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! 

March Madness

So I feel like this month is just flying by! It's been a pretty great month! We got to celebrate Levi's birthday on his birthday with a pudding pie that he smeared literally everywhere and then again on Saturday with his (our) friends! We did a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme party and it was seriously so adorable and perfect. I mean, Levi is practically a fruititarian (he would eat only fruit if we let him) and the very hungry caterpillar eats through a ton of different fruit! We had all the foods that the very hungry caterpillar eats except the icecream because I was afraid it would melt. We even had the pickles and used spinach for the green leaf!

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!