In other Vorlon news, I'd like to discuss his sleeping habits for a moment.

For those of you who don't know, babies sleep very erratically at first, then they usually develop a sleep interval at night that lengthens as they get older (and larger) until they're sleeping through the night. Now, "sleeping through the night" is typically defined as a five (or is it six?) hour stretch. This is, of course, a cruel joke played on new parents by the medical establishment, so that doctors can tell bleary-eyed parents at the end of their collective rope that their child is, ahem, sleeping through the night.

We never had anything to complain about with Zebula. She was bottle-fed, which usually produces babies who sleep longer (because formula takes longer to digest than breast milk). Nath will remember more clearly, but I think Zebula started sleeping in eight-hour stretches at about six weeks. By three months, she was up to an almost ludicrous twelve hours. And at six months, she slept a full twenty-four hours a day. Just kidding.

We weren't expecting anything like that from Vorlon. For one thing, he's breast-fed. Throw in the extra stress of managing Zebula at the same time, and you've got the usual recipe for tired parents. However, there's been a big change over the past week. While we were all on vacation, he got absolutely huge. He's like the Grande Burrito at Gordito's at 85th and Greenwood in Seattle -- no matter how many times I see him, I still can't get over how big he is. Mmmmmm. Grande Burrito. Anyway, two nights ago, he gave us a nine hour stretch. Last night, nine-and-a-half. As a parent of a three-month-old, I have absolutely no right to expect this kind of behaviour. It's pure, dumb luck. So much so that I hesitate to talk about it for fear of jinxing us. Good thing he can't read.

The past month or so has been bad for updates. I was away for two separate weeks, one for a conference and one for a family vacation. I have a bit more time for writing at the moment, though I wouldn't expect that to continue given that the fall term is about to start up and it looks pretty busy. I'll try to find some time to mention what's been up. The first update concerns the stock market.

Vorlon, who is now three months old and enormous, received a letter in the mail the other day. It was a dividend cheque from the Royal Bank. You see, when he was born, good family friends gave him three shares in the Royal Bank as a gift. And, less than three months later, those three measley shares have earned Vorlon a tidy profit of one dollar and eighty-three cents.

I invested some money in the stock market, and all I got out of it was the experience of watching a large percentage of it disappear. As I have said before, the best thing I did with those stocks was sell them and use the leftovers to pay for new windows. My son can't even sit up, but he's already a more savvy investor than I'll ever be. I guess some talents really do skip a generation.