busy with projects around the house and have officially finished getting the backyard ready for the kids to play in, just in time for it to get hot outside! We had to rip out a bunch of garden beds that were completely overgrown with weeds and put down grass seed so Joshua wasn't just playing in dirt, not that he would have cared :) Luckily a few days after we seeded the backyard it started raining and didn't stop for a week......Joshua was upset because he couldn't play outside, but it was so nice to see everything turn green and the flowers start to bloom. I've been feeling for a while that there are too many little ones under my feet, so unfortunately the puppies are no longer with us. We found them a new home with some friends of ours who have three little boys. Needless to say they are getting more attention than they have ever had in their lives and have adjusted well to the move.

Joshua is a big help these days. He helps Abigail stand up, gets toys for her, feeds her (yes, with a spoon!) gives her drinks from his cup and helps me change her diaper. I can't believe how quickly he's growing up. It's fun to watch him learn new things and start to explore more on his own, but sad at the same time because he definitly isn't a baby anymore. His time with the speech therapist is going well. She comes over once a week for about an hour and plays with him. He thinks it's great that she comes just to see him! He gives her hugs when she gets here and never wants her to leave. In the few weeks since she started coming he has started saying baby, moo, baa, roar, gobble, cock-a-doodle-doo, Mama (and actually means me!), boom, ball, and ow. There are probably a few more, but I can't think of them at the moment. I'm not sure if these new words are because of the therapist or just because he's getting older, but as long as he starts talking it's fine with me! We (just me and Joshua) went to Baskin-Robbins last night for their 31 cent ice cream cones and he loved it (even though more ended up on the ground and on his clothes than in this mouth)!. He has really started to want one-on-one time with me lately, lots more reading books, coloring, and "helping" me in the kitchen. He even helped me load the dishwasher the other day!

Abigail is 11 months old now....I can't believe how quickly the last year has gone by. She is crawling all over the place and getting into EVERYTHING! She spends more time standing than crawling these days; it's only a matter of time until she starts walking. She still loves to cuddle and gives me hugs and kisses all the time. She loves to play with our new dinosaur toy (you put balls into holes at the top and it lights up and plays music), read books, pull all of the stuffed animals out of the basket, and turn the TV on and off :) She is VERY interested in feeding herself these days and so far has been successful with Cheerios, Gerber puffs, macoroni and cheese, grilled cheese sandwhich pieces, Mother Maria cookies, crackers, etc. She is almost completely off baby food and I'm excited not to have to buy it anymore!

Tommy has had a busy month trying to get the semester wrapped up. He turned in a HUGE paper and a final this week and has a paper due next week before getting a few weeks off until school starts again in June. We're excited that he is down to one more year....just one class over the summer, two in the fall, then one more next spring! He found out a few days ago that he is scheduled to take the Foreign Service Exam on June 6th, so his break from school will be spent studying for that! If we do decide to pursue working/living overseas that will officially be the start of a 12-18 month process.

I'm having fun playing with the kids and watching them grow-up way to quickly. We're planning on going to Houston in May for a friend's wedding reception, then College Station for baby Michael's blessing, followed my Abigail's birthday party, then back to College Station the following weekend for Dash's birthday, and off to Dallas the weekend after that for a family reunion :) Needless to say I'm enjoying the little quiet time we have left before all of this starts!
We love you all and are looking forward to seeing you soon. Watch out for the swine flu!!!!! :)

The Garcia Family

How on earth?????

Ok, so I went to get Joshua when he woke up this morning and picked him up to change his diaper like always......but he wasn't wearing one! Somehow he had taken his diaper off, WITHOUT taking off his clothes, and thrown it away. After I got him diapered and dressed I asked him what happened to his night-time diaper. He got the biggest grin on his face, ran over to the diaper pail and showed me how to turn it over to throw the diaper away :) I have no clue how he did it, or how long ago it had been done, but he was dry and I didn't have to deal with a soaked diaper, so I'll take it. That boy never seases to amaze me!