Ruth Elizabeth Froehner

I recently had to unexpectedly come back home for my Nana’s funeral.  Now, there are probably plenty of Nana’s out there, but there is only one TRUE Nana… My Nana, Nana Banana! 

 Nana was a woman full of love, music and always had that twinkle in those blue eyes of hers!  She has always had a pep in her step and a song in her heart.  Nana was a mother, a teacher, a grandmother, a great grandmother… She was the epitome of a true matriarch…. The foundation of our family.  However, it is hard to talk about Nana without Pops…

They were a perfect match… what you would call soul mates.  Pops told me once that he fell in love with Nana the moment he laid eyes on her walking down the street and I don’t think that spark ever dulled.  They showed all those around them how to treat others with respect through their actions and their attitudes.  They were a glass half full, silver lining in the storm cloud kind of couple and I strive everyday to be like them.  When Pops passed away my senior year of high school, you could tell that a piece of Nana died as well, but she told me that Pops had told her once, “Sugar, when I am gone you have to go on…  live your life… I will see you again before you know it!”  And you know what… she did!  She lived a full life those 11 years without Pops and she even got a little lively at times, too!  Pops was a big personality and I never realized how funny Nana was until after he passed away.  We Mueller’s have gotten a few family lines from Nana like… “it’s gettin’ long like a dead pig”.   She was great with one-liners, for example… I was holding my niece Hayden when she was just a year or so old and she proceeded to reach her hand down my shirt and grab my chest… I pulled her hand out and looked at my mom, nana and sister and said, “she just grabbed my boob”… to which nana replied “I am surprised she could even find it!”  She was quite a character.  The last few years my Aunts have insisted that she use a cane for comfort and support… well, damn it, Nana didn’t want to…. She made sure she had it when family was around, but she confessed to me and Jon that she didn’t use it all the time at her retirement community.  Of course she was smart and funny enough to inform her friends that, “if I fall, make sure one of you goes and grabs my cane and throw it on the ground next to me before my girls get here!”    

Ruth Elizabeth Froehner died at 96 and was still as quick as a whip until the last few weeks.  She was the most loving, generous, caring and gentle person I have ever known.   Of course I am upset that I will not have my Nana on this earth to talk to and get wisdom from, but it is hard to be sad when you look at the life she lived and the love she shared with all of us.  I am the youngest of all the grandkids and I got to have my Nana in my life for almost 30 years… I think that is pretty awesome!   And I know that my Pops was up there at those pearly gates with his arms stretched wide open waiting for his love, singing Oh Happy Day with a chorus of angels behind him!

Until Later…

7 months...

Holy cow… Leighton is 7months old!  Some lady at the store the other day asked how old he was (even though she was dressed in all pink with a head band) and I replied “5 months… wait, I mean 7.” Wow, these past few months have really flown by!  Laylay is totally wearing one of my childhood onesies in the pictures by the way!

Please check out her amazing Mohawk! People say all the time, “what an interesting haircut (as they turn their heads to the side slightly).”  Like I would cut my kids hair this way people… but it is kind of awesome… sans side wings of course!

What you looking at bunny?!?

Her playboy pose… she did this all on her own!

Leighton is one happy baby!

I just had to take an unexpected trip home with baby L in tow and no husband to help.  I was dreading this 17 hour flight when I thought I was going to have to do it with Jon and now I had to manage it by myself… HOLY SHIT!  But you know what, Leighton did not make it too miserable.  Yeah, she might have only slept for 4 hours the entire flight but that is because she wanted to hangout and chill in the back of the plane with the flight crew.  I swear people, we are going to have our hands full when she is in high school!

Jon and I count our blessings every day that Leighton is such a happy, healthy, not quite so little munchkin!

Until later…

Karate kid…

Have I mentioned before that Leighton loves her jumperoo?  Well, she also loves her walker and her excersaucer!

Thank you Jack, Missy and Jackson for that awesome gift! 

She likes taking turns between the three… Jon and I think it is awesome that she is so independent but when we had friends over the other day, we realized that we probably seem like bad parents since it appears that we do everything we can to not hold our kid… whoops!

Anyways, Little laylay is currently perfecting her karate skills in her exersaucer.  I don’t think she gets the humor in the fact that she is honing those skills with two pandas on a bamboo seesaw!

KAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRATEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...

CHOP!

Until Later…

Today is brought to you by…

Leighton and the number 6…

6 is for how many months old I am…

6 is for how many hours Mommy and Daddy left me with a sitter last night while they went and had fun at the Oil Baron’s Ball…

6 is for how many beers too many they drank… or was it 9?!?

 Don’t worry, I helped them feel everyone of those beers this morning!

Until later…

Sri Lanka…

Since we are not going to make it home for Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday), we decided to treat ourselves to a little get away this past weekend.  Jon and I claim we are trying to get Leighton used to flying before our 17 hour flight home for Christmas… yes, you read that right… 17 F-ing hours with a baby on a plane, shoot me now… But really we wanted to put our feet up and relax on the beach somewhere.  Sri Lanka is only 4 hours away and we didn’t need any shots to go….  So, Sri Lanka or Bust it was!

Here are some pictures of our trip and a few things that we learned and witnessed;

Things take way longer to get to than you think they should.  We were told that they hotel was only 11 kilometers from the airport… turns out we were 11km from the main town… it took us almost two hours to get to our hotel!

We did a lot of swimming and relaxing.

We are going to have our hands full with this one in high school!

We visited the Pinnawela elephant orphanage… I have always loved elephants, but now I think they are my all-time favorites!  We showed up during bath time in the river…

Two of the little ones were getting in a fight and a momma walked over and broke it up with her trunk!

Leighton was totally into watching the elephants!

   

Lining up to get out of the water and head back to their home across the road…

They literally walk through town twice a day to bathe… 

Then we headed to Kandy to check out some gemstones and eat lunch.

I think the munchkin thought we were going to trade her for a gemstone!

We were supposed to go to a temple that housed one of Buddha’s teeth… but our driver suggested we head back because it was going to take some time. Little did we know…. 

It took a little over 2 hours to get to Kandy which was 109 kilometers from our hotel (67 miles) so we figured maybe 2 and a half or 3 since it was getting dark… WRONG!  It took, get this… 5 hours to get home… YES, FIVE!  Why you ask would it take 5 hours to go 67 miles… well, the entire way was a two lane road, shops on one side and a cliff on the other, no street lights, people walking on the side of the road, dogs sleeping on the shoulder, cows meandering along, little tuk tuks, 18 wheelers and no real traffic laws…. All of this made for a stressful 5 hours!  Actually, Leighton had her first ever total melt down… it took 6 months but it finally happened.  I thought several times that we were going to die in that car in Sri Lanka and y'all would all hear about it on GMA... "American couple and baby die when car drives over cliff avoiding cow!" 

Stores like these were along the road… for the entire 67 miles!

We also got to visit a tea plantation…  I don’t know if you can tell in this picture but three different women are trying to take Leighton from me… it was crazy.  The moment we walked up the stairs to enjoy a cup of tea, a tourist from India insisted on taking pictures of our little lady.  I have gotten pretty used to people trying to take L away from me and hold her or ask to take pictures of her, but this was at another level… I don’t get it either, I guess because she is a chubby white kid.  Jon has decided the reason that there is a population problem in Asia is because they are obsessed with babies! Anyways, Leighton and I recently had a talk about stranger danger and luckily she listened because every time one of the ladies tried to walk away with her in their arms she flipped out… nice work Laylay!

STRANGER DANGER!!!

Leighton also had a first on this trip… first time to touch the ocean and the Indian Ocean to boot! 

Jon and I decided that Sri Lanka is a mix between Mexico and India and we thoroughly enjoyed our trip there!  Now we start the countdown for our next trip…. TEXAS… HOME!!!  T minus 41 days!!!!

My favorite view of Austin!!!

Until Later…

6 months...

Happy Halloween and happy 6 months to little Leighton!

We celebrated the day before the munchkin's half birthday at a Halloween party hosted by our friends, Andy and Christi.  Leighton, Jon and I stayed behind to hand out candy while the others went trick or treating.

We didnt want to be "Those People" asking for candy for a 6 month old and we all know she is already working with enough junk in her trunk!  (Just look at this rearview shot from a Halloween playgroup... love that wideload!)

Leighton is halfway to her first birthday and is getting so much more fun.  No more days of me poking her telling her to do something… this girl's personality is starting to shine.  She is a chatty Cathy and loves to be on the go.  She has now started smiling at strangers, which makes it a little less awkward when we are out in public.  She previously just stared at them with a, “you can seriously stop snapping your fingers and making noises in my face… you are NOT getting a smile out of me!”  Kind of like this...

Time has flown by and we can’t wait to see what the next 6 months has in store for us!

Until Later…

Busted!

There has been the occasional chewed up diaper over the past 5 months but Jon and I have yet to figure out who was the culprit, Walter or Charlie.  Well, when I got home tonight this was waiting on the other side of the door… 

 

Someone was busted red handed (or should I say red pawed)!

I can only imagine Walter saying, “What mom?  This is my new collar… not the frog head lid to Leighton’s trash can……  have I told you recently that I love you?!”   I wanted to be mad but he was too pathetic!  Hey, at least we figured out who the bad dog was…

Until Later…

5 Months…

I think Little Miss Sassy Pants is channeling her inner diva in this picture.  It is totally frustrating because our darn child refuses to smile for the camera (or strangers... I think people think there is something wrong with her)… the mere sight of anything that can take a picture causes our munchkin to clam up or go into diva mode.  Jon and I tried for a good 15 minutes to get Leighton to take a happy picture and this is what we got.  So, this is what everyone out there gets for Leighton’s 5 month picture… one non-smiling diva!

She is still is an amazing baby though (minus the lack of smiles on film)!  She has some interesting hair at the moment… it appears as if she has stuck her finger in a light socket.  The only way to tame her mane is a headband and some lotion.   She loves her Daddy and has discovered Walter and Charlie and adores their kisses.  She also loves frozen carrots (teething sucks by the way) and her Jump-a-roo that our friends, Ruby and Rex let us borrow. 

The munchkin sometimes passes out from jumping too much… 

this time it was with a carrot!

 

Leighton’s favorite things… AND the dogs favorite thing too!  When a carrot gets dropped they get a treat!

 

 

Walter patiently waiting for his “treat”…

 

 

Leighton and her watch dog, Charlie… friends for life! 

(I totally did not pose them this way.)

Her favorite songs are Patty Cake and a little ditty I made up so that she can learn to spell her name.  I figure it is never too early to teach her, since it took me until middle school to remember how to spell my middle name.  With a name like Leighton Elizabeth Cumberworth, it might take her until high school with that many letters…  bless her heart!

 Until Later…