We Start Them Young

Our children are doomed to overexposure of science. At age 5.5 months, Dalllin has already received his first award! Last week the USU Multisensory Cognition Center contacted us about having Dallin help out with a study of "the development of numerical abilities in children." They were targeting 5-6 month-old infants for this phase.

Their flyer read: "Your child will sit in a high chair beside you, and we will show him or her fun patterns or pictures. An observer will measure how long your child looks at each picture, and we will use that information to figure out what children know about seemingly complex things such as numbers. That's it! Your child will always be with you and they generally have a great time."

It sounded pretty harmless. Plus, Dallin is such a good-natured little fellow that even though he can only count to 100, we thought he would be a good candidate to help with their data points. When we made the appointment, Erin was also invited to come along to join in another project for 4-9 year-olds. She was excited that she would be able to play some games and earn prizes.

We left for our appointment this morning, and Dallin was wide awake and happy. A nice graduate student met us at the curb in the parking lot and gave us a parking pass. We then proceeded to drive around the parking lot looking for an empty place. There were none available other than the handicapped and service vehicle spots. During this time Dallin counted 53 vehicles. So we drove around again...we waited...Dallin started getting a tad fussy, and after about 10 minutes, a van pulled out and we took that spot.

The nice student apologized and said that parking spots are usually available. She led us to the testing rooms in the building. Fortunately, during this time, Dallin had regained his happy state and smiled at the other researchers who were watching me fill out multiple pages of paperwork and sign consent forms. Dallin counted 4 smiling faces, 7 boring pages, and 92 ceiling tiles.

Erin went with a student into a different room to play counting games on a touch screen computer. Dallin and I went into his test room, which was a small cubicle surrounded by a black curtain with a computer screen visible through one of the curtains. The instructions were for me to sit in front of the screen and hold Dallin on my lap while they showed him pictures. If he started to look up at me, I was supposed to close my eyes and not react.

Then...they turned off all the lights!

Dallin didn't like that. How is a baby supposed to count in the dark? A ball with Dora the Explorer's head appeared on the screen moving up and down, up and down. Dallin watched for the first set, then he started looking up at me. This was followed by squirming and mild fussing. Then he looked at the screen again for a little bit, then fussed some more. The researchers said we could take a little break and try to get him focused again. (Yeah, right!) We tried a second time, and Dallin glanced very briefly at the screen, realized there was still only one thing to count, and started fussing again. After about a whopping 5 whole minutes, (actual testing time of 3 min.) they said "thanks for participating" and that they were able to get "some useful information" from him. We didn't even make it to the actual test portion where they alternated the bouncing ball with other pictures. Oh well...

We went back into the student office area where the lights were on, and guess what? Dallin stopped fussing as soon as he had counted 7 pencils on the desk. He then looked at the other people and smiled. They gave us his little certificate and we chose a rattle from an assortment of prizes. He grabbed onto the rattle and instantly chewed it and started drooling all over (but they were not taking saliva samples for this particular study).

Erin was still playing her games, so we had to wait a few more minutes for her. When she came out, she proudly showed off her sticker collection (Dallin counted 32) and a plastic toy watch she had earned. She told me about the games, and apparently she had a great time. I think they may have useful data from her.

At least we have this lovely piece of paper for Dallin's scrapbook
to help us feel like he made a great contribution to science!

Dallin is thrilled about his new rattle as it doesn't turn soggy
like the paper when he tries to eat it.

The Snowball Effect (or What Happens When Grandpa Gives us a Desk)

Long story made a bit shorter...

Grandpa Young was going to give away his nice office desk to DI unless someone wanted it. We said, "Sure, we'll take it. It's a great desk. Thanks!"

We hauled it back to Logan following Ian's birthday celebrations. It sat in our living room for a day while April and children:

1) Moved the computer, printer, file cabinets, and the old desk out of entryway
2) Cleaned and vacuumed all the dust bunnies that had accumulated behind
3) Looked at the boring white wall behind desk and decided we should paint it
4) Wiped down wall, taped baseboard, and painted wall with leftover paint from living room project
5) Painted a second coat
6) Indulged in leftover ice cream from Ian's party.

When Kevin returned from work at 11:00 p.m. Tuesday night (after driving home in a snowstorm), he and April:

1) Washed the floor
2) Moved new desk into place
3) Decided to build a shelf to place the computer on (rather than the floor under the desk)
4) Cut board and installed shelf
5) Hooked computer back up
6) Indulged in leftover chocolate from Valentine's Day.

The following morning, April and children:

1) Placed new file cabinet (part of the new desk) next to desk
2) Moved printer and connected it back up
3) Organized shelves of new desk in orderly fashion
4) Ooohed and aaahed over how nice the new desk is
5) Wondered what to do with old file cabinet contents (not all fit into new cabinet) and how to rearrange the remainder of entryway...
6) Spent the remainder of the day going through old files and shredding many papers

P.S. Take a look at our new furnace! Merry Christmas to us (really early this year)!

Decluttering Update

We've achieved our next prize! The children want to see the movie, Bolt.

February Fun

How much cuter can these two get?
Dallin helps us all smile more each day.

April has wanted to try out patchwork cards, and so one day she did. It took all day to make these three (with frequent interruptions). Don't expect to see many more until the children are grown and out of the house.

We've been battling illnesses for nearly half the month. Erin was hit pretty hard with a particularly nasty virus and spent many hours soaking and playing in a steamy tub (refilling with hot water as needed). The tub was the only place she could find some relief from her cough. Here she is showing off her creativity with foam soap. She ended up missing 3 storytime sessions at the library and almost earned an "inactive" slot on the Primary roll. Cross your fingers with us in the hope that she is finally on the mend.

Meet our friend Melissa! She's off to Malawi for 2 years to work
in the Peace Corps. Needless to say, we are rather jealous,
but that didn't keep us from attending her send-off party.

This is Thomas, his wife, and youngest son hanging out with Dallin.
Thomas is currently the only USU student from Malawi.

This is our 20-year-old basement furnace. What you can't see from the photo is that the circuit board is busted, meaning either 1) replace the part for several hundred dollars and hopefully get a few more years out of it, or 2) replace the entire furnace with a higher efficiency model. Ah, the joys of home ownership. We are grateful for Kevin's job and we are grateful for green air days the past week so we can burn our wood stoves while waiting for the new furnace to be installed.

Happy Birthday, Ian!

For Ian's birthday post, we thought we would share one of his current quirks: stacking objects.
Each night when we go into the bathroom to brush teeth, we find various arrangements of toiletries.

Ian was almost a Valentine's baby in 2000, missing it by about 7 hours.

As a result, this year we made the traditional V-day cookies
along with ninja star cookies for the birthday boy who,
at age 9, dislikes anything remotely mushy, like hearts.

Ian celebrated with his friends Luke and Andrew on Friday night,
then with grandparents on Sunday, his real birthday.
Due to lack of creativity on his mom's part this year,
he got a chocolate cake with a ninja star on it.

To make up for the boring (yet tasty) cake, he received some exciting toys.
His very favorites are a remote control helicopter and a new Hot Wheels track.
Thanks everyone!

200 Years Ago

Two great men in history were born 200 years ago today.
We pay tribute to both of them.

Charles Darwin(1809-1882)

We highly recommend checking out the link to learn more about this brilliant scientist. We have observed over the years that too many people have preconceived opinions and are misinformed about his contributions to science.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

We will also be spending time today reviewing the life and contributions of one of our most admirable US Presidents.

Monster Concert Post coming soon!

The 2009 Monster Concert post is temporarily on hold until we get some decent video editing software. We are finally giving up on Windows Movie Maker because it now crashes while importing video into the program. For now you can view our videos from 2007 and 2008 while you anxiously await the 2009 installment.

Five Months!

Hi everyone! I'm five months old already!
I can grab and hold onto things now.
And I'm grunting, squealing, chewing and drooling
while waiting for my second tooth to come in.

I'm still happy most of the time.
My siblings like to make me laugh.

I discovered that I can suck my thumb today.
Mom even caught it momentarily on a short video.

Mini Reunion

Today April, Heidi, Jen, and children met at Jen's house for a reunion/playdate. We have been wanting to get together for about 2 months now, and we finally did it. We all served together in the 18th Ward Primary during 2007-08 and were pregnant together, having babies within 6 months of each other. And, as the usual sad saga of our neighborhood goes, Jen and Heidi moved away, but at least they remained within Cache Valley. (The only ones missing from our happy Primary group were Megan D. and Dominoe. SLC & St. Louis are a tad too far to travel for just a playdate!)

Here are the cute babies--Abbie, Dallin, and Connor--all with big blue eyes. Connor ruled because he is the only one who can crawl all over, but Abbie isn't too far behind. Dallin demonstrated his ability to roll from his tummy to his back

Abbie and Dallin enjoyed tummy time together, while Connor was busy playing
with toys on the other side of the floor.

The older sisters had a great time playing together as well.
Unfortunately Julie ran and hid everytime she saw the camera,
but we were able to catch Kennady (a sweet little girl who Jen tends),
Afton, and Erin in this photo.

It was great to catch up with everyone! Thanks, Jen, for hosting it!