How We Decide, a Study of the Brain

It snowed yesterday morning, which meant it took twice as long as usual to get to work. While I was inching down the freeway in Utah County, I heard the most FASCINATING report on NPR that I think everyone should know about.

Here's the scoop. A marketing professor at Stanford had each person participating in the study commit a number to memory. Some of the people were given two digit numbers, and some seven digit numbers.

(If you remember from psych 101, there are several famous studies which concluded that 7 digits is all we can store in our short term memory--which is why phone numbers are "rememberable", except that now we have 10 digits in Utah!)

Back to the study. The person was to commit the number to memory and then deliver that number to a person in a room down the hall.

While walking down the hall, each person was presented with a snack, as a thanks for participating in the study. A piece of chocolate cake, or a healthy bowl of fruit.

Those who were given the seven digit number were TWICE as likely to choose the cake! That's not just barely statistically significant, that's overwhelmingly significant.

The theory: the rational part of our brains are constantly at war with the emotional parts. When we fill up valuable cognitive space in our rational side, our emotional side is quick to take over.

I can only imagine the marketing implications...

Bedtime Stories

It's no secret that bedtime is my favorite time of day. One of the good things about short, winter days is that the early darkness gives me an excuse to get my pajamas on as early as I want.

Isn't climbing into bed with a book heavenly? I remember when I was little I'd take a flashlight to bed so I could read under the covers. I don't indulge in many books these days. It's too risky. If it's a really good book it will consume me and I will ignore my family and stay up way too late while I read just one more page. Okay, one more chapter...or five. And then I can't function the next day.

So in this stage of life most of my bedtime stories are C.J.'s. I love this mommy-son time. But lately it's getting a bit more challenging. C.J. wants to know what EVERYTHING does. I guess it's how he learns about the world. But it means every book takes about four times longer than it should to read. For example:

M: Goodnight Moon

CJ: What does the moon do?

M: It shines in the sky at night.

M (very quickly to avoid interruptions): In the great green room there was a telephone and a red balloon

CJ: What does the red balloon do?

M: It floats around the room.

M: And a picture of--the cow jumping over the moon.

CJ: What does the cow do?

M: It jumps over the moon.

CJ: What does the moon do?

M: It shines in the sky at night...

I have resorted to skipping pages so we can make it through the book. Don't tell C.J.

Another book, "When Cows Come Home", has a page about cows doing somersaults. When I forget to skip that page, it sparks another action: C.J. climbing out of his bed to show me his somersaults.

But bedtime reading is still my favorite time of day.

Grammy came for dinner last week and stayed for bedtime stories. What a treat!

Six Months Old and Still Growing

Eli had his 6 month checkup today. Here are his stats:

Height: 26 inches (31%)

Weight: 15 1/2 lbs (14%)

Dr. Valentine was impressed with his sitting abilities and gave him a clean bill of health. Now if he would only sleep through the night!

I love our appointments with Dr. Valentine--I always learn something new. Today he told me that 6 month olds can differentiate between their parents' native tongue and other languages. He also talked about some studies that show that babies are just learning the difference between right and wrong at 18 months, not at 9 months like many believe.

Today was also Eli's first day at Christine's day care. She said he did great. I know it was harder on me, though I did pretty well, too. Except I was over half way to work when I realized I was in the car pool lane...whoops. And I definitely felt empty-handed going to meetings today without a stroller, bottle, formula, burp cloth, toys, or baby!

A Review of Christmas

Christmas morning was a delightful one. C.J. was happy to watch a few episodes of Curious George while I showered and made breakfast. We finally showed him all the presents, but I don't think he realized that he was actually going to get to open all them all that morning! He spent some time organizing the gifts under the tree and then on the floor.

And then we told him he could open them...

"It's a BOX!" And then he was off to open the next gift.

Yes, we did tell him there were toys inside the boxes. He was thrilled to receive a stuffed Woody, a big box of pretend food for his kitchen, some trucks and a bulldozer, some books, a sled, and some kid-skis. Eli received a darling tag monster, stickers for his wall, a book, a stuffed Snoopy, and a cute elephant rattle.

Barry pulled C.J. around the yard on his sled and they did a few ski runs down our hill. It was a cold day, but he didn't seem to mind.

He preferred the skis over the sled. Maybe because he could get air on his skis!

We used his sled today (January 2) though and had a blast. We went to the park with the Brinkerhoffs. C.J. was a bit apprehensive at first--he didn't want to start at the top of the hill but just half-way down. But soon he was cruising down from the top on Aubrey's sled with her and Ryan. Which meant I had a sled to myself. I had forgotten how much fun sledding is. We'll have to do that again, soon!