Third in a series; come back tomorrow for more of this month-by-month look back at Nyan Thomas’s first life; scroll down for the first two installments.

Nyan Thomas’s third month of life – from late September through late October – started out with a necessary evil: vaccinations. As it turned out, Mommy and Daddy were more uptight about the needle than Nyan was; as we reported at the time:

He was brave. He was nonplussed. He took it just fine – no fussing, no crying, no nothing.

He did get a bit fussy later that evening and the next day, but no fever to speak of. He’s been like that all of his doctor visits, and vaccinations: calm and cool and more interested, frankly, in flirting with the nurses, or getting up and crawling around and exploring the office, than being worried about being poked or prodded. In fact, to this day, we have yet to find anything at all that he’s afraid of. Not sure if that’s normal or not, and I suppose it could be a problem when, for instance, he’s not afraid of grabbing electric cords and shoving them in his mouth for a good chew. Just one more thing for his parents to keep an eye on…

The number of visitors dropped off in October, but we still got to enjoy a brief visit mid-month by Grandma and Grandpa L., who swung through town on their drive back to Iowa from a vacation in Virginia. Mommy and Daddy also both caught a bug in October; Daddy got the worst of it, and stayed in bed for two straight days. They discovered that a cuddly little baby really is the best medicine. (And don’t worry: we made sure we didn’t get the boy sick. In fact, we decided that he had whatever it was first.)

We also noticed in October that our boy was paying extremely close attention to what we do, and doing it himself. Case in point: Mommy had a cough for a few days after she was sick; during one overnight feeding, he suddenly starting coughing as well. It momentarily freaked us out, until we realized it was not a real cough  he was just doing what Mommy was doing.

Another minor health issue in October (seems to be a theme of the month, doesn’t it?): we found a small boil on his bum. Didn’t look serious, but we still had the pediatrician check it out. She said it was nothing and prescribed antibiotic cream. It never really went away, however; a couple months later, Pho Pho (Grandpa K.) determined that it was a fistula – nothing serious, but more than just a boil, and someting that a simple antibiotic cream wouldn’t take care of. This, frankly, was our first sign that our pediatrician was not all that great. She was friendly and seemed competent enough, but on Nyan’s visits to see her, she would spend all of five minutes with the boy after her nurses took care of everything. I guess that’s how it’s done in a busy, crowded place like Park Slope, Brooklyn, but for Mommy and Daddy – who come from smaller towns, where medical service is more personal, and both of whom have plenty of medical professionals in their families – it was rather jarring. It ended up being just one more reason we determined Brooklyn was no place to raise a child.

We also worked a lot in October on communication with the boy. As I wrote at the time:

Otherwise, we’re just enjoying hanging out with him, talking to him, whether in Burmese, English, or baby talk… and yes, the kid is a talker. Especially during the days, he’s babbling nonstop. We figure he thinks he’s actually communicating with us, and wonder what he thinks we’re saying when we make random gurgling noises at him. Other times, we think he seems a little frustrated when he’s babbling and gurgling and yet remains unable to clearly communicate. We recognize most of his cries and what they mean, and have gotten quite good at figuring out when he’s hungry, when he wants a cuddle, when he wants to be left alone, and when he needs a new diaper. Beatrice is especially good at interpreting those signals; I’m not nearly as far along, since I get to spend huge chunks of my days and weeks away from him, chained to an office in Midtown Manhattan.

Minor medical issues aside, I’d say it was a good month, with a lot of progress made as far as figuring our what makes little Nyan Thomas tick.