Pee!!

After a long day of teething (STILL working on molars and bottom K-9s) Liam ended the day on a high. We were in the middle of our normal bedtime routine watching Sprout and Liam grabbed his diaper and said ,'pee.' He then jumped up and ran to the bathroom. Since we aren't really working on potty training very much, I thought he was just playing. As I was taking off his diaper he started doing the 'potty dance' with that hurry-up-woman! look in his eyes. I sat him on the toilet and low and behold, he peed. He was thrilled when he learned that after that he could pull off toilet paper without getting in trouble. Cheers and giggles followed.

Tee!!!

Drinking 'tea' is now one of Liam's favorite things. Nanna and Poppa starting giving him 'tea' at their house. Now every morning when he sees my tea cup he starts yelling 'teeeeeeeee'. Yesterday I decided to let him have some 'tea' (diluted orange juice) with his breakfast. He managed to drink very carefully the first few sips. Then he got excited and turned the cup before it was at his mouth. This picture came after the spill, thus the reason for the bare-chested boy.

I tried to find Tobias' childhood mug for Liam, but it must be hiding somewhere in a cabinet out of sight. Yesterday I gave him Tobias' childhood cup.


This morning's tea. Liam handled the mug well. Mommy was wiser and started him with a bib!


This is what happens when Liam realizes we have the camera out. He wants to look at the pictures as soon as we take them.

Der Apfel faellt nicht weit vom Stamm

Liam LOVES technology. He can't get enough of our iPhones, iPad, computer, etc. This is a rather long video but it shows that even a 2 year old can work the iPad. Liam loves the Starwars Lightsaber app. He starts by playing with that, then moves into watching his favorite videos. Enjoy!! (Click on the button of the four arrows at the bottom right to view in Full Screen mode.)

Say it ain't so!

Liam is in another phase of rapid development. In the last week he has started using his first two-word sentences. His conversations usually happen over breakfast because he wants more food. He asked Nanna last week for 'more eggs'. When she asked if he wanted more eggs, he said 'uh-huh'. This morning he asked for 'Eier' (eggs in German). Then when he got some he asked for 'mehr Eier.'

He is also picking up more German words. This week he added 'Hocker' (step stool), Brot (bread) and Loch (hole).

Additionally, his clothes are getting too short in the legs again. Guess he is getting close to the 24 month clothing size . . . but only in length. His stomach still fits 12 months! Good thing the store is selling Dapper Snappers; it looks like he may be in the them for a while!

Perhaps the biggest change has come to Liam's bedtime routine. In the past we always rocked and sang to him for 10-15 minutes after brushing teeth to help him settle and get ready for bed. For the past 4 nights he has not wanted to do that. As soon as he has seen his crib he has said, 'Bett or bed' and reached to go right in. On one hand it's nice that he is going right to bed, but I really miss the time we used to have of rocking and singing. We'll have to see if this new routine is going to stick or if he will want to spend some quality time together before bed in the future.

And finally, Liam is definitely acting like a 2 year old. There was a very cute conversation between Tobias and Liam yesterday. Liam was throwing a little tantrum because he decided he did not want to eat any yogurt. He began to scream and cry. Tobias calmly said, 'Liam, Du kannst nicht gewinnen. Du bist 2 und ich bin dein Vater. Schrei so lange du willst. Du bleibst sitzen, bis du deinen Joghurt gegessen hast.' ('Liam, you are not allowed to win. You are 2 and I am the Dad. It is time to eat your Yogurt.) After a few minutes Liam then stopped crying and ate all of his yogurt . . . which he feeds himself these days.

Drinking from Papi's 'big boy' cup.

Liam, the builder

We are nearing completion on the bedroom renovation. Things should be all finished in about a week. We were finally able to finish the den and get the TV back up. Of course, Liam had to help!!

Liam loves screwdrivers!

One busy week

The store is finally Open To Buy and we have all nearly survived the week. Since our contractor got 4 weeks behind on a project which was scheduled to take 3 weeks, we ended up coming down to the wire on opening. The store passed final inspection the day before we were supposed to open. The past 2 weeks have been incredibly busy getting the store ready to open. We always knew this was going to be hard work, but now we are really feeling the reality of it. The days are long and being on our feet 16+ hours a day is taking a bit of a toll. We just need the strength and energy to get through the first three months. By then the staff should be settling in and we will have more freedom with our time.

Here are some pictures from the past few days.

Some little helpers who came to assist with cleaning

Danke, Mami, fuer der/die/das Putzmittel

Mom helping with the endless
task of hanging apparel rods
(For once she was not watching all the kids!)

Tobias assembling fixture number 57 of 65

What Tobias looked like most of the week when he was not
assembling fixtures. He ran over 1,300 feet of wires!!

Aisle flags going up

Tobias training the staff on how to assemble cribs.

Starting to look like a store

Tobias cutting down the Open Soon banner Tuesday morning

Finally Open To Buy!!

Patsch! Patsch! Patsch!

You may remember back in June 'Tante Christina' taught Liam how to tenderize meat. This morning he walked over the utensil drawer, grabbed the tenderizer, and started banging the counter. If only he had some meat . . .

23 months old

Liam is 23 months old today. The countdown to 2 years old is now on!!

Uh-oh!

Liam is learning a couple of new words each week. Recently he added: alle balle (sp?), help, and, his most frequently used word, 'uh-oh!' This is a utility word for something isn't right. We are trying to teach him that it's not 'uh-oh' when he does something intentionally - like throw something or knock something over - but that concept will be a while in coming.

When he came up to the store this afternoon he noticed one of the ceiling fans was not turning at the same speed as the other two. This ignited a litany of 'uh-oh' until Tobias got a step stool and allowed Liam to fix the fan.

Construction cleaning

Since our life is surrounded by construction, we are also surrounded by dust and debris. Liam decided to get in on the cleaning action and help Papi out. Liam LOVES to vacuum. We figure we need to enjoy this phase as much as possible!!

Construction everywhere continued

Here are some pictures showing the (slow) progress at the store.

Before

Flooring going in

Framing going up for back office and second bathroom

Blocking for slat wall going up

Slat wall up and waiting for paint

Drywall on office/workroom and primer going up

(Working on schedules and hiring with Traci and our manager, Sharon)

Point of sales area going in

Tobias starting to set up buy/sales computers

First (of many) calls to Winmark IT support

Things starting to shape up
The first of the fixtures are now assembled
Today is our big 'fixture party' to get the rest assembled

Mr. Li says, 'I pity the poor fools who got
construction at both home and work!'

Construction everywhere

Sorry for not posting in a while. Life is full with the store opening and shop build out as well as our home improvement construction. We didn't plan to have both projects running simultaneously . . . we just got lucky that way, thanks to the City of Newport News Codes Compliance Department's speedy building plan review process . . .

So, here we are. The store is under construction and so is our house - - dust and disruption everywhere. We just keep reminding ourselves of how great both places will be when they are done. Hopefully that will get us through the dust, delays, and chaos.

The house . . .

We were about a day late, so this as close to 'Before' as we have.

Footer in, foundation started, and exterior brick removed

Starting to shape up.
I thought I'd pick out another unique ceiling fan.
The builders
recommended this one.

View from the existing bedroom into part of the new space

Next week is roof, electrical, HVAC, drywall and the beginning of another round of inspections. Probably 2.5 weeks of work left.

And, while I write this post, Blogger appears to be experiencing difficulties and I can no longer add pictures. I will finish this post tomorrow when everything is (hopefully) working again.