Thailand bound

The time has come! The suitcases are packed and excitement is in the air! Team Park will be silent on the blog front for a bit, but feel free to read about our team's adventures over at http://teamthailand2011.blogspot.com/. We'll do our best to keep it updated!

Five months!

Levi Blaze,

You are five months old today! WOW! Several friends have commented over the last few days that you have grown up so much, and I couldn't agree more. You are still my adorable baby, but you look more and more like a little man every day.

This month has been exciting! You started this month, along with your daddy, me and 60+ others, by taking shelter during a crazy night of tornados. You and your friend, Jude, slept through it all as we hunkered down in some friends' safe room.

As Grammy described you, you are in "discovery mode." Yessss, sir! You reach for anything your daddy and I are holding and are interested in grabbing anything nearby. Curiosity and intrigue are written on your face, and I can see the wheels turning as you experience a new texture or sight. You take brief breaks from eating now to survey your surroundings, scratching the chair's fabric or just looking around to see what's new. When sitting or standing in mine or daddy's lap, you love to touch our faces, and you study us with your eyes. It's like you are mentally filing away what mommy and daddy look and feel like.

Your face lights up when you hear the sound your hands make when banging on the table, and during bath time, you have started splashing around. You really seem to enjoy being in water. We've been taking you swimming, and you love it! You splash around while watching the other kids around you, taking it all in. You look so adorable in your swim trunks and sun hat!

We set up your Baby Einstein exersaucer this month, and you have so much fun in it! We say that you are working away in your home office because of the focus and concentration you have, exploring one "station" after another. It's been exciting for us to watch you figure out how things work. You are a smart kiddo!

In the last two weeks, you have accomplished something huge - you have begun sleeping 7-8 hours each night. This was no easy feat for you in the beginning, but we are so proud of you! You have an established bed time routine now: you eat, take a bath, read a book and then go to sleep. I typically bathe you, and your daddy is usually the one who gets to cuddle with you while reading a book. I love to see the two of you snuggled up in the chair. Daddy is an excellent reader, and you are an attentive audience, snuggled in the crook of his arm, dressed for bed in your sleeper, paci in place.

For Father's Day, we made an imprint of your hand in plaster. That process in and of itself was hilarious, and we love that we captured that perfect little hand that we can show you as you grow.

You also helped me celebrate turning 29 this month by giving me a card with your foot outlined on it in place of a signature. Precious!

As always, we can't wait to see what each new day with you brings. You are such a joy!
We love you!
Love,
Mom

Working away:

Hanging with the boys:

Checking out our new couch:

Cheering daddy on during softball:

Close up! Hanging with daddy:

The many faces of LBP

Gib does an excellent job of documenting our son's growth and development. I give him a hard time sometimes for always having the camera out, but in all honesty, I'm thankful that he is diligent about it. He's captured some great shots that make us smile now, and I know we'll enjoy looking back at them years from now.

Thanks to his sweet blog post earlier this week, I now know that he knows how to post things here, so perhaps we'll see more of his work in the future! HINT, HINT, Mr. Park.

So, with all credit going to Daddy, I present some of the many faces of Levi:

BLove Letter

So...Levi and I were chatting over a bottle of milk the other day, and we realized that Mommy needs a post about her. Here we go!

Lauren,

You are amazing in so many ways! Here are a few of them.

As a wife, you are my forever girl! We have grown so much in the nine years since you "caught my eye" with your sassy hair, beautiful eyes and heart for Jesus! We were just two crazy in love kids back then, but God has truly made us one - in passions, dreams and hearts. You are and always will be the only one for me!

As a mommy, you are an overcomer. This parenting thing has been so much more difficult...and so much more rewarding, than we could have ever imagined. The things that you have overcome for our son astound me...and they just make me love and adore you even more! It has been so fun to see you blossom as a mom. I love looking at Levi and seeing your spiritedness in him! You are such a great mommy and I can't wait to have thirteen (or fourteen) little ones just like Levi Blaze with you!

As a disciple of Jesus, you have blown me away! You have really challenged me to push the boundaries of my faith, and not just with encouragement, but by your life. You have pursued Jesus with all of your heart and you really know how to worship and love Him. I have no idea where God is leading us, but I know that it will be one wild ride, and there is no one that I would rather ride with than you! You are mightier than you know!

In conclusion, I am a better man because you love me. Levi is a better man because you love him. We love you to the moon...and back.

Your Boys,

Gib and Levi

Bottoms up

Team Thailand leaves the country in a mere four days! In an effort to not be a last-minute packer, this weekend I began doing laundry, making lists and buying some travel necessities. After trying on my swimsuit last week and realizing that my post-pregnancy body shape has...ahem, shifted... I decided that one such necessity was a new pair of bottoms.

Since the clock was ticking, I decided to just buy multiple pairs of bottoms from Lands' End and return the ones I didn't want in order to make sure I had a good pair prior to departure. When I opened the box, Gib couldn't help but laugh:

What you are looking at is sixteen pairs of swimsuit bottoms in a vast array of styles, albeit all navy blue. Fortunately, we had a winner within the box! I was, however, mildly embarrassed to take the remaining pairs to Sears to get a rather large sum credited back to my card. The cashier looked at me, looked down at the stash, and looked back up at me incredulously. I tried to explain that I was leaving the country and didn't have time to go back and forth until I found a pair to my liking, but I'm not sure she appreciated my strategy!

For the dads

Happy Father's Day! We want to give a shout-out to both of our dads, who are such wonderful men. We love you!

I also want to give a shout out to the man who is already the most incredible father I could ever hope to have for my son. GP3, you love your son so well already, and I can't wait to watch him grow up with you as his daddy. Truly, he has some great shoulders to stand (sit?) on!

Sleep

Sleep. I never would have imagined what a luxury that concept would become upon entering parenthood. Fortunately, almost five months into the adventure of being mom and dad, the two of us have adjusted to getting fragmented sleep at night. Unfortunately, so has Levi!

I never thought we would have to participate in "sleep training," but at our last appointment, our pediatrician suggested that we start working on getting our son to sleep through the night. He assured us that it's healthy for Levi's development. He needed to sleep more than three hours at a time.

I've read books and asked friends lots of questions, as there are so many opinions out there on the best way to get babies to sleep through the night. Feeling as ready as we'd ever be, we started sleep training last week, after apologizing in advance to our duplex neighbors! We bought a baby monitor and set up camp in bed, bracing ourselves. I can sum up that first night in one word: miserable. It went against all instinct to not run in to the rescue each time he woke up, but I didn't. Lo and behold, our little bundle of joy made it through the night and was actually all smiles the next morning.

I am happy to report that one week later, Levi is doing so well! He is sleeping through the night, and the three of us are much more rested in general. We are so proud of him!

Here's a snapshot of part of our bedtime routine. I can't get over how adorable these two are together.