Gavin started smiling on purpose about 4 days ago - having him look straight into my eyes and break into a huge smile just melts my heart every time! We haven't managed to photograph him in the act yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. He's still growing like a weed. John measured him a couple of days ago, and he's at least 24 inches. He's also noticeably heavier - probably nearly 13 pounds by now. All of the newborn clothes that were huge on him when he was born are starting to get tight, and we've had to retire a few things that are just too small now. He's still waking up to eat twice a night, but from what I've been reading, that's pretty normal at his age. He's growing so fast, he really does have to eat that often. Hopefully, he'll start sleeping some longer stretches soon, but it may be a couple of months (or more!).

Last week, we spent 3 days in Palm Springs for John's annual SCEC meeting. Gavin adjusted well to traveling, sleeping in his Pack'n'Play in our hotel room. I think he enjoyed the change of scenery. Unfortunately, it was way too hot during the days to go outdoors for walks, but we walked him around the hotel/convention center and showed him off. Finally, John's coworkers have proof that Gavin exists! Plus, John was able to surprise several people who hadn't seen him since the meeting last year. Last year, the meeting was right before our wedding, so he's had lots of changes in his life since then!

We walked Gavin up to the library on Monday night to see if they had anything that Gavin might like. They've got a large number of board books, so we picked out a few with big contrasting patterns in the pictures. He seemed to like looking at them when we were in the library, but since then we haven't been able to interest him in them. He attracted lots of attention while we were in the library, especially from one cute little girl who was completely fascinated with him and asked John endless questions.

I returned to work on Monday - the 6 weeks of my maternity leave went by way too fast! Over the next few months, we'll be alternating Paid Family Leave, until Gavin starts day care in February. It's going to be pretty crazy, but we feel strongly about not putting him into daycare until he's 6 months old. He'll be going to USC daycare, which has a really good child-to-caregiver ratio (3:1, not including interns), but daycare will still involve a certain amount of delayed gratification, which he'll be much better able to handle after 6 months.

Today saw an interesting first -- one for which Gavin's mom will be thankful as the days go on: Gavin was fed by his father. Once Gavin's mom goes back to work, he'll have some weeks alone at home with dad, so (direct) breastfeeding will no longer be an option. We've been told to wait to introduce a bottle until around one month to avoid nipple confusion, but not to wait too long, or he might not accept the bottle at all.

That didn't seem to be a problem today! He happily sucked down a two-ounce portion of mommy's milk fed to him, by dad, via a bottle. We'll try to keep this up once a day from now on, so he neither forgets nor grows too used to bottle-feeding.

As part of our diaper service, we received a gift certificate for a free baby portrait. Though dad can occasionally snap a decent shot of Gavin, it seemed worth the time to call the professionals and see what kind of results they could produce.

We were impressed! No, we haven't seen the results yet, but we were greatly impressed by the photographer's baby-wrangling skills. We had no idea that baby photography involved so much slight-of-hand! Dad managed to snap a few "meta-photos" of the session in progress, like the one at right, showing Gavin doing his best impersonation of the Bambino.

Gavin was very well-behaved through the session. He became a little sleepy, and hence a little fussy, toward the end, but never unconsolably so. We expect that at least a few of the photos taken during the shoot will be priceless.

And, yes, that means that, like most every other resident of L.A., Gavin will now have a professional headshot in his portfolio. Of course, what he really wants to do is direct...!

Gavin is one month old today! I'm amazed we made it through a whole month without dropping him, or something equally horrible, though I guess I'm just a worrier (this is mom writing). This afternoon we went down to the weekly breastfeeding support meeting at Glendale Memorial. They have a scale there so you can weigh your baby before and after a feeding, to find out exactly how much he's consumed (2.3 oz today). It's very helpful, since, unlike with bottle feeding, you have no way of knowing how much they're getting. Though, based on how fast he's growing, Gavin is clearly not deprived! There was an 8-pound baby there, who looked really small to me, which made me realize just how much Gavin has grown.

Late tonight, Gavin was showing no signs of impending sleepiness, so we took him for a walk in his stroller to the grocery store (about a mile away). Being in the stroller outdoors always quiets him down, and he looks around at the world with complete fascination. When he's in that alert state, he often gets a really serious expression on his face, and moves his mouth and hands in a way that makes it look like he has something important to say, but can't quite come up with the words. It's really adorable!

Today was Gavin's one-month checkup. He's up to 11 pounds, 5 ounces, and 23.5 inches in length! That's the 80th percentile for weight, and the 95th percentile for height. It's nice to know that all of the hard work mom is doing to feed him is paying off! The change is definitely noticeable -- he's filling up his car seat much more than he was a couple of weeks ago, and he's more effort to carry. We're a little sad about losing the adorable tiny newborn stage soon, but we're looking forward to watching him grow and change.

Gavin turned four weeks old today -- it's amazing how the time has flown!

He was particularly fussy this morning, so we decided to take him outside for a walk around the neighborhood in his stroller. It certainly helped to calm him down. How I wish we'd had the camera when we stopped in at the local bakery... his expression when looking at the array of cookies through the glass was priceless.

We had such fun walking him that we took him out again that evening, after the sun had set. We even went to the supermarket. I'd say he was well-behaved, but the truth is he was mainly just asleep. Still, it was an enjoyable trip for a largely shut-in mom and dad. (We'd like to get out more often, but the daytime heat has been oppressive as of late.)

Gavin slept for five consecutive hours last night! That's his longest single sleep session since right after he was born, when he went about four hours at once.

His mom's still not getting as much sleep as she'd like at night, so dad's been watching him in the afternoons to give mom a chance to catch a nap. Even when Gavin wants to nap, too, it's best to keep him out of earshot of mom, since she's a light sleeper, and he's a noisy one.

In the ongoing struggle to transport a drowsy Gavin to a proper sleeping surface without him becoming fussy and awake, I've found that "white noise" tends to soothe him and increases his chances of staying asleep through the transition.

While dad is capable of producing passable white noise vocally, this gets a little tiring after a while, so he's been searching for alternatives. Today, we tried out sleepytime radio: using the stereo to produce a constant stream of white noise to soothe Gavin into the Land of Nod (as his aunt Madelyn likes to say).

This is a lot more difficult (to do well) than it might sound. Particularly in Los Angeles, there aren't a lot of radio frequencies, AM or FM, that produce pure white noise. There's often some sort of bleed over, or a modulating buzz or other more distracting tonal quality to the radio static here. After a thorough search, dad settled on FM 92.8 KZZZ... all static, all the time. It seemed to do the trick.

We also discovered tonight that a long walk around the neighborhood makes for a pretty effective baby tranquilizer as well.

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