Was it really that easy?

With the impending due date of #2 just around the corner, we decided to turn Leighton’s little sleep life upside down (so we thought) before the official BIG day.  We have had her “big girl” room set up since we moved in to our new house and Jon has been using her new big girl bed as a place to put her PJs on after bath time every night… we don’t really know what we are doing but I figured that would help some.  Her “new” big girl bed was actually my father’s grandmother’s, Granny Dietzel’s, bed that my parents salvaged from her garage after she died when I was 6.  It lived in our garage for years until I asked for a new bed around high school.  My mom power washed it and it was painted with some pretty cool metal paint and voilà… I had myself a new-to-me antique iron bed!  This bed has gone to college with me, lived in our first house in San Antonio, was our guest bed in both of our Houston houses and then made the long journey to Dubai with us.  Many of our friends know this bed very well… unlike other more caring people who are nice enough to put a queen bed in their guest bedroom, we opt to use this bed, a full bed for guests… so if you ever came to stay at the Cumberworth’s, be prepared to snuggle up close to your honey!  Well, seeing as this bed is awesome and that we might be nicer to our house guests and give them a queen bed to sleep in, we turned this antique bed into Leighton’s new(ish) nighttime haven!

A few weekends back we implemented, “Operation Big Girl Bed” thinking we were in for a few sleepless nights… well folks, it was easy.  Leighton has always loved to have books and toys in her crib since she likes to talk and play herself to sleep, so on the big night we tucked a few pillows under the covers to block her in, put two huge teddy bears on either side of her and put her down with two dolls and Turbo (the ikea dog that never leaves her side).  Jon laid her down, gave her a big beso and told her, “ night night.”   I think she was out cold before the door closed!  We were expecting the worst, but we were only woken up one time that night when she wandered out of bed in search of agua and couldn’t figure out how to get back in bed.  We didn’t learn our lesson from that first night and the same thing happened the second night, so we put a stool by her bed and an agua cup on her night stand and wouldn’t you know it… she slept through the night on the 3^rd try. 

This was the morning after the very first night… Leighton was very proud of herself.  Can you tell?

Daddy was proud of her too!

 

Heck, even nap times have been a freaking dream with her playing herself to sleep and sleeping for longer periods then when she was in her crib. 

This is how I usually find her though… with a million toys around her.

 

Walter asked to nap with her… yeah, that didn’t work out so well…

So, Walter was kicked out and the sleeping beauty sacked out!

 

I know I know, I totally just jinxed myself… she is too short to open the  door yet, she is in the honeymoon phase, blah blah blah… but let me have my moment people and think that I am a first time parent that has it all figured out here!  Only time will tell if this transition was really as easy as it appears, but I am crossing my fingers and making a wish every night that it keeps up!   I guess the next step is potty training but God help me, I will wait as long as I can to tackle that shit storm!

UPDATE: this last week we had our first “pud thud” as the Cumberworth’s call it.  Jon aka the “pud” used to fall out of his bed constantly as a child, hence the “pud thud”.  Well, it happened… but on tile!  Lucky her fall was broken by  her head hitting an American girl bitty baby changing table… ouch!  I think it might be time to buy a floor rug.

Until Later…

 

Merry Christmas from the family...

And happy New Year too!  I know Christmas was three weeks ago, but cut me some slack people…. The Cumberworth’s have been in two countries and two states, countless cities and more airports then I care to count over this holiday… be happy I am coherent enough to make a blog post about it all.  So here is the super abridged version of our trip home for Christmas… note: I suck at taking pictures when I go home and I just rely on everyone around me to take them and send them to me… so if you are not in these pictures it doesn’t mean I don’t like you… it means I am waiting on you to send me the photos you took.

We headed home the 2^nd week of December to Houston.  Jon and I are selling our bungalow in the Heights when our tenants move out in mid-February so we did all the paperwork for the sale to go through while we are overseas.  We stayed with our friends in the Woodlands and my awesome college girlfriends all made it to town for a slumber party!  Here are three of our kids; Miller Knapp (the happiest baby in the world), Collier Stoner (with agua and trucks in hand) and Little Leighton (looking totally thrilled to be there).

 

After Houston, we packed it up and flew out to Monterrey California for a Cumberworth wedding!  Jon’s older brother Mike married a wonderful girl from Germany, Charlotte.  The timing of the wedding was completely up in the air because the visa approval was unknown, but it all worked out perfectly (for us) since we were home for the holidays.  I’ll post more pictures later but here we are with the bride and groom and the flower girl, Aka…  Leighton.

 

Then it was off to Austin for the rest of our trip… first stop MAUDIE’S!!!!!  Leighton thoroughly enjoyed her tiny taco plate as did Jon his rockin’ Ruthann’s!  This prego was just excited to have Queso on the table!

 

Next we stopped by to visit with the Zinda crew… you would think these two would take a better picture together since we are going to use these at their wedding one day.

 

Then we were off to spend the rest of the trip with family.  We had plenty of cousin bath time!

 

Santa came with bows, and a bitty baby and toys, oh my!

 

The Mueller ladies at the Zilker tree… someone was mesmerized with her gloves!

 

Tickle attack on the floor at Pa and Pearl’s house…

 

And then it was New Years... all the Mueller kids, spouses and second generationers stayed over at my dad’s house.  There were blow up mattresses, pack and plays, and people everywhere… it was a great time.  And this is one of those times when I wish I would have taken pictures, because I could blackmail the heck out of my family!  Seeing as I was one of only two sober adults at the house that night I could have major pull for a while if only I had a camera… next time… next time… but then again, hopefully this will be the last time I am the sober person at a Mueller get together!

Then it was back to Dubai by myself with a 20 month old and 31 weeks pregnant!  Oh, and Leighton is still young enough to not need a seat to fly, so add that baby on my lap for the 15 hour flight home… good times!  I came prepared with a full bottle of Benadryl and I may have given my child a smidge too much seeing as she slept for 7 straight hours… Whoops!  I was very happy that she slept but I couldn’t get comfortable due to the bump, the kid next to me sleeping on me as well, people cutting through the bassinet aisle, blah, blah, blah… so this is how we spent a majority of the flight…

 Leighton happily passed out in my seat and me standing above her staring at the other passengers on board… I am sure I didn’t look creepy at all as I rocked back and forth to stay awake!

 

Even with the solo flight I am very happy that we made it home to see all of our family.  If I didn’t see you, I am super sorry but coming home is unexplainably stressful and trying to make plans with countless people never seems to work out… and then add a wedding and Christmas on top of all of that… so back off… I’ll see you this summer when I get home! 

And Lastly, I’ll leave you with our 2013 Christmas card… last year’s card will never be toped but we tried our best to make you laugh again… and if you didn’t get one in the mail just read the previous paragraph!

 

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year…

Until Later…