Celebrate good times

So what with Easter and my birthday, the last few weeks have been pretty awesome! Also I feel like Levi's learning has been growing exponentially lately, especially his grasp of language! He started saying two new words this last couple weeks ("shoes" and "nana"- (banana)) and his comprehension is getting amazing! He knows what to do when I ask him to sit down or to put something away or bring me something. And just yesterday he started being able to point to his nose or his belly when we ask him where they are! Still working on ears and eyes though as he tends to get those mixed up haha! He also has started putting his hands up in the "I don't know sign" when I ask him where something is and he doesn't know. I really need to start teaching him some more signs though because he is still getting really frustrated when he points to something and we don't know what he wants. I think the next sign should probably be "help"!

We celebrated Easter last week with a couple friends of ours and their kiddos who are both within a couple weeks of Levi in age. We had a little Easter egg hunt for them and Levi rocked it. He totally got the concept of picking up the eggs and putting them into the basket! Then we had a big Easter dinner which was delicious. It is so fun to be able to have good friends in the ward who are at the same stage of life as we are. It's a big blessing for us!

Levi, Riley and Lincoln with their baskets of eggs! It will be so fun in a few months to see these guys in nursery together!

Since Easter, Levi has taken to carrying his Easter basket around the house and collecting his valuables in it. As of a few moments ago it contained bananagrams, a ball and his sippy cup. Last night it also had several shapes, a little wooden person, and his binkie clip but he has since removed those. Haha

So yeah, Easter was a blast and then the next day was my birthday! Eric found a babysitter for Levi and then he took me out on a date :) We went to a fun little chocolate boutique and got to buy some fancy schmanzy chocolate (mine was rose hips and berry chocolate and Eric's was lemongrass chocolate). He then took me out to a nice dinner at Obas. It was delicious. The appetizer, fundido, was AMAZING! Haha. Eric also made me a chocolate cake with thick peanut butter ganache and a super yummy chocolate frosting. It's pretty rich and we still have like a third of it in the fridge and I feel like Moana-"it calls me!" Haha! Every time I bust it out I let Levi have three bites and he has started doing this super cute little happy dance when he sees it!

Yesterday was Earth day and so to celebrate, I used some of my birthday money from my fabulous parents and in-laws and I started reclaiming our back porch! It's something that I've been meaning to do for a while and I'm super excited about it. I got some super cute lights at half off from Michaels and Eric strung those up last night and then I got some cinderblocks and cedar planks and made a couple shelves which I put potted plants on! I'm going to spray paint the cinderblocks an awesome sea blue color so I'll post pictures when I'm done :) I definitely deliberated a lot on the plants and tried to find ones that would 1) do ok not getting a ton of sunlight, 2) repel mosquitos and other pests and 3) be sturdy because I totally killed the last plant I tried to put out there! After much Pinterest research and also wandering around Home Depot's garden center I settled on mint, thyme, hosta, begonias and a lily. I love them. Haha. I'm also going to take our very dirty looking patio chair and side table to a car wash and spray them down and I got a new cushion for them. I'm determined to make this back porch a cute little place I'm proud of before I'm done! I figure if we're going to be here for another year, I would much rather spend the year in a place that I think is cute rather than one that I can only see problems with. Eric and I have been studying stewardship in our companion study this week and I really think that appreciating and taking good care of where we live now is an important part of being good stewards for what we have. I feel like it shows Heavenly Father that I appreciate His blessings to us and that I will take good care of whatever He chooses to send us in the future. Also, if I can't take care of a little apartment, how will I be able to handle a whole house! Haha. But that's part of why I also got us brand new bedding (which I love!) and made a super cute wreath for our front door. The little things make a big difference.

Anyway, so those are the big things that have been going on around here. Here are a couple other pictures that are snippets of our life of late. 

Levi and I on our walk early one morning. Levi has been even more interested in going outside lately. This little man just can't stand being inside for very long! As soon as he wakes up in the morning one of the first things he does is point outside and go "eh?!" He has taken to bringing me his shoes and sitting down for me to put them on him whenever he's bored or I'm busy doing something like dishes that he doesn't want me to be doing! 

Levi was sick a couple weeks ago for just a couple days. I ended up staying home from work to be with him and this is how we spent most of the day. He literally slept on me for hours that day. Sweet baby loves his momma cuddles even when he's burning up with fever. Thankfully it came and went quickly so by two days later you would never have guessed that he'd been sick!

There's this Little Tykes car that lives in our apartment complex and is kind of a communal toy. I think it's actual owners abandoned it here when they moved so all the little kids here just take turns playing with it. Levi LOVES it. He finally figured out how to climb inside of it and shut the door this week. As you can see, he's very proud of himself. He still hasn't figured out how to make it go anywhere once he's inside of it though! 

We had a ward service project cleaning up a local cemetery yesterday. We put Levi in this little rain suit that Emily gave him and I'm super glad we did because it was raining off and on and this kiddo got muddy from head to foot! He had fun helping to scrub the gravestones though and I have to say, he looked pretty adorable even though he kind of reminded me of a little walking traffic cone! 

So yeah, that's our life of late. It's busy and can be a bit stressful and exhausting, but I love it! 

Oh also, side note: Levi's mischievous trick of climbing onto the coffee table has progressed to climbing up onto the kitchen table! I was making dinner the other day and I look over and he is just sitting on top of the table! He knows he is not supposed to be up there so he does this excited squeal whenever I catch him in the act.

Octopuses and the Armor of God

Yesterday Eric, Levi and I went out to Newport for the day. The Hatfield Marine Science Center was a having a free exhibit day so we went and checked out the exhibits with a few friends of ours. Levi got to pet some anemones and starfish and he got his first taste of seaweed-it was salty and he wasn't a fan! Haha. We also got to see some really gross giant sea worms and meet two cool octopi. We then went to the beach and Levi had a blast running around and eating sand. He would absolutely love to get to go there every day I'm sure- no boundaries and as much open space as he could ever want! But unfortunately our time was cut short because of a sudden rainstorm which quickly turned to hail! We practically ran back up the huge flight of stairs to our car and poor Levi was shivering even in his multiple layers and jacket. No sunny beach days for us tough Oregon dwellers! Because it was rainy, we found some indoor things to do instead. We went to this awesome little glass art gallery which was cool and then we took Levi to this place called Yo Ho Ho Indoor Bounce. For $3 he got to run around and play on bounce houses. Eric and I helped him go down the big slides which he loved.  Eric and I may have raced through a bounce house obstacle course and had our fair share of fun too. Haha. Anyway, we finished out the day with a really delicious dinner at Georgie's Beachside Grill. The view was spectacular! I wish I could have just relaxed and stayed there a while drinking it all in, but little man was definitely done and grouchy by that point so we packed up and headed back home. And as soon as we got on the road, he was out! Busy days definitely tucker this little one out! 

I am so grateful we got to go on that little escape to the beach! Even though it's a long drive it was definitely worth it to get away from my to-do lists and just have fun with Eric and Levi enjoying nature and art and learning more about our world. It was especially needed because work has been so stressful lately. I've had several very challenging patients and have had a hard time meeting our productivity standards. Sitting in sacrament meeting today I was realizing how much the negativity of my patients is rubbing off on me. It makes me so much more easily frustrated and angry. I was realizing how important it is for me to put on the armor of God to protect me from all the negativity around me at work. I know that saying our family prayers in the morning and me doing my personal scripture study are so important to help me not internalize the negativity and bring it home with me. I have got to be better at making time for these things which are vital to protecting myself and my family. 

Anyway, here are some pictures form the last couple weeks and I feel like they pretty much sum up all of Levi's favorite things: being outside, eating and making mischief. Haha. 

Typical day at the park- Levi getting as muddy as possible! 

Levi LOVES to climb stairs like a big boy. No crawling up for this little man, he's all about doing it himself using the railing. 

 

Hmmm what's in here?... peanut butter! yay!!

Levi thinks it's hilarious when I whisper in his ear. He loves to hear secrets :)

Levi's new mischievous trick: climb up onto the coffee table and walk around on it! He knows he isn't supposed to so he likes to check if I'm looking first and then stand up as quickly as possible. Haha. 

Levi is learning how to use a spoon! He is sometimes really good at dipping his spoon and bringing it to his mouth, but sometimes not so much. He enjoys getting it everywhere. 

Levi and his new friend Opal the octopus at the Hatfield Marine Science Center

Levi absolutely LOVED having a whole huge beach to run around on! 

He wasn't sure what to think of the sand. He tried eating it which, of course, was a horrible idea. He then tried to wipe off his tongue with his sand covered hands which was less than successful. But little man didn't want me to help him to get cleaned off so he just kept that sandy mouth for a while!

It was soo beautiful!