Seasons Change

Most people know the seasons changed based on the temperature, and nature - leaves change color, snow falls, thunderstorms, etc.

In our home we know that the season changed in a different way:

Yep, we had to bring the basketball hoop to the basement so Gerrit could shoot hoops while watching a game on TV. Yes, football is still on and depending on what is on TV at the time Gerrit will tend to want to play that sport. I am pretty excited bball is starting so we watched a lame OSU game to get us in the mood for the season and Gerrit followed suit.

Photo Update

I posted a few entries last night but it has been a while since I had posted pictures. Here are a few from the last week or so:

Gerrit is into 'coloring' as he calls it. He is very particular how he holds a pen and scribbles quite small. He often says he is writing the letter "A" - it looks nothing like an A though.

{Somehow when I went to make the collage the above photo wasn't included.}

Top left: The gift Gerrit was given from his sponsors on his baptism 2.5 yrs ago. Its Playmobile's Noah's Art - a reminder of the promise God made to us. We left it in the box until tonight. Gerrit saw it and wanted to play with the animals. It says for age 4+ but I opened it anyways and put it together. It was like Christmas - he didn't want to eat dinner and played with it all night - even fought off bed time. We decided we would open presents on Christmas morning so we don't have to fight him to go to bed!

Bottom left: he has show a lot of interest in his Little People's farm. He often lines up the animals so they are looking out of the window and are "looking at Gerrit" as he says.

Middle: Sat. Gerrit spent the day at Dahlen's while Adam and I helped the Rockne's move. Gerrit fell in love with this car (sorry Uncle Jeff - you'll have to get him an F1 car for Christmas!). He took it to Rockne's at the end of the day where we all met up for dinner. He insisted on taking it home too. (The boys didn't care b/c it's broken and they really don't play with it anymore). From there it had to go to bed with him. This is what we saw when we went to check on him before we went to bed.

Right: Friday he fell on some toy at Julie's. It was swollen all day Sat. too. He loved showing people and telling them he got hurt. He even scraped the tops of his hands in the fall. Luckily he did not damage his teeth or cause them to loosen either.

Why I Love My Job

Many people cringe when I tell them I teach middle school. Ya, they are hormonal and you never know what you are going to get, but they make me laugh! Here are a few examples:

1. I have a few siblings in various grades and at the beginning of the year I was the talk at the dinner table. At the beginning of the year, the girls couldn't figure out what was different about me. Finally a few weeks later, one of the sisters came home and told her mom that she figured out what was so different - I was going to have a baby (I mentioned it in class)! The sisters felt much better knowing they figured it out - they were a bit distraught as to why I didn't tell them though. (I thought the kids would figure it out when I was getting a pretty big tummy.)

2. At 6 months pregnant (and looking very pregnant), I mentioned to a class that I didn't do too bad at demonstrating the sit and reach fitness test for a pregnant woman. A 5th grade boy sitting near me said: You're gonna have a baby? I said: do you think I just ate too many Ho Ho?

3. Today I was talking to another teacher who became an Aunt last night to a new nephew. I asked about the name and mentioned a name I liked but Adam didn't. A student sitting in the principals office overheard our conversation and asked: Mrs. Stremler-Birr, did you get a new dog? I asked why? He said: well, what were you talking about names for? My response: I was talking about the baby I'm going to have! The other teacher, a secretary, and I just busted out laughing at the comment by the student! I thanked the student for giving me a good laugh today and he asked if he still owed me a pencil (he broke one of mine for no reason before taking a written test today). I said: yes, you aren't getting off that easily!

How can you not think middle school is fun? Such innocent comments/thoughts like the above few make getting up for work worth while (it has its bad moments too - but what job doesn't?).

Bedtime Nightmare

Gerrit usually goes to bed quite easily for us. It could be because he has a slew of toys/books that he has accumulated in his bed that he tends to play with until he gets tired. Tonight Adam put him to bed as normal and a few minutes later he was screaming bloody murder! (It sounded like bloody murder b/c he rarely cries at bedtime.)

Adam ran to his rescue to learn that he had broken his bike! He has a little bike (from Luke/Paul) that is in bed and the handle bars snapped off. Luckily they snap back on so Adam fixed it and all was silent once again.

We thought he was bit by something or seriously hurt the way he was crying! Thankfully it was just a minor issue but to him it was a nightmare!

Miles Apart But Not Forgotten

I was on the phone with my sister-in-law catching up as it had been a while and she told me a story about the kids:

Max and Ella asked Mia who her buddy was (referring to the older kid in school that is paired up with her to read and say hi in the halls etc)...

Mia responded with: GERRIT, (meaning, cousin Gerrit)

Oh, how we wish we could live closer to the cousins!

Lesson Learned?

Gerrit is getting rougher when it comes to playing "tackle" with Daddy. He think he can kick if necessary. We are working on eliminating this part of tackle and telling him its not a part of football either. In teaching him the lesson on not kicking people, he had learned that he is suppose to say 'sorry' and give a hug.

When Adam was reinforcing the lesson after Gerrit quickly said "Sorry"...

Adam asked: "Sorry for...."

and Gerrit responded with: "Five".

Hey, at least he's working on his counting skills!

Getting Ready for the Big Leagues

We've had some gorgeous weather the past few days, now that it is November. It had been a while since we played outside after work due to the weather. Seeing it was nice out, and Gerrit asked to ride his bike (shocker!) I said fine. He rode his bike and then wanted to play baseball. So we got the bat and ball out and headed to the back yard. Usually baseball consists of me trying to balance the ball on something that can act as a "T" and he can try and swing the bat and hope to hit the ball and not hit me. I decided that seeing the sun was setting, we were not going to be playing baseball very long, I'd just pitch him the ball and watch him miss. Well, surprise, surprise - the kid hit the ball! And it wasn't a fluke thing either - he did this multiple times! He knew how to stand side ways (a skill many of my middle schoolers still can't get right) and choked up on the bat ready for a pitch. He did miss and I threw some bad pitches, but still, the kid can hit a moving target at 2.5 yrs old. Adam came home shortly after we started and was impressed too. The only thing we had to do was remind him to stand sideways once in a while.

Adam and I just shake our heads. We have done very little 'teaching' when it comes to sports and Gerrit. I figured we have plenty of time in the years ahead to teach him proper techniques - plus, what 2 yr old is actually going to remember what he was told weeks ago, let a lone a few minutes ago!

Either we watch way too much Sports Center while eating oatmeal in the mornings or this kid has some natural talent. Either way, he makes his mommy proud. I'll try not to get ahead of myself and hope he can be potty trained and learns how to read and write in a timely manor.