Welcome Avery Cate

We are ecstatic to announce the arrival of our second daughter, Avery Cate McConnell, born on August 15, 2008 at 1:25am. She was 7lb 8oz and 21 inches long, and is perfect in every way. She has blonde hair, blue eyes, and is so sweet. Avery's middle name, Cate, is in honor of Allison's grandmother, Catherine, an amazing woman with a spunk for life that we hope Avery has inherited!

Allison had a quick labor (she's not willing to use the word "easy"), and we were blessed to have her mom in town to be home with Audrey while the two of us were at the hospital. Audrey got to visit her little sister in the hospital on Friday morning ... she sat up on the bed with Allison and Avery, pointed at Avery, and then leaned over and kissed her without any prompting. What an awesome moment! And an incredible answer to prayer has been that (at least so far) Audrey is either extremely gentle and sweet with Avery (kissing her, patting her stomach, trying to share her milk) or she ignores her completely. She hasn't shown any signs of jealousy and we are so thankful. Of course, Avery is not yet 48 hours old, so we're braced for change. =)


Here are some pictures of the joys of our lives, Audrey and Avery.

ONIONS??!! You have to be kidding me

Iain, Audrey, Mim and I went to dinner tonight for what I think was the first craving of either of my pregnancies ... really just some serious red meat. So we went to Kristy's MVP SportsBar just around the corner from our house and got some great burgers. Iain took the raw (and quite potent) onions off of my burger and put them on Audrey's napkin. I didn't think she'd even attempt to eat it, but she DID. And then after she attempted to eat it, I was sure she would immediately spit it out. But she DIDN'T. No. My one and only first-born chowed down on that raw onion, and a couple of minutes later, picked up another piece and ate it too. Unbelievable.

Anyway, I'm actually happy about this because I think it's a disability to go through life not liking onions, since cooks like to put them in everything. So this is good for Audrey in the long run. I just can't believe that I have a daughter who likes them. I quite clearly remember giving birth to her, though ... otherwise, I would question whether she and I are really related. =)

Uh-Oh!

Audrey was reading Paddington Bear this afternoon, and there's a page where his bath water is spilling onto the floor. She kept going back to that page and saying "uh-oh". There is no one who can say uh-oh in a cuter way! =)

Audrey's first day at gymnastics

We took Audrey to her first gymnastics class today. She had a great time, so she's now officially enrolled in the class. Here are a couple of videos of her in action.

A fun day at Balboa Park

Thank you, Gigi!

Here is Audrey, holding presents from Gigi! Thank you!

Just the Three of Us

My mom arrives tomorrow (yeah!) and Baby #2 should arrive sometime in the next week, so tonight was the last night with just Iain, Audrey and I (and Rufus). Here are Audrey and Daddy playing on the couch before bed.