We made a caterpillar with Levi's month pictures on it. I love how it turned out!!
Levi showing his friend Riley one of his favorite books.
We also got the pleasure this month of having my parents and younger sister come to visit. We love having them come! Levi loves it too! He gets a huge smile whenever he sees his grandma. With my parents we went up to the OMSI and saw The Art of the Brick which was a super cool art exhibit by an artist whose medium is Legos! It was seriously so awesome. And Levi had a ton of fun as always playing in the baby area of the OMSI. Since he's walking now he has graduated out of the baby baby area and got to play with a bit of the bigger kid stuff including the toy kitchen where of course he loved the fake food. Haha. He had so much fun he totally conked out during the Lego exhibit and took a nap in the stroller which was nice because we got to take our time and look around.
Also since the weather has finally started getting warmer and the trees are waking up and coming out with tons of beautiful blossoms, we've started going to the park more often. Levi LOVES being outside and playing at the park. He's a brave little climber and explorer. And his comprehension is getting really good; if we say, "bring me your shoes!" He will go and get them and bring them to us and get really excited because he knows we will soon be going outside :)
Levi says "Hi grandma and grandpa!"
I felt like I could see the wheels turning in his head as he figured out how to climb through the tube. He was quite proud of himself when he did it! Haha
Love those blue eyes and that concentrating face :)
Sooooo cute!!!
Levi is still not a fan of swings although we keep trying them, especially with grandma since she loves to swing!
When it's raining and we don't get to go outside, Levi likes to stand at the window and watch the rain and sign "more" and point to outside asking to go out! Haha. PS. I love his little shorts!!
With my family visiting we also went out to eat a lot including an exploration of some of the food carts up in Portland. We just love food!
Levi gets his own meal a lot of the time when we go out to eat now. Here he is stuffing his face with pizza and flirting with the waitress simultaneously! Haha
We also got to go up to the Portland Art Museum on Friday because it was $5 Friday and that was pretty fun. Traffic was HORRIBLE on the way up and Levi screamed during the drive because he had thrown his binkie early in the trip and then got bored and didn't have it to help comfort him so by the time we got there and found a parking place (which was a definite challenge although we lucked out in the end with a spot nearly right out front) I was feeling more than a little frazzled and wondered if it was really worth it. But once inside and out of the hustle and bustle of the commute-time traffic I was able to let it go and enjoy the art. It felt good to take Levi there too even though he's too young to really appreciate the art. He was mostly interested in just climbing up and down any stairs he could find over and over! Haha. But he got lots of smiles from other patrons and I like that we are exposing him to various art forms from a young age.
Anyway, so yeah it's been a good month for our family. Eric's work is going well, and my work is fine although I always seem to be facing some sort of challenge or crisis while I'm there! We are getting a new rehab director on Tuesday so we will see how that will change things for us at work. I really hope that she will be able to help out with some of the difficulties we are facing that totally drain our productivity! I get tired of spending a lot of time doing things that I don't feel like are my job- like searching all over for a patient's shoes/socks/pants so that I can get them up and to the gym. I am looking into possibly switching to a school PT setting in the fall though! It's kind of an exciting prospect even though it will be totally different from what I'm doing now!
Eric and I renewed our lease this month so we will be staying here in this apartment for another year. I am sure by the time the year is up I will be more than ready to move on, but staying for another year was just what made the most financial and logical sense right now. And plus we love our ward. But by the time we have baby number 2 we are hoping to move on to a 3 bedroom- hopefully one with more counter space and a kitchen setup that allows us to open the fridge and dishwasher at the same time! haha. Don't think we will be ready to buy still though. The housing market is slim pickings around here right now and we don't really want to put our money into a place we don't really like and probably won't stay long in.
So yeah, that's life. Levi learned how to sign "please" this week (he picked it up super fast!) and he uses it to ask to nurse which is super adorable but also breaks my heart a little bit because I am trying to wean him. We have been slowly cutting out daytime nursing so now he nurses only when he wakes up in the morning and before he goes to bed at night. It's been hard because he HATES milk and also isn't a big fan of water so I worry about keeping him hydrated with cutting down on nursing, but it's time. We've had to get creative a little bit to get him to drink some milk but we've found he will drink it in smoothies, or if we offer it alongside anything with peanut butter on it :) And he gets tons of yogurt and cheese anyway so I guess it isn't crucial that he drink milk.
Anyway, that's about all that's going on here. Here's a few final pictures that sum up our daily life these days:
Do you think he has enough toys? And this is only some of them! I dumped them all out in a desperate move to keep him occupied while I finished up something I really needed to get done on the computer.
Levi hates it when I take time to do laundry instead of playing with him! You can't really tell in this picture but he was totally crying big crocodile tears when I took it.
All smiles in the morning though with his butternut squash waffles and goldfish!
Love this handsome man child!
