A Harvard Wannabe

On Tuesday after I picked up Finley from daycare, we headed over to Cambridge. We had a 4pm appointment for an infant study at Harvard. This study was about how gender preferences affect social preferences in 10 month old babies. The girl running the experiment was really nice and Finley smiled away at her as she explained the process. Then it was time to put him to work. Finley sat on my lap and watched a short video of a woman and then a man talking in baby friendly voices. Then, both the man and woman showed up on the screen at the same time holding identical stuffed toys. They held them out towards Finley and then the same toys were put up onto the table in front of us (as if the people of the video were handing them to him). The study was looking to see which toy he would choose or lean towards i.e. which gender does he want a toy from. He was quite attentive for the first two rounds of the video and chose one toy each time, but was not interested in the last two (he thought the mirror behind us was much more interesting). Ah well, he got to choose toy on the way out (rubber ducky with Harvard logo) and we headed out.

As luck would have it, Dan's new job site is next door to the building where they do the infant studies at Harvard! So we got a quick tour of his project before strolling through campus in the lovely summerish fall weather. We went through a farmer's market and then played in the grass for a while. It was absolutely perfect (aside from dodging falling acorns) and we got some terrific photos.

Yes, Finley and his teething hedgehog are fairly inseparable these days. Usually, we keep it in the diaper bag for those occasional cranky moments on the go (car, restaurants, waiting in line, etc.), but for some reason I give it him now whenever we're out and about since it just makes him so darn happy. Finley's smile is harder to see with Hedgie, but our attempt to take it away was met with a big frown...so we caved. I have a feeling this will happen more and more in our immediate future!

Dan had a frisbee commitment after work so Finley and I headed home to eat dinner and play before bedtime. I decided to put Finley in pajamas that night since it was a bit chilly and we are contemplating what to do once Finley outgrows his sleepsack (wearable blanket). Most nights he wears a long-sleeved onesie and his sack, but hopefully he'll move to just footie PJs in the future. I found a pair in our big tub of handmedowns and we tried them on for size. Finley looked SO cute, though the feet seemed to frustrate him as he tried to pull himself up and stay standing on the hardwood floor. He slipped several times before he figured it out.

Not sure if it improved his sleep habits, but the adorable factor was so high that we'll certainly try these again soon.