Yeah I like Chikoritas too. I don't have Bayleef's evolution Meganium yet
so catching Chikoritas will still be useful. Plus they're hard to find around here. I caught a couple in June and haven't seen any since.
I'm glad you're enjoying the gifts. They're really useful. Especially the stardust and pokeballs. I don't know about you, but I'm always
short on both especially the stardust. Just checking since you're more of a newb than I am, but you know about how useful lucky eggs are right?
They're really helpful in gaining experience as long as you use them where there's a lot of pokemon.
When you get close to level 20 you'll start getting a lot more items once you level up. Battling in small raids like the ones for Charmander helps too.
Once I turned level 15 or so I started batting in the gyms near me almost everyday and that really helps with leveling up.