Having fun!

So we've tried putting Avelyn down on her play set, but she NEVER would lay there and enjoy it. Well, today I decided to try it again because I noticed she's picking up on more visual things lately. She absolutely loved it! She sat there and watched everything for a solid 15 minutes. Avelyn has also started to smile a little bit and coo. I have to say, I've been waiting for that to happen and she just melts my heart every time she does it. I have a video but it won't post on here. If you are my friend on Facebook, you can see it there. Sorry for the inconvience.
My little girl will be turning 1 month old this Thursday! Where in the world did the time go???? Next thing I know, she'll be crawling, then walking, then running, & then running away from me! I'm not ready for that. I'm enjoying every little bit I get with her because I know these moments are fleeting.
Jeff, my in-laws, and I took Avelyn to the circus this weekend. It obviously takes a lot to amuse my little one. She slept through the WHOLE thing! We enjoyed it though. Definitely for kids though. Here's a couple of pictures:

My Sweet Precious Avelyn

Well, Avelyn Marie McLendon finally arrived on July 20, 2009 at 4:30pm. She's actually the heaviest of all of the Lowman grandchildren weighing in at 7 lbs. 6 oz., but is the shortest at only 19 inches. What can I say, she's a healthy baby. I got "induced" on Saturday (July 18th) evening, but really wasn't. When we got to the hospital, they hooked me up to all the monitors and were about to insert the cervadil. They discovered though that I was already contracting and contracting hard so they were afraid to do anything. Fortunate for me, I wasn't feeling any of them! So the next morning around 6am, they checked me and I was 1 cm dialated and 50% effaced. The doctor on-call made the decision to just try potocin. Around 12pm, I had regressed and completely closed up and off the potocin I went! After she discussed it with the other doctors, she made the decision to use the cervadil at 3pm. On Monday morning at 3am, they got me back on the potocin. My doctor (who is absolutely wonderful!) came in at 8am and I was back to 1 cm 50% effaced. She broke my water and said I could have my epidural when ever I wanted. Mind you this whole time I've been having contractions and not feeling a thing! About 5 minutes later, I was begging for the epidural. My labor went so fast! I was pushing by 3:45 and had her at 4:30pm on the dot that same day.
My dear husband, Jeff, was amazing through this whole thing. He helped me push, cut her cord, and was just so emotional. I know my husband loves me, but to see the love he had all of the sudden for his daughter just overwhelmed me. Let me just say, she's a mini replica of Jeff.
Now my beautiful Avelyn is 2 weeks old and now 8 lbs. As I'm typing this, she's sitting her next to me and I just can't look away from her. She's just so precious and the sweetest thing. Yes, we have our trials at night time and getting her to sleep. Apparently she's a night owl like her mommy was. Yeah for me! My favorite moments with her is while she's sleeping and dreaming. I know it's because of gas, but when she starts smiling, it just cracks me up. She has so many little gas faces, it's adorable.
I haven't taken any pictures since her first week. Such a bad mommy! As soon as I do, I promise to post them!


Jeff's parents, Mike & Ann. This is their first grandchild! Can't you tell?


Don't I look like daddy?