While volunteering at a local school media center, I had occasion to handle several older-style computer mice, the sort that used a rubber ball instead of the modern low-power laser. As I reminisced about cleaning the troublesome mechanical mice, it occurred to me that our son will never use a mouse with a ball in it. It's doubtful he'll even use a mouse with a cord on it, and with the touchpads on laptops today having the ability to read multi-finger gestures, it's possible he will never buy a mouse of his own, but merely look at them as those quaint little devices that his parent's computers had. My overactive imagination quickly started assembling a comprehensive list of all the technology that Gavin will look back on as "old-fashioned", and all the new and exciting technology arriving daily that he will take for granted.

With access to the internet fast becoming ubiquitous, increasing amounts of information are passing through it. The internet will be the conduit for most of the information that Gavin receives throughout his life, though none of his internet experiences will ever be prefixed with the raucous screeching of two modems negotiating a connection. With a constant connection to everyone and everything, most any question that strikes him need only be pondered for as long as takes to get to the Google search page. He may have a job that he conducts solely in the ether, like his mother. Also like his mother, he may use the internet to connect to his coworkers, never having to drive to work. Police departments of his day will be enlarging their computer-crime departments, tracking down criminals who conduct their nefarious activities without a daily commute.

Gavin may never use a land-line phone. He will have a mobile smartphone, like the iPhone or the Blackberry, but there is talk now of renaming those types of devices "coms" to better reflect the plethora of communication types and computational abilities they provide. Hopefully, sometime in the not-too-distant future, mobile phone companies and their 2-year contracts will cease to exist, replaced by a market full of competitively-priced "Mobile Internet Service Providers". Access to the internet will become a simple utility like water or power, and once service is setup, consumers will be free to use the device of their choosing to access it. Gavin's iPhone (like current iPhones) will make phone calls, send email (he may never write a letter), check the weather (he won't want to wait for the local weather to come around on the TV), catch up the news (both "mainstream news outlets" and blogs), search for local businesses, get maps, satellite imagery, StreetView, or turn-by-turn directions from his current location, check up on social networks, and download movies and TV episodes. His iPhone will also allow him to play video games and listen to his music as well as podcasts (the modern equivalent of talk radio) and audiobooks.

With music and podcasts available for instant download, he may never buy a radio. With both Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters available online (as well as many other, lesser shows), he may never own a television. It is most likely he'll have a large display in his living room that connects solely to his computer for content. When in the mood for a good mystery, he will certainly read conventional books, but will eventually own a connected ebook reader like the Amazon Kindle. If he finds himself on vacation without the next Harry Potter book, he need only whip out his ebook reader and download it from the internet.

While on vacation, he may desire to know more about the scenery around him. There are now several applications for smartphones that use the camera, GPS, and accelerometer of the smartphone to overlay information onto what you look at through the phone's camera, referred to as "augmented reality". Gavin will be able to aim the camera of his iPhone at the skyline of a strange city, and the screen of the iPhone will show the camera's live video feed, but with all the buildings and other objects labeled, including links to corresponding websites or Wikipedia entries.

Only while camping in the wilderness will Gavin be unable to access the internet, and maybe not even then. Before leaving for the woods, he will have read reviews of the trails online, downloaded maps and satellite imagery, and programed all the important trailheads and campsites into his GPS. He will purchase paper topographical maps as backups for the backcountry, but he will live in a world where paper road maps are extinct. GPS navigators are on the road right now that specify everything down to what lane to be in for the upcoming turn, and road testing is being conducted for consumer GPS devices that report back to the "cloud" with vehicle speed and location information, so they are all instantaneously sharing traffic information.

Having had his father foster an exciting robotics hobby (even his toys will be smarter than ours), Gavin will certainly own a robotic vacuum cleaner, and may never push a traditional vacuum around his house. He will almost certainly hack said robotic vacuum to do his bidding, including but not limited to chasing the cats and fetching things from the fridge. Should he join the armed services, he will still have to go to boot camp, but may do most of his soldiering via computer, remotely controlling unmanned aerial vehicles, bomb disposal robots, or unmanned supply convoys. He could be tasked with deploying packs of autonomous robots into battle against enemy robots. He may join a new breed of battlefield surgeons, instantly telecommuting between many different field hospitals on the front lines, saving lives by remotely controlling a robotic surgeon and virtually sending his skills places to which he cannot physically travel fast enough.

No life is without a few hardships, but Gavin need never feel alone. He will be just a quick web search away from finding a group of people suffering the same hardship, gathered together to provide each other support. If his hardships come in the form of medical problems, now-burgeoning genetics research will have changed many medical diagnosis and treatment questions from "could we?" to "should we?". He will have a medical chart, but it will be stored (hopefully securely) in the "cloud", and he will be able to view and edit parts of it himself. Some patients with severe allergies or other complex issues are already getting RFID implants to allow doctors to scan their (possibly unconscious) bodies and thus retrieve important treatment information.

Gavin will never expose a single frame of conventional film. All of his photographs will be taken digitally, and instantly reviewed. He will never go to the drugstore to "see how his photos turned out". The photographs he wishes to share with distant friends and relatives will be waiting for them online within hours of the photo being taken. He will never mail a batch of photos, nor will he carry wallet-sized photos of his children, as all the latest photos and videos of his kids will travel with him everywhere on the flash drive in his iPhone.

Gavin will document this technologically interesting life of his on the modern day diary: the blog. He and his friends will have a hard time imagining what life was like before the internet. He will have friends that he communicates with mostly or wholly online, vaguely like the pen-pals of old. These online relationships will be much deeper than those with old-fashioned pen-pals, though, as the myriad of social networking tools on the web today allow distant friends to share not only pictures, movies, and games, but what they had for lunch or what they think of the person sitting next to them on the subway. When Gavin wants a recipe for oysters or would like to know a good restaurant in town, he will not be "limited" to the huge amount of such information already published online, he is only a Twitter post away from asking everybody he knows how they cook oysters or where they go for a really good steak dinner. The small tidbits of everyday life that get passed through Twitter and the "doing now..." field on Facebook are the details that allow friends to feel strongly connected with each other. Friends tell each other when they go out and where, what they had fun doing that day, and many other small things that are important to a relationship, but not profound enough to be included in a letter or email. Spending virtual time together will not be the same as spending time together in person, but virtual time may still become more prevalent than face-to-face time. Society will follow changes in the economy, and the economy will follow changes in technology.

Perhaps I'm just stating the obvious. I'm not predicting anything new here, just listing all the things I have seen while reading the gadget blogs daily. I have only mentioned technology that is already available, and if not ubiquitous, simply waiting for improvements in existing technology (mainly batteries) to become ubiquitous. Anyway, while this list of "nevers" is interesting in and of itself, I've said all of the above to just to say the following: what truly amazes me are not all the newfangled gadgets arriving now that will make Gavin's life amazingly different than ours, but all the things that will come around in another 30-40 years and make Gavin's gadgets seem quaint and old-fashioned. What will Gavin and his peers invent that will make the iPhone seem like a rotary phone?

Autumn has arrived with full force in Raleigh, so it's only fitting that I dedicate this weekly developmental update to Gavin's love of leaves. Today we had a brief fall photo shoot. In order to keep Gavin in one location, I collected leaves on our walk this morning for him to play with. He would have stayed out there all afternoon playing with those leaves if we'd let him! Even after we went back inside to warm up (it was 56 degrees during the shoot - brrr!), he crawled around holding on to one of his leaves.

Mommy, these hay bale and pumpkin props are silly. I'm going to play with these leaves so I can pretend they're not there.

See, now aren't the pictures better without silly props?

Practicing my Presidential "gazing thoughtfully into the distance" face.

Daddy, you so funny!

Yellow leaf ... orange leaf ... yellow leaf ... orange leaf ...

Yellow leaf!

Yesterday, we took Gavin (or Gaspar, or Gavspar) the pirate to the local pumpkin patch to pick out his first pumpkin. He enjoyed sitting amongst the pumpkins, as well as playing with the grass and riding in the wagon.

Arrrrgh, I be awash in a sea of gourds!

What kind of rickety landlubber contraption have ye stuck me in now?

I claim this mighty pumpkin in the Highsmith name!

Arrrrgh! Rough seas are making me green in the gills. Slow down, Daddy, or I'll make ye walk the plank!

Me ship's hold is full of treasure, time to set sail for home.

Our little buddy has a new noise that he makes when happily excited. It sounds rather like the battle cry of an enraged pteradactyl.

Gavin was born at 42 weeks gestation which means he's officially been on this side of my tummy as long as he was inside. Was I really pregnant for THAT long?! While I contemplate this, here's what the little G-man has been up to lately:

• Gmummy reported that Gavin took two small steps one evening while she was babysitting. He hasn't done it again since then, but we may have a full-fledged walker in a few more weeks!
• Gavin talks with his mouth full at the dinner table even though he doesn't know how to speak yet. For now, he's satisfied with yelping and gheeing with a mouthful of applesauce.
• Since the weather has gotten cooler, he has had goosebumps several times. I almost didn't recognize them the first time. They're the cutest tiny baby goosebumps - so adorable! I've resisted the urge to find my camera to take a picture, though, in favor of finding him a blanket or sweater.

Gavin's "chocolate stain" on his nose rubbed off after a day of Monkey nuzzling. All that's left from his surfing incident is a little pink mark on the tip of his nose. I wonder what kind of trouble he'll get into now?

Last night, Mommy and Daddy (along with Aunt Kristen) returned home from a long weekend break in New York City. We expect to make this trip every year or two and Gavin will eventually join us. This year, though, he stayed behind in Raleigh with Gmummy for three whole days. *I* haven't even spent three consecutive days alone with the Gavster! We are pleased to report she survived and did a great job taking three daily photos while we were gone.

While in New York, I constantly had my eyes open for a unique gift for Gavin. I wanted something very "New York," something we couldn't get anywhere else. When it comes to toys, what's more New York than FAO Schwarz? The selection of stuffed animals was huge and we picked a large "Patrick the Pup" dog.

With just a few hours left in the city on Monday, we stumbled upon an adorable stuffed taxi cab at the NBC store in Rockefeller Center that we couldn't pass up.

You may have noticed a mark on Gavin's nose in photos from the past few days. On Friday, he surfed the comforter off the bed and got a "comforter burn" on his nose. While we were out of town, the scab appeared. It may be one of the first but certainly not the last battle wound our rough and tumble little boy receives!

At forty-one weeks:

• Gavin will now stand freely for two to five seconds at a time. Usually this occurs when he is so entranced by whatever object with which he is playing that he forgets to hold on to something.
• When going from leaning or standing freely to not leaning or standing freely (i.e. falling down), he now does so with more grace than previously, only face-planting a few times a day.
• Our little trucker is beginning to take to his Tonka. If I set him on a bearing towards something interesting, he will purposefully walk the truck forward. Once the goal is near, however, he gives up on bipedal locomotion and drops to the floor to crawl the home stretch.
• The Tilty Cup is no longer The Enemy. Gavin enjoys shaking, banging, throwing, and occasionally drinking from these new-fangled contraptions. Due to the violent nature of said interactions, we are only handing him Tilty Cups with water in them. Once the relationship has mellowed and the sparks no longer fly, we'll trust him (and the surrounding clothing, carpet and furnishings) with a Tilty full of formula.

I don't know what happened Dad, I was leaning on you, playing with my drawstrings, and now here I am standing by myself! I don't know how to stand! 

Mmmmm, wawa!

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After getting Muddy all happy and hyped up in the bath, I like to spring his au naturel self on his mother. For the last streaking, I set the camera up beforehand to capture the joy our son exudes while sharing his physique with the world.

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Muddy struggles to find a comfortable position in which to sleep.

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Muddy enjoys some time to explore his surroundings after Mommy finished the photoshoot.

A true geek likes nothing more than keeping up-to-date on the latest and greatest technology available. Product announcements are spectator sports, and no gadget fan will miss a chance to "support the team" when there are live presentations going on. When Gavin heard that his good buddy Steve Jobs was going to be holding a press event to reveal new Apple products this afternoon, he reorganized his bottle, nap, and, uh, diaper schedule to allow him unfettered access to the numerous live-blogs covering the Apple Event in real time.

Hey Mom! Ten minutes left until it starts, Apple is letting people into the building! The lights are dimming, Coldplay is playing in the background, and there is something under a dark cloth in the middle of the stage!

Gavin leaves a comment on the Gizmodo live-blog: "Dude, I hope el Jobso announces a new iPod Touch with a bang-resistant screen, drool-proof power & sync connectors, and an antimicrobial, chewable bezel!"

Oh, the dear, sweet boy warms his dorky father's heart.

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I haven't checked the Growing Child book, but I image that a full understanding of the principles of thermodynamics doesn't come until at least 12-18 months. Nevertheless, Gavin is showing remarkable progress by promptly reducing any order (within his sphere of influence) to complete disorder.

Today, we walked to Falls Lake to enjoy another day of lovely North Carolina fall weather and for this year's Christmas card photo shoot. I'm getting a head start since we never sent cards last year (ack! sorry!). Last winter, the plan had been to send Christmas/birth announcement combo cards rather than two cards to the same list of people in the same month. When Gavin chose to arrive two weeks late and well after Christmas, that plan went out the window. So, here we are in early October already planning the 2008 Christmas cards so they can be mailed early enough.

It was around two o'clock in the afternoon, a horrible time of day for portraits because the sun is high and harsh, but we found a small patch of grass shaded by a tree and let Gavin to play with the leaves while I snapped away.

Sucky break...

This one made it to the final round of judging for THE shot on the card, but lost by a hair to the winner:

As for the best shot of the day, check your mailboxes in late November ;).

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There is no climax to this bit of film, but I find it amusing to see how his style of play has changed since his earlier months.

At forty weeks...

• As documented earlier, Gavin took his first car trip.
  
• Gavin starts in an all-fours position, lifts his posterior to an altitude higher than his head and then drops his noggin to the floor and looks between his legs. Very odd.
• Today, he received his first injury of note.

This cut on my eye? Let me tell you how it went down...

He came at me out of nowhere. He was this tall! He was swinging one of those Fisher Price chatter phones by the handset cord. He reared back and popped me right in the eye. My chubby knees buckled and I collapsed at his feet.

He turned around to pick up his stacker toy with which to deliver the coup de grace. I grabbed his size 6 foot with both hands and... chomp!

Really, I was just standing at Daddy's bookshelf and slipped, but that story is more impressive, eh?

After a jam-packed Saturday driving up the mountains and around several towns, we decided to spend Sunday more leisurely by puttering along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were greeted by serene Price Lake at the beginning of our journey.

Our destination was the Linn Cove Viaduct. We parked at the visitor center, loaded Gavin into his backpack, and headed out on the rocky trail.

Gavin just loves hiking on trails like this, especially when the path narrows and he can reach out to touch the rocks and leaves.

After taking "the scenic route" by choosing the wrong fork in the trail, we eventually found the vista we were searching for. The Linn Cove Viaduct is one of the most famous locations for photographing the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Gavin climbed up onto the boulders for a rare photograph with Mommy taken by Aunt Kristen.

Then, he went back to playing on the ground with leaves while Mommy continued to take pictures.

Again, the leaves...

We hiked back to the car and drove to a picnic area to eat lunch. Gavin played in the grass and found...leaves.

Daddy gave Gavin's toesies a brief dip until he added another first: Gavin's first leech. Don't worry, it was tiny and Daddy removed it right away.

Our final adventure of the day was a walk along the horse trail at Moses H. Cone Memorial Park.

Exhausted, Gavin slept for most of the drive back home. We all can't wait to head back to the mountains. So, Aunt Faye, are you ready for house guests again next weekend? ;)

On Friday afternoon, we headed to Boone, about a three-hour drive west to the mountains, for a relaxing weekend. Gauntie Faye is building a house outside of Boone and we stayed with her in a friend's cabin just down the road from the construction site. Gavin travelled well since the trip coincided with his afternoon nap quite nicely.

We woke up to this view from the back porch of the cabin on Saturday morning...

Eager to check out Faye's house, we threw a few layers of clothing on Gavin and walked a half mile up (and I do mean UP!) the unpaved road. Gavin was quite taken by the view out the back once we arrived...

What a view!

Then, he gave Faye some construction advice while cuddling with Gmummy...

He quickly grew tired of the gorgeous view and moved on to more interesting things... like leaves...

Ah, yes, Gavin loves leaves!

We walked up the road a bit further to check out the neighborhood. Gavin decided it was a good time for his morning nap...

Back at the cabin, we rested from the walk, planned the rest of the day, and left for lunch at a fantastic Italian restaurant in Boone.

Grandfather Mountain was our destination in the afternoon. The summit was very high and very sunny. We were blessed with incredibly beautiful weather the entire weekend.

Daddy wisely decided it wasn't safe to cross the mile-high swinging bridge with Gavin in the backpack, so they stayed behind while Mommy, Aunt Kristen, and Gauntie Faye ventured across.

Back at the cabin, we enjoyed a dinner of homemade soup and made smores around Daddy's campfire while Gavin rocked in the "nursery" with Gmummy and Faye up on the back porch.

Mr. Silly was born nine months ago today. We're celebrating by heading to the mountains (Boone, to be precise) this weekend to visit Gauntie Faye, enjoy the cool autumn air, and hopefully see some colorful leaves. We're leaving the internet behind for the weekend so the daily photos won't be posted until sometime after we return home Sunday evening.

Gavin also sends a big slobbery kiss to Auntie Beth who is celebrating her birthday today. Gheeeeeeeh, Auntie Beth!

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Mmmmbabammmbabammmbabammmmbaba!

The highlight of Gavin's 39th week is his babbling. He is making clear "bababa" and "mamama" sounds all strung together. "B" and "M" appear to be his favorite letters so far. I could go on and on at this point about how cute it sounds but I'm sure everyone would be rolling their eyes at a biased Mama by the end of the fifth paragraph so I'll just let the video speak for itself (ha! "speak" for itself!).

Gavin holds his own bottle now most of the time. Daddy lets him do this more than Mommy. She refuses to acknowledge her baby is growing up and insists on cradling him like a newborn while holding his bottle for him. Pretty soon he won't even need a bottle anymore. Sigh. :)

This morning was Gavin's quick and (relatively) painless nine-month well baby exam. Here is the fresh batch of stats:

• 21 pounds, 11 ounces (70th percentile)
• 29.5 inches long (85th percentile)
• 47.9 cm head circumference (99th percentile) 

After the usual weigh-in and measurements by the nurse, Gavin's pediatrician gave him a clean bill of health and just one immunization. We received more advice on tooth care (the doctor expects only 2 teeth at his age!) and feeding.

This evening, Gavin cuddled with his favorite toy, Monkey (we're not too creative with names around here!), before calling it a night. Gavin face lights up just seeing Monkey and he loves to hug him ... and chew his tail!