Experiments

The scientist in me loves to experiment. Since I no longer do that in a professional setting, I'm forced to design my own (not so scientific) experiments with my kids. Here are some of my recent exploits:

The Painting Experiment

We were stir crazy in the worst way. It was the third straight day school had been canceled for snow. We had to decline a play date invitation from our neighbor because Jackson had a terrible cough and runny nose. Selah, who is adding demolition expert to her list of possible future career choices, had pretty much ruined everything Jackson had tried to play that day: blocks, puzzles, computer games, even TV (kept turning it off in the middle of his program). She was pulling things apart and making messes faster than I could clean up the last one. Jackson was getting bored, and I was running out of ideas. In a desperate fit of insanity, I suggested painting. (Really, Kelley? Did you not just say that Selah had destroyed everything? Do you really think pulling out PAINTS is a good idea?) I said I was desperate! I put down a big beach towel on the floor, set up the easel, paints, and brushes for Jackson, stripped Selah down to her diaper, put a little bit of paint in three plastic baby food containers, and put a piece of paper on each side of the easel. I hoped to keep Selah busy with her own paints so as to protect Jackson's artwork from any "little sister" additions. The results were mixed. Jackson successfully painted 2 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (both Raphael) and Master Splinter.

Selah got to experience paints for the first time, and had fun. I managed to keep most of her paint confined to her paper, her body, and the beach towel, save two long brushstrokes on the living room carpet when I had my back turned. Overall, not bad.

After paint, we killed some more time in the bath, which they both love. We survived the day!

The Using-the-Camera-as-a-Video-Camera Experiment

On Tuesday, all the primary students at Jackson's school performed for the PTA. It was so cute. I wanted to capture this "first" on video, but our video camera's battery is shot. I knew it wouldn't work unless constantly plugged in, and I wasn't sure we would have access to a close enough outlet to pull that off in the school's gym. So, I used my camera. I only videoed small sections of the program, but it worked. In another experiment, I think I may have figured out how to post that video on here....we'll see if it works (the first 30 seconds you can see he clammed up, but then he started singing and smiled and waved when he finally saw us):

The Nap Experiment

The hypothesis: Giving Selah a very consistent schedule of 11:00 lunch and 11:30 nap will produce a longer (goal: 2 hour) naptime and have a cascading effect of a happier evening baby. I'm trying to help Selah make that transition to one long nap instead of two (or sometimes one) short naps. It is very difficult to isolate my variable, though since there are uncontrollable influencing factors like illness, doorbells, and big brothers. So far, my hypothesis is proving false, but like any good scientist I am persevering with my experiment until I am sure my results are reproducable...or until my hypothesis yields to my stubborn WILL for it to be true.

The Bow Experiment

Last Valentine's Day, my mom got Selah this adorable socks and bow set. Being practically bald at 6 months of age, I saved the bows thinking "next year we'll be able to use these!" So, "next year" has arrived, and we're still a little short on hair. But today I decided to give it a try. It was hilarious. Battling against my own ineptness of bow placement, Selah's refusal to leave the bow in her hair (too curious), and her hair's inability to hold a bow for any reasonable amount of time, I did finally manage to get her to wear it for about 15 minutes. It was cute!

But you could still see her rooster spike sticking up in the back!

These experiments keep things from being so "same" around here. They challenge my patience and creativity and certainly keep me laughing....even if it's in the mad scientist way!