Daphne used to hate getting her hair wet, but after we started going swimming 2 times a week this winter, she got over it.  After we get out of the pool, we head for the showers to clean off and get ready to hit the street.  Daphne became so fond of it that it was a way to convince her to get out of the pool when swimming time was over.

She eventually decided that taking a shower at home would be a fun activity, so she started going into the shower with Jared or I when she was feeling up to it.

On this particular morning, she decided to take a shower all by herself, and I found it to be very adorable.  She’s got the bar of soap in her hand that she is using to wash her body.

My baby is growing up quickly!

I got some tricycles for free  last year from a local woman who was getting rid of them.  They have been sitting on the porch since last summer, and Daphne used to go out and ride occassionally.  She is too short to reach the pedals, so it wasn’t much fun for her.

Recently, she has been working on being able to pedal the bikes, but while she waits on growing another inch or two, she has found ways to really get the bike going fast.  Her favorite thing to do is to race her bike quickly across the porch slamming into the side railing.

Riding is a lot of fun for her, and she rides with such incredible intensity.  It is a lot of fun to watch.

Speaking of that natural newborn curl…

I took this photo on the 4th of July.  He is wearing his 4th of July diaper.  It is white on the inside, blue on the outside and it has red snaps.  It also has an American flag embroidered on the bum.  Lucky baby.

I posted a lot about the birth, but I haven’t talked at all about the baby himself.

We are definitely enjoying our lovely Cyprus Que.  We kept the sex and the name secret while I was pregnant because we thought it would be fun to keep it among ourselves.  We actually agreed on our name when I was about 10 weeks pregnant, and we were SURE it was going to be the name we were going to use.  About 2 weeks before I had the baby, the name Cyprus came up.  Both Jared and I thought it was a good name, but we were sure we were going to go with the original name we had decided on.  The name Cyprus kept coming up over and over again over the next few days/weeks.  We agreed that there must be some reason why we were thinking so heavily about changing the name.

After he was born, we deliberated for a while about the name and finally agreed that Cyprus really fit him.

He is an incredibly calm baby.  When he was born, he didn’t cry like you expect babies to cry.  He came out and sat on my chest looking at me.  He started breathing right away without any problems.  In fact, for the first 48 hours, he didn’t cry at all, not even one time.  He didn’t even mind the car trip on the way home from the birth center.  Daphne, on the other hand, spent the entire car trip whining and crying.

I thought it was just a fluke, but when I went back to the birth center for my tear repair, there were 2 other newborn babies there, and they were crying almost non-stop.

He likes to sleep a lot.  This is common in newborns, but he really seems to be sleeping well throughout the night.  He sleeps from about 8pm until around 2-3 am.  I then nurse him and he goes back to sleep until around 5 when he starts fussing a bit.  I nurse him until everyone is ready to wake up for the day.  He is usually awake for breakfast and then sleeps again until lunch.  He is awake through lunch and then he takes a good nap from about 1-3 with Daphne and I.  After that, he is awake off and on until he goes to bed at 8pm.

I am changing a LOT of diapers, but I don’t really mind.  Part of the joy of making cloth diapers that are beautiful and that I love is that changing diapers can be a lot of fun.  I don’t want to do it ALL day long for the rest of my life, but I’m happy to do it now for sure.  I am also getting to test out all the diapers I made and discover what it is that I like the most.

Unfortunately, he was born with a lot of millia on his face and body.  They are just little white cysts on the skin that look a bit like zits.  They will start to go away over time.  Daphne had them, and they all went away.    He just has perfect baby skin except for the millia everywhere!

I also discovered, quite by accident that he has witches milk.  Basically, babies can get all their mom’s hormones while they are in the womb.  It is not unusual for a baby to lactate for a while because of all the changes it takes for a mom to start lactating.  I just have never seen it in a baby before, so I thought it was quite unique.

We love his calm personality.  It is a good thing to have as a second child.  Daphne loves jumping around him while he is on the bed, which doesn’t faze him at all.  She also tries to pick him up and move him around like one of her own dolls.  I am always there to interfere, but the truth is that he is very tolerant of the “love” that Daphne has to give.

He doesn’t have a very obnoxious cry either.  When he is really upset, he gives a few little whimpers that most certainly stop when you have handled the problem.

I have even been able to set him down while I go about doing other things.  I can’t think of a single time when I was able to put Daphne down to do one thing or another.  When I took photos of her, I had to put Jared underneath the sheet she was sitting on so that she was still being held in the photo.  He does not mind being set down.  I don’t leave him for indefinite amounts of time, but it is nice to be able to eat some dinner or fold a load of laundry while he sleeps or looks around.  The primary danger of him being set down is his sister.  I was changing him on the bed and left for a minute to get a new diaper.  I was gone less than a minute, but when I returned, Daphne was walking down the hall carrying him trying to bring him to me.  He only weighs 8 pounds now, so she can carry him pretty easily.  She has been able to carry gallons of milk for a while now, so I know she can handle 8 pounds.  However, he is a more precious cargo than a gallon of milk, so I almost flipped my lid!

I can see changes in him already.  He is not as sensitive to light, and when he is awake, his eyes are open very wide.  He is starting to lose the extreme natural newborn curl that all newborns have from being so cramped in the womb.

We are so excited to have another member in our family, and the adventures are already beginning.  I have been feeling badly from the tear, so I have been in bed a lot.  However, I took Daphne out to story time and the park yesterday.  Cyprus did very well.  Getting 2 kids out of the house at the same time was a bit of a challenge, but I am working on it.

I took a few photos of Cyprus for the birth announcment when he was 1 day old.  You have seen the ones that I chose for the announcment already, but I thought you might enjoy a sneak peek at a few more.

Daphne is using her imagination more and more these days, and I have been working to help her cultivate it.

One morning when I was being particularly boring, she got a hold of the pedal of my sewing machine and decided to use it at a telephone.  She called her friend Oliver and was asking him to come over to play with her.

When daddy won’t get you a real cell phone, anything can be turned into a phone!

Carlton Fun Days is Carlton’s summer festival.  It is a weekend of community fun and events celebrating summer and our community.  There was all kinds of fun available to be had.  The swimming pool was open and free to everyone.  There was a gathering at the park with games, barbeque and booths.  We even had a community parade.  Daphne, Jared and I got ready and headed out for a bit of fun.

Daphne thought that the best part of the day was the parade.  She liked seeing all the vehicles and animals, and picking up candy turned out to be an incredibly exciting activity.

Daddies are fantastic.  You can sit on their shoulders to see better.  When you get tired, you can lean on them and sleep.

I had a lot of fun even though I was VERY pregnant (my water broke the next morning).

I don’t appear in many photos with Daphne because I am the one behind the camera most of the time, but I thought these two photos were really cute.

Daphne has accompanied me to quite a few photo shoots recently, and she has started to expressed a desire to start taking photos of her own.

She got her hands on my little Digital Elph camera and took quite a few interesting shots.  I thought I would share some with you!

Ok, perhaps she needs some photography lessons, but it cracks me up that she likes it so much!

As soon as Jared’s dad heard that Cyprus was born, he decided to make a trip up to visit and welcome the new baby.  We were delighted to have him, and I even convinced him to let me take some photos of him with Cyprus.  There is nothing better than the love you can get from a Papa, so I was thrilled that they got to meet.  Bob seemed like a pretty proud Papa as well!