what's going on up there?

Nate's super-active brain cells were scientifically recorded to prove how amazing he is at the Rochester Infant Lab, which is affiliated with the University of Rochester's Brain and Cognitive Psych department. How, you may ask, did the RIL researchers come to find our beloved Nate? They singled him out from the many local babies to study how smart he is. Or, if you're into accuracy, we got a letter asking for volunteers to help with a study about infant learning and we agreed.

I was a little apprehensive because they left a message on our machine on Friday reminding us of our appointment and casually mentioning that he'd need to wear a "little cap." Now, we've spent most of the past few months standing in the shade because Nate decided he no longer likes hats, despite his relative baldness, so the idea of him happily hanging out wearing someone else's little cap seemed loaded with troubles. But, for whatever reason, they decided we wouldn't be part of the cap study, and instead they'd be monitoring his eye motions using non-wearable technology. So Nate and his human chair (that's me) got to watch a stimulating video of shapes either staying static on the screen or rotating. Occasionally (here's the kicker!) they'd swap out one of the regular shapes with a new one. In all seriousness, it was pretty interesting to see the results showing what Nate looked at most - he seemed to look longer at the rotating shapes and the ones that were different from the norm (particularly the heart-shaped one. Must be because I was there!) And, according to the woman running the study, he was the far and away the best baby at sitting still and watching the video. I'm not sure what that means, but we'll take it as a compliment (and a cautionary note for his parents who may think his mellow nature is normal for babies, thus encouraging future siblings who turn out more hyper, like his mom).

In mommy news, I don't know how much I've mentioned all the weird hormonal issues that come along with pregnancy and post-pregnancy, but around when we had all those feeding problems when Nate was around four months old I lost lots of hair. Nothing scary (honestly, it was more gross than anything) but way more than usual. Well, I'm sort of happy to report that it all seems to be growing back. I'm only sort of happy because anyone who's had hair longer than Nate knows that it sticks straight out from your scalp until it's long enough to let gravity pull it down. So I have all these funny, short hairs poking out all over the place. I'm sure it'll all grow in just fine, but for now it's just really silly.