Family Picnic

With our friends Katie and Ashin, we headed out to Da Fo Shan Park for a little family picnic. We did the same thing when Avery was just a few weeks old, so we thought we should do the same for Oliver. I have this fear that he is going to look back at the photos of Avery and then himself and think that we did way more with her than with him.

It was cloudy but fairly warm, and the park was INSANELY busy. And , as usual, we had a bunch of people watching us eat and play. Avery was always a show by herself, but add a newborn to that and we were the main event at the park that day.

Create a photo slideshow

Always my girl

I love that Avery loves girl things. I love that she wants to do her hair over and over, that she thinks she is putting on makeup when she uses my brushes, but mostly I love that she loves shoes. And not just any shoes, boots and high heels. Any pair of boots that enter this house become hers, and every pair of my high heels has graced her feet numerous times. I admit that it delights me to no end.

Avery's first big art project

Let me tell you what she is saying: COW!

An Oliver First

Tee hee! And it had to happen on Daddy!

How is Avery Coping?

Everyone asks this. It is a fair question. She is two and is totally aware of the new presence in the house. Well, after one week of having a baby brother I can safely say that Avery loves him half of the time. For half of the day she is like this:

Wanting to hold him and kiss him and talk to him in her two-year-old language that adults can not understand. It is adorable and wonderful. It is times like this that I wonder if she will literally love him to death. She can only be gentle for so long before her excitement just boils over.

The other half of the time her attitude is more like this:

This face is saying: I'm packing my bags and taking my mommy and going to a place where there is no baby. Working on balancing my attention between my two kids has become my hardest task. Speaking of kids and attention, my baby is crying. Bye.

Hellos and Goodbyes

Welcome: OLIVER WADE JACKSON

Born: February 8, 2011 at 2:05 p.m.

Weight: 7 lbs.

Height: 20 inches

I will spare most of the details here because there are children who read my blog. Let me just say that my delivery here in China was part SNL skit and part horror movie. Between the Chinese doctor screaming at me, the Red Bull they gave me to help with the pain, and the entire Chinese family I had to share a recovery room with, I have decided I will not be having another baby in China. I am so happy to be home and to have a healthy baby. I am healing as well, and I really hope that I am up and about soon.

Farewell: RICHARD ARNOLD SAUTER

Deceased: February 9, 2011

I got home from the hospital to find an email saying that I lost my dad while I was recovering. Some of you may know that this is not a huge surprise, he has been sick for a while, but the timing still sucks. On the one hand I have a new baby, a baby that my dad got to hear about and even see a picture of before he passed, but my dad is gone and I can't even go to his funeral.

So, it has been quite a week for us.