Shortly after Noah was born, we got a letter from Emory University, asking us to agree to be on a list of people who might be contacted for studies by their Child Development Center. We thought that would be kind of cool, and sent back the postcard.

And then we never thought about it again.

Last week, they called us for the first time. Wednesday morning, Noah and I went to their Spatial Cognition Laboratory to, as I explained it to Noah, “play a game with a nice lady.”

The setup was cool, but Noah didn’t seem to like it. They have an area set up with a circle of heavy white curtains around it, so it’s hard to orient yourself.

Inside the curtained area, there was a ~4′x4′ playpen-type box with 18″ walls. Two walls were patterned with bright red “Xs” and two with bright blue circles. In each corner was a tall white lidded container.

The “game” was that Noah and I would stand inside the box and watch as the study person put a toy ducky in one of the containers. Then we turned around for a count of 3, while I attempted to obscure Noah’s vision. At the end of the turning, I put Noah down in a particular place in the box, and stepped just outside of it. Noah was then supposed to find the ducky.

Noah hated this game. He especially hated the turning part, but he didn’t much care for the being in the box at all. The first few times of finding the ducky were kind of fun, but by the end, it was all “no! no! no! out! out! out!”

Poor guy. Suffering for science already.

After we finished, they gave Noah a cool t-shirt and certificate thanking him for his help. And I gave him back his apple juice and let him run around the Child Development Center’s yard looking at acorns and sticks.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and eventually we went to regular daycare and work.

BTW, last night Noah again insisted on falling asleep in his bed. Unfortunately, this insistence came towards the end of almost 40 minutes of screaming and yelling “no” in response to all inquiries. (Do you want to get out of the bath? Do you want to stay in the bath?)

At one point, I put him in his crib, and he flung himself at me, while also hooking his foot over the top of the crib. He can get his heel over the side.

I picked him up before he could test the question of whether or not that would provide enough leverage to actually escape. My scared mommy money is on yes, it would. If he leaned his head outside of the crib and pulled with that leg, I think he’d flip right out.

Anyone want to place bets on how long before we permanently move out of the crib?