Priorities!

I decided that rather than start in on my huge list of things to do, I'd post on my blog first. However, I do want to take a trip back in time and write out my to-do lists for the week like I used to do! Then I'll get on to the good stuff, I promise.

For Home/Family/Church:
do budgets
develop photos
post on blog
write birthday cards
plan trip dates
get photos from my baptism (to put on personal history)
scan more pictures for facebook
update my Personal Progress
finalize next week's service project
call about the presidency meeting on Sunday
have presidency meeting
plan lesson
teach lesson
go to doctor appointment
have FHE
exchange lids for bins at Target
put away the bins of Joshua's clothes
go to Mutual
many loads of laundry (it's been WAY too hot to do laundry...but I figure 79 is the coolest it's been in awhile, so I'll do it today)


Ok now for my to-do list for Work:
file things
get last rent payment
exchange ink
pick up forms
prep move-in papers for Saturday
mail move-out paperwork
figure out repairing cat pee damage :c(
get my new Asset Manager's cell number
traffic report
vacancy report
monthly report
update directory on cabinet door
meet with new Asset Manager
mail P.O.s

I've really found it helpful to make a big weekly to-do list, and add stuff to it as the week goes on. It has been a good thing for me, and I've been doing it for three weeks.

Things are going amazingly well at the apartments, soooo much better than last year at this time. Certainly having a toddler rather than a newborn is a lot easier in many ways, but most of it is just knowing the ropes more. Last year, we were just starting out, with no idea what we were doing (both in being parents and being apartment managers), and we had 5 apartments to fill. I shudder just thinking about it. Now for the last MONTH we've been at 100% occupancy, which doesn't mean that we've had no apartments empty, it just means that all the vacant ones or ones on notice have had people commited to them. So that's been amazing. Before this month started, we never went more than one day (15 hours to be exact) at 100% occupancy. Seriously. No good. But I'm really enjoying this. We even have a waiting list, though I don't know how long they'll be willing to wait, so by the time we get a notice, we may have no more waiting list. Either way, that's fine. We've had some stressful stuff come up with a couple apartments, but it's getting resolved, and will be ok. Yikes, I need to stop talking about this stuff, as I had to make a VERY conscious decision to post on here before doing work for the day. Joshy's nap times are my work times, and he's been asleep for almost an hour, so we'll see how much gets done today!

So that's the work situation - what about the adorable baby situation, you ask?

Well, our little critter is changing and growing so much - I love it! Pretty much from the moment he wakes up til the time he goes to sleep (and once or twice I've heard him say it in his sleep), he is asking, "wut dah?" about EVERYTHING. That's his form of "what's that?" So we are answering that question much of the day. He's still not super interested in walking on his own, but he's doing it more little by little. He is definitely into everything, though, and interested in climbing on anything, though we don't have a lot of climb-on-able stuff at his height yet. He'll figure out the couch and chairs soon enough, though. He loves climbing stairs, but we don't have any of those, so he doesn't get a lot of practice.

His language development is definitely going quickly - yesterday at Grandma and Grandpa Palmer's house, he wanted to know what some feathers were on a dream-catcher they have on the wall, and we asked him to say feather, and he said "fev-ver" very well. We were all impressed. He loves to say "Pa Pa" for Grandpa, and points out his "Pa Pa" in pictures for BOTH Grandpas, which makes me happy, since he doesn't see Grandpa Rozen as often. He loves his Aunty Mindy, and is very good at saying "Min-inn" when he sees her picture or sees her. Don't worry Aunty Emily, we'll keep working on Aunty Emmy - I'm sure he'll get it soon.

So, his repertoire of words currently includes (and I'll probably forget some) :
Wut-da? (what's that?)
Mama
Dada
Papa
Mam-ma (though he's been shy about saying it lately)
Min-inn (Mindy)
Buh bye (he LOVES to say buh bye for goodbye and goodnight)
Zee-Zuh ("Jesus," which he says with amazing accuracy when he sees different pictures of Jesus...or sometimes when he sees his Uncle Geoffy - ha!)
Cruh-cuh (cracker)
Buh (bird)
Meh! (Amen)
Buuuuuuh (Brrrr!)
Baw (or something like that...for ball)
MANY different animal sounds (elephant, snake, cow, horse, ducky, sheep) - we're currently working on what a walrus says, but mostly he just cracks up at that one
Yah-ya-yo (e-i-e-i-o, which I think was one of his first words because we sang Old McJoshy so often...but now he says it when we ask him what a farmer says)
Nana (Banana, and many other things in his world, often things that are yellow)
Do! (Door, which he is often very enthusiastic about)
Nn-yo (Unfortunately he is a big fan of saying no now, generally right before he does something that he knows I'll say no to, such as pulling the mouse off the desk or pulling over the garbage can that has recycling in it.

Ok I can't think of others...but I know there are more.

He is very musical, and we got him a little xylophone/piano, which he has been having fun with. He likes to play it with his feet, as well as Grandma Palmer's piano. I was sitting on the bench with him on my lap yesterday, and he started pushing with his feet against the piano, and I was too close, so he almost pushed us both over. That was scary!

He likes to play outside, though we sadly don't have many places for him to play, and I don't have a car to take him to the park, but we're trying to make more time for that.

He's great at throwing a ball - he loves to do that - especially when we are trying very hard to catch it, which is often hard. He doesn't know how to catch, yet (what a baby...).

Much of his time the last couple of weeks has been spent opening and closing the cabinets on our entertainment center and his bedroom door. He loves doors and the loud noises that the little springy doorstoppers make. It cracks me up. I can be doing other stuff while he's playing with his bedroom door, until he shuts it and then laughs a lot when I come knock on the door and ask if I can come in. He's so funny.

I finally took the doors off the bathtub, so he's been taking baths in the big bath now. I got him some floating letters that stick to the tub, and he loves those, and a rainbow loofah, which tickles too much when we try to wash him with it, but it is pretty entertaining :c)

I'm sure there are lots of other new things he's doing, but those are a lot of them, and I'll try to keep the updates coming. He's a great baby - gets into a lot of trouble, but that's ok. He's also very cuddly, which I love.

Here we go with some pictures!

His new xylophone Looking at a daisy with his Aunt Mindy
Playing bocce ball...
He was trying out his swim diapers in this picture, to see if they fit...at bath time he is generally naked :c)

His pinecone that he brought home from church
Look how much hair he has!
He's so cute in shorts
Quite the attack on his dada - he tends to pounce on us if we are laying down

He loves to climb on this basket

Well have a great day! Hope you enjoy the pictures and updates.