New Season, New Beginnings

So apparently it is now officially fall. Here in Portland, the weather has turned cooler again and the misty rains have returned. Fall is my favorite season and October is my favorite month of the year so I welcome it joyfully. I love how crisp the air gets in the fall, I love the colors of the leaves, I love the excuse to make pumpkin bread, I love the freshly picked apples. Basically it's just the best.

This fall is bringing with it some changes for our family. I've accepted a committed PRN job with Infinity Rehab. I will be working M, W, F splitting my time between three different skilled nursing facilities (although I will be spending most of my time at the Oregon City one). It's not my ideal setting for work, but it's a good fit for our family: 20-24 hours a week, I get to set my own hours for the most part, there's a good mentorship program, the commute is decent and the pay is good. I feel like it's time for me to get back to work and finally use those skills I worked so hard to develop and learn but at the same time, I definitely have moments where I can't believe I will be gone from my baby for so much time. The first thing I did after I accepted the position was scoop Levi up and snuggle him for a long time. We've been so lucky that I've been able to spend so much time with him and it's hard to give that up even though we think it's the right thing for our family right now. I'm excited about this opportunity but I'm also kind of freaking out. Freaking out that I've forgotten everything about being a PT and freaking out about finding a good nanny for Levi (we are still searching right now). I'm interested to see how Levi will adjust and a little apprehensive of how this change will affect his sleeping, and whether I will be able to keep breastfeeding him. I am really grateful though that we were able to find something part time and that I don't have to work full time. I know I am going to really treasure my Tuesdays and Thursdays, especially the nice slow mornings where we can just snuggle in bed after Levi eats breakfast. I reckon that won't be happening much on M, W or F once I start working.

Eric continues his job hunt. While it is frustrating that we have had so little luck on that front, I'm glad he is not starting work immediately so that we have a little time to find childcare for Levi. I'm really hoping it won't be too much of a struggle to find someone we trust.

In other news, Levi started army crawling last week and is now a pro at getting all over the place! He is still pretty slow, which is perfect for me because we haven't quite finished babyproofing the house yet (oops!). He loves his new skill though and the way it lets him explore all sorts of fascinating things like the curtains, my yoga mat, and anything on the bottom shelf in our kitchen (specifically the george foreman grill and a bag of potatoes haha).

Also, Levi got his first cold this week :(. Poor thing has been sniffling and coughing and basically sounds awful. We inclined his crib mattress with some towels which I think helps- although the first time we did it we went a little overboard and when I checked on him he had totally rolled to the bottom of the "hill" haha. But he remains a pretty happy little guy despite the sickness and still gives the best smiles and giggles.

I don't have a ton of pictures lately because I've mostly done videos of all his new skills. But here's a few of life lately:

I just love my little chub! He's up to 19 pounds now!

Levi slept through the night one time. It was glorious. And it has yet to happen again, although I keep holding out hope it will. 

Levi's favorite toy: a wooden spoon and a frying pan to bang it on! 

He gets pretty proud of himself when he makes fun noises with it. 

6 Glorious Months

I cannot believe that my little baby is 6 months old already!! I feel like this past half year has just flown by. Every time I look at Levi he seems so much older. He has figured out how to get out of sitting on his own now and is trying to figure out army crawling although so far he just pushes himself backwards with his arms which is quite frustrating to him. He is also really into spitting (Which I don't love so if anyone has any tips on how to discourage that let me know!) and babbles a lot now. He has also gradually gotten better at sleeping at night and now frequently will wake up only once! It's awesome and I just hope it keeps getting better from here!

This past month has been all about introducing Levi to new foods! He is quite the eater and so far LOVES all the fruit I've given him (bananas, applesauce, pears, peaches and mango). He's a little lukewarm on most vegetables (carrots, peas, and butternut squash) but really likes sweet potato. And he hates rice cereal (although he thinks oatmeal is ok), egg yolks and avocado. I absolutely love making food for him and introducing him to new flavors! I just steam the fruit or vegetable and blend it in my blender with water or pumped breastmilk and then freeze it in ice cube trays. I like that I know exactly what he's eating and that it is fresh. The ice cubes make good serving sizes (He usually eats 3 cubes twice a day) and the sight of all those colorful cubes in my freezer makes me happy for some reason haha.

Sometimes I let him play with the mashed up food so that he can get used to having his fingers taste like food. We will introduce finger foods pretty soon here and I think he's going to love feeding himself. 

I also let him chew on the spoon when he's done. He is pretty good at getting it into his mouth the right way. 

We had the sister missionaries over for dinner the other day and one of them fed him. He had so much fun with that! He's a little flirt. :)

My mom came to visit at the beginning of this month (can't believe it's already September!! Where did summer go?!). We had so much fun with her! She adores Levi and spoils him like crazy and he just absolutely loves her. We enjoyed hanging out at the park together and of course, eating yummy food. 

Levi isn't so sure what he thinks of swings. He is a little afraid of them and shakes his arms and makes concerned noises if we go too high. But with grandma holding him and swinging gently he decided it was ok. 

 

Levi had fun watching us throw around a frisbee. Can't help but feeling like he looks slightly like an adorable bulldog haha.

 While my mom was here, she volunteered to watch Levi for a night so that Eric and I could take a quick little get-away. I am so glad we did! We found the cutest little place on Anderson Island via Airbnb and it was perfect! A short 2 1/2 hour drive and a beautiful ferry ride landed us in this little slice of paradise. So quiet and beautiful. We walked on the beach and went to dinner at the one restaurant on the island (we were the only people there under 30, pretty sure the whole island is like a little retirement community haha) and just got to enjoy our night child-free! In the morning we made waffles in the well-equipped and recently remodeled kitchen. I may have spent some time admiring their choice of backsplash, the undermount sink and the paint colors haha. Anyway it was wonderful.

It was hard to believe that this water was part of the ocean since we could see the mainland not far away but it did have a distinct, salty odor.

The beach was covered with these huge, beautiful white shells.

View from the ferry

Those are the exciting things that have been happening around here lately. Other than that our time has mostly been taken up with job hunting and just trying to enjoy every minute with out little man. I have interviewed at a couple of places and got offered a job by a school district, but they wanted to place me all the way out in Astoria and that just wouldn't work for our family so I turned them down and am still on the hunt. There are a few possibilities that both Eric and I are looking into so hopefully within the next few weeks we will both have found something that works for us. 

Anyway, here are some more random pictures, mostly of our cute little Levi! I can't believe how quickly he is growing up!

He is very cuddly and loves to be held and snuggled. :)

 

Father-son selfies! I love how Levi's foot is way up there like it's no big deal that he can just bend in half haha. 

Looking so dapper and ready for church!

Chillin' like a villain in the stroller.

In other news, I FINALLY finished re-doing those chairs that I rescued. I LOVE how they turned out even though it was a lot of work. Now I just need to find someone to buy them because let's be honest, white chairs in the kitchen of a house with kids is just a recipe for disaster haha.