Daphne’s 9-month checkup was yesterday afternoon, and once again all went swimmingly.

I had assumed that her ridiculous rate of growth would have slowed a bit, mostly because it felt like we’d been in the 12-month pajama range for a while.  But no, the girl is growing even faster now.  She’s gone up to the 98th percentile for overall length, and the 56th percentile for weight.

Yes, we’re growing an Amazon baby.  I was unaware that my wife’s lineage led back to Themyscira.

We should’ve named her Diana.

The doc wasn’t thrilled about the fact that Daphne isn’t crawling yet.  And apparently she should be pulling herself up into a standing position by now, and she isn’t doing that.  (Although to be fair, we’ve never shown her how to do this.)

But other that those very minor quibbles, she’s a hale and healthy little girl.

And for this, I am incredibly thankful.

Also, we’re told it’s time for us to start her on real people food, rather than her previous diet of Similac and rice cereal/fruit gruel.  I’ve actually been breaking open my french fries at Whole Foods and giving her tiny, smushy pieces of the potato innards for the past couple weeks.  And she really seems to really like them.  (What kid doesn’t like french fries?)  I believe Jen tried to give her some avocado last night, about which Daphne was apparently lukewarm.

I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say about these burgeoning gastronomic adventures in the future.

But now, it’s time for…

Yes, tomorrow’s the day!

Well technically it starts on Friday, but we’re leaving town tomorrow afternoon in preparation.  And speaking of prep, we’re currently getting our panels/game time/Daphne schedules in order.

The panels we’re trying to hit up this year are:

You Have Died of Dysentery: Meaningful Gaming in Education
Making Friends in Geek Spaces
Traversing the Cow Level:  The Challenges of Gamers IRL
Scared Yet?  A Discussion of Horror in Games
and
The Geek Bar & Restaurant Panel

Sadly, there is no “Gaming & Parenting” panel this year, which was one of the best parts about last year’s convention.

As for the gaming part:

As I mentioned, Fantasy Flight Games is running their X-Wing tournament on Saturday.  It’s possible that I’ll get in on that if we have the time.  And on Saturday night Cascade Games is hosting a draft where you open an entire box of Magic (Battle for Zendikar, in case you’re interested) and build a deck out of the cards inside.  That sounds like a blast, and is a convenient excuse to get excited about cracking 36 packs of M:tG cards.  I wouldn’t mind getting in on some 5th edition D&D or some rounds of the Pathfinder: Adventure Card Game.

But, as I recall from last year, the best time Jen and I had the whole weekend was in simply messing around with games that we’d checked out from their library in the “Freeplay Arena.”  That’s how we discovered the Pathfinder: ACG.

Remember this?

I also think it’s important that we do a bit more local stuff this year, so we’re definitely going to drop by the Esquire Tavern, which is apparently the oldest pub on the Riverwalk.

Bill S. Preston’s Bar.

It’s always an imperative that we get Jen some Tex-Mex while we have someone watching Daphne, so we’ll probably try out Acenar downtown.

And I would love to hit up a patio somewhere for a post-PAX beer or two, as the weather is supposed to be in the mid-70’s and sunny all weekend, so I’m thinking The Friendly Spot?

This one’s a bit of a hike.

All these plans are supremely malleable of course.  Some we’ll make; some we’ll miss.  As long as a good time is had by all, I really don’t care.

Okay, see you kids tomorrow.

j.s.