Tuesday 9 February 2010

when did you get so big?

I had the joy of meeting (and holding) a new little baby today. He had a tiny little body with legs and arms all still curled up. And like all new babies he had that desire to be close to a warm body. As he looked up at me with his big beautiful eyes I looked down at...
my behemoth baby playing on the floor.

I had to blink back tears.

When did you get so big, little sprout?

I mean, I know you've grown a bit since you were born. You don't exactly fit into those clothes any more. But I just never realized how much you've grown.

It is not insignificant, that's for sure.

Sniff sniff... you are growing up far too fast.

Wednesday 3 February 2010

the stupid things we say

The other day the dude and I were discussing our parenting. Specifically, our natural parenting ways. And I said that we were pretty out there, even for natural parenting. That we were, like, "super" natural parenting.

"Supernatural parenting?" The dude looked at me quizzically.

"Yes." I said.

"So, we're channeling ghosts and spirits to help us parent?"

Har har.

Monday 1 February 2010

for the love of science

I love science.

It's like this dirty little secret I have. Shhh... don't talk about the B.Sc I have in biology. Okay, it's actually biopharmaceutical science with an honours in genomics. But, shhh...

A few years ago when I went back to university to take some psychology courses for fun (yes, I said fun), I became fascinated by infant word learning. And the prof was pretty cool. So when I had my baby, I looked up his lab to see if we could participate in a study.

They called me last week to tell me the sprout was eligible! Yeah!!!

It was a study to see if the sprout could differentiate between 2 similar sounding vowels in French and in English. The sprout sat on my lap with a video screen in front of us. I got to wear massive headphones and listen to horrendous music while the sprout was tested to see if he could differentiate between the two vowel sounds.

A checkerboard pattern would appear on the screen while a disembodied voice would say the sound. The first time this happened the sprout looked around wildly trying to find the source of this new voice. Apparently a lot of babies due this :) Once he had habituated to the first sound, the experimenter switched it to a second similar sound to see if he could tell the difference.

It's like dessus and dessous (over and under in French). A native speaker (one that has learned French from birth) can differentiate between the two sounds, however slight that difference is. English or bilingual non-native speakers (aka anglo me over here) can't. The only reason I know these are supposed to sound different is because of all the ballet training I had. Glissade dessus and dessous. Still, as a baby learns language are they able to differentiate between the sounds at such an early age? Do they pay attention to that detail?

I'm seriously hopping up and down I am so excited that the sprout is helping to find the answer.

I am such. a. dork.

Nonetheless, the sprout gave a stellar performance. He made it to the end of both trials that we participated in (French and English). He was able to provided two whole data points for the research... for science... for the greater good! Well, okay, maybe that's going a little far.

But he did get a t-shirt!

I'd just like to give a huge shout out to the Language Development Lab. Yeah awesomeness!