T&T

Watching the train wreck that is toddlers and tiaras has confirmed one parenting decision: there is nothing wrong in disciplining your children. If my child trys to cuss, yell, hit or bite me ohh heck no. Not promoting beating your children but I think there is a limit to "talking to them gently." BONUS: very happy that Evelyn got rid of the pacier. Oh and why does everyone seem to give there kid a stripper name?

Also some things have happened this week that reminded me I made the right decision to change my job. My heart goes out to a bad-a** nurse that I used to work with, you are an AMAZING person and fantastic nurse. Don't you dare think for a minute that you are not.

Been A While

My goodness it has been quite a while since I updated. James and I are now the proud parents of an almost 8month old! Evelyn has changed so much lately and each day seems to bring something new. She is sitting up on her own and we are working to prevent "face-plant" when she decides she wants to be on her belly. The last couple of times it has gone much better. She loves to roll and roll and roll and roll some more. I do not think crawling is far off in her repertoire based on how fast she turns around and around while on her belly. James and I have started being mean and putting toys just out of reach, she is able to back-up great, move forward not so much. Evelyn is talking and laughing all the time, such a happy baby; James and I are truly blessed. 


Evelyn is growing right on track, 50% in height, weight and length at each visit. James and I like to joke about our 'average' child. We survived our 1st double ear infection, it was AWFUL for mom, dad and kiddo. Hopefully we will not have to another one for quite a while. Evelyn has her 2 bottom teeth in and we think she is working on the upper 2 now. EVERYTHING goes into her mouth!

Evelyn is eating everything in sight, we tried tortillas last night at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. She likes yogurt, avocado, sweet potatoes, black beans, peas, green beans, bananas, applesauce, puffs, carrots, butternut squash... the list goes on and on. James and I are trying to figure out types of finger foods for her to try. I LOVE making baby food and have created some fun creations for her to try next. Although I think we are going to have to invest in the little self-feeder things, b/c E gets impatient when she can not feed herself. James and I were the last to know that she can hold her bottle on her own, (apparently she has been doing this at daycare for "quite a while" according to her teachers, little sneak!) 

Had a great visit with all the Michigan great-aunties for Ginny's deb ball. Aunt Katy was in town and watched Evelyn A LOT, which helped mom and dad out quite a bit! Evelyn got to play with her cousin Jay and Kat and I took the kiddos out to visit Bamma and Peepa (Jay and Evelyn's great grandparents). It was a really fun visit, got to see Uncle Ted and Aunt Jane. We did get to drive through the big storm that hit Dallas though on the way home, we did not see any tornadoes but it was a little scary for a bit. Jay held Evelyn's hand on the ride home which was super cute. 

Busy times in the Gerstmann household. We have sold our house, set to close on April 27th! We are also in the process of buying a new house, set to close on that one May 7th! In the midst of everything I decided to leave Presbyterian Hospital ICU and start a job in the PACU at Forest Park Medical Center. I think we currently have 4 out 5 of the most stressful things going on in our lives right now!

My oh my

Boy does time fly! Evelyn is 4 1/2 months old now, I can hardly believe it. Our little girl is almost twice the size she was when she was born!! Long and lean is what the doc calls her, totally average for everything but height. Evelyn decided to start sleeping through the night a little before Christmas and has stuck to it, James and I are thrilled. She has yet to catch her 1st cold but we are patiently waiting. She had a great time during her 1st day of daycare, they even had to wake her up to give her one of her feedings. I think she enjoys all the new sights and sounds that daycare provides. I have started walking with her in the stroller so she can look out at things, which she really likes (put the snuzzler in it so she doesn't fall to the side.) Usually when she is cranky she is either tired or hungry, which are both quick fixes. All in all month 4 has been WAY better than months 1-3.

Getting ready for bath time

Given up the pacey for our thumb :/

Sadly James's grandmother passed shortly before Christmas. Even though it is comforting to know she is at peace, it made the holidays a little bittersweet for the Gerstmann family. We all traveled down to Austin for the funeral and I think Evelyn helped lighten the mood at times.It did given James, Evelyn and I the chance to see some family around the holiday season that we had not expected to see, so that was very nice.

We think Evelyn enjoyed her 1st Christmas, she slept through most of it. Christmas day she decided to take almost a 4 hour nap during the gift opening. We are very blessed to have such wonderful families and it was a lovely Christmas. Only minor issue was when Evelyn decided it would be really fun to blow raspberries (a new habit she is perfecting daily) during the church service. We also missed seeing the Gerstmanns and Marcus.

Next month we might be starting rice cereal, YUM! Evelyn seems content with the formula now, so doc said there is no rush to start the feedings. I am sure the photo sessions of those 1st few feedings will be very interesting! Keep posted for details.

My new dirty obsession

Ok so I can not seem to get enough of toddlers and tiaras. There I said it out loud. I know, I know this is an AWFUL show to be addicted too but seriously can not seem to help myself. James says this is just the beginning of my eventual downward spiral in which "you read about one [pageant] that's happening in Garland and enter Evelyn on a lark. Then she wins and you enter her in another, because why not? Then it's two years later and she's tarted up like a fake tanned harlot and you're behind the judges guiding her through her dance on TLC." Some parents are that bad and actually seem to teach their little girls good like lessons like healthy self esteem and that it's ok too loose. Other parents not so much. Here are my 3 faves so far:

- Mackenzie's mom who lets her get away with EVERYTHING. This little girl throws temper tantrums like it is no tomorrow. Sometimes discipline is a good thing. She honestly looks a like a little demon child sometimes, I think she might grow up and be that girl who kills another girl over a dress or boy or something.
- The effeminent father who makes his girls dresses, does her hair and make-up, teaches her to dance and themes her out to lady gaga. Sometimes it is ok to admit that you are gay and that your current wife is your beard. Also your daughter's hair looked awful, do not be upset that she lost. Besides she got second runner up out of like 10 girls, that is not bad.
- To the tattooed mother of twin girls who is a total gold-digger. (She was a waitress and met her now husband who is an opthamologist at the restaurant she worked at, who this is her 7th husband and she spends his money like WHOA. Seriously do 1yr olds need Chanel shoes? Or to fly to the pageant in a private jet? Or have 1/2 million dollars spent on their pageant clothes?!?!?!) She is just ridiculous.

Anywho, just had to say all that out loud.

Evelyn's newborn photos finally came in, which means her room is finally decorated and that I can FINALLY make her birth announcements and send them out. SO very sorry for the delay everyone.

Here is my current fave video of miss Evelyn, who has discovered her fingers, toes and voice!

This is what happens when daddy watches me while mommy is working:

Well that is all for now, need to finish our Christmas shopping! Seriously what did people do before the Internet and online shopping??

2011 is almost over!

It is hard to believe that we are already in December of 2011! What a year is has been, I am sure I will do a recap post later but for now let's focus on the present.

We had such a wonderful thanksgiving (2 of them!) One in Dallas with my entire family. I seriously think it was the 1st time we have all been together in quite a while. We even got some professional family photos done. Evelyn did not cooperate at all though. James and I are learning that naps are key for her to be a happy girl. Kat got to come home which was such a blessing. We weren't sure if she was going to make it this year b/c of school. I miss my seester! I think she got plenty of Jay and Evelyn time, which I know is very important to her. Thanksgiving down in Houston was great, James and I were really nervous about how Evelyn would handle the traveling, but so far she has adjusted quite well. We only had a few meltdowns.

accurate photo of Evelyn during photo shoot

Happy Turkey day!

I finally went back to work and although I LOVE spending time with Evelyn, it is nice to get away to the hospital. I haven't quite gotten used to the day time sleeping, but it will all work itself out. James is getting used to taking care of Evelyn, so it seems the whole family is adjusting. I am sure we will have get used to one thing and then daycare in January will throw us all for a loop again. Oh well, we will just roll with it.

Evelyn has teased us twice by sleeping through the night, hopefully this trend will become permanent soon.

Evelyn, Sydney, Kim and I went to get photos with Santa yesterday. Evelyn did great (her 1st perfect photo shoot ever!) Sydney just kept saying "no santa." So no photos for Syd just yet. Even though Evelyn has no idea what is going on, I am excited for her 1st Christmas. Weird but really cool to think that James and I have our own family now. Hopefully we will go get our tree next week sometime and get the decorations up.

Still crazy that E will be 4months old soon, man does time fly!

Wurstfest 2011

Evelyn, James and I all made the treck down to Austin/New Braunfels for our annual Wurstfest trip! Evie did great in the car and ate her lunch just fine when we stopped. We had a wonderful evening in Austin at the Young household. Stace made everyone dinner and we all hung out with ze babies! Yes Ethan you are still considered a baby even though you are 2! I miss my Austin girls!! Hopefully I will get to make it down there more often in the future.

Stace holding baby Natalie and me holding Evie

Smile off!!

Kristy held her!!

Besties

Evelyn even decided to sleep until almost 0400 too! She also must have known we were on vacation because she slept in each day til almost 0700. Mom and Dad were pretty happy!

Only had one meltdown at Wurstfest, someone got a little hungry, tired and overstimulated all at once but after we ate and finally passed out was a happy camper. We were able to stay at Wurstfest from 1130 til almost 730pm. I really enjoy hanging out and talking to everyone. There were a lot of babies in our group though. James enjoyed the festivities more than Julia, but hey someone had to drive all of us home. Evelyn even went for a walk in her baby bjorn with daddy and really enjoyed it. Now that we have head control we like to look out at EVERYTHING.

Stack of pitchers at the end of the night, impressive this year. A lot of people were jealous of us!

Our little German!

Baby girl turns 3 months tomorrow and we have a professional photo shoot on Wednesday to celebrate it! I have a special outfit all picked out!

Next up Thanksgiving trip to Houston. AND.....Katy coming home, YEA!!!!!!!!!!!! So super excited to see my sister! We are also having a professional family photo taken b/c the entire Walters clan will be in Richardson Texas at the same time! Hard to believe I know. Aight someone is fussy, peace

More October

So my last post was very quick b/c someone was being a little cranky. Wanted to include some more photos from the lovely month of October. Evelyn is doing great! Mommy is getting a little sad that she will have to go back to work soon. I work my 1st night shift this Friday, little nervous about how it is going to go, but it is only the 1 shift. We found a daycare for her to start at in January, super sweet b/c they will let us only pay for 2 days a week.

Evelyn has pretty much mastered head control, we attempted the Bumbo today and did all right, not fantastic. She even had 2 nights this week where she slept from 9pm til 7am, I actually had to go wake her up at 7. It was only 2 night but hey it is a start. James and I were actually a little confused when they happened. Baby girl is growing so big! I want to her to stay small though so she can keep wearing her cute outfits. Guess I will just have to buy her some bigger ones, James will LOVE that. 

Well enjoy the photos:

Aunt Brittany and Evie

Our attempted photo shoot from the arboretum

Cousins!

Took forever to get this profile shot

Sleeping during our 1st peprally, I put cotton balls in her headband to protect her ears from the noise

STATE FAIR trip with Mommy and Aunt Brittany, she slept the whole trip!

Happy b/c I look cute