Gavin at 10 weeks

Wow, time is really the most precious thing you have when you have a baby. We're still getting used to juggling the baby care, working, working from home, and sanity thing. Let's see, what's been going on? Gavin went to his first tournament, an E-and-Under three weapon tournament where his dad took 3rd place in foil, earning his E rating! Here he is being held by Alex Hodgson with Thomas Cohen in the Gilruth center gym.

That tournament was named the Dunaway memorial in honor of a much-loved, recently passed fencing coach at the South Houston high school. Jerry Dunaway had always loved the Green Lantern, and as luck would have it Gary K. Wolfe had given us a Green Lantern onesie as a baby shower present. It was a big hit at the tournament.

We traveled to San Diego and Los Angeles right before Halloween, and got to introduce Gavin to lots of friends and family. He was a very good traveler, even on the airplane. I did not take enough pictures while I was there; too busy enjoying the gorgeous weather and the good company.

On Halloween he had his 2 month pediatrician appointment. He measured in at 11 lb 3 oz (38th percentile), 23.5 inches (73rd percentile) and head circumference of 15 inches (13th percentile). He's long and rangy and a bit elfin--so far it looks like we're raising an epee fencer here. He got all his vaccinations--he did his share of screaming by the time he was on the third shot, but calmed down quickly afterwards and didn't have any problems with the shot sites. A couple doses of children's Tylenol over that day and he was fine.

He's started sitting up more, getting more control of his head, and he loves babbling! It's adorable when he coos and strings syllables together. He's smiling now (although I haven't been able to get him to do it for the camera), and loves practicing sitting and standing. Here he is sitting in his Bumbo chair at one of our online D&D sessions.

Let's see, he's been sleeping pretty well. He first slept through the night on November 7th, (from 9pm to 5am), but we haven't gotten him to repeat that performance yet. Here's a picture of him being sleepy in the morning:

He usually takes a good solid nap mid-morning which is when I try to get all my personal stuff done: emails, writing, blog posts, exercize, etc. Thanks to his napping abilities, I'm 56% done with the first draft of my book, roughly 38,000 words so far. Not bad considering I was starting from zero when he was born. I've gone back to work 2 days per week, and Curtis stays home those days to look after him. I'm very happy to be back at work, starting in a new group with some fun new challenges. I've been continuing visits to a Chiropractor which has really helped my hip and pelvis pain, and usually Gavin sleeps right through those. Sometimes afterwards we visit a local park, such as Walter Hall park this past Thursday:

Overall he's been a healthy, happy, and fairly mellow baby, and we're amazingly happy to have him.