Things to cheer you up, or just make you go huh:

[orichalcum]

1. In a grocery store ad for a new product: "Himalania Pink Sea Salt, imported directly from France from the footsteps of the Himalayas."

Ah, those French Himalayas - I love to listen to the Sherpas yodeling.

2. Weirdest Radio ad of the week: "Hi, I'm a zombie. The worst thing about being a zombie is that I have no mind of my own, and I have to do what anyone tells me. This makes listening to car ads really hard. But if I had a mind of my own, I would buy a Toyota Prius..."

So meta...

3. Most Confusing Headline of the Day: "Corzine Critical after Car Accident," NYTimes.

The governor had very harsh words to say about the truck that hit him and ran?

Also, I don't know what to make of this, but Mac was crawling around on the floor and I told him, "No, don't go for the power cord, go for your book," while pointing in the general direction of the book. He turned himself around and went for the book. Of course, after a few seconds he then tried to go after Eowyn's toy, and things got a bit exciting - not cuz Eowyn was being aggressive, but because she thought this was the beginning of a great game of Keep Away. I don't think Mac is ready for Keep Away yet. Eowyn (apparently "Edwyn" according to the Evanston dog registry form, which arrived yesterday) disagrees.

Comments

[apintrix.livejournal.com]

New horizons in geography, eh?


Did I ever tell you about the baby-on-a-glass-table experiment?

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

Is it the one with an apparent cliff?

[apintrix.livejournal.com]

Yeah-- and the beckoning mother.

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

No....

[apintrix.livejournal.com]

OK, so-- you take a baby at the crawling stage and put him on a wooden table that has a glass extension at one end, so that it looks like it ends (like a cliff) but it's actually glass. The mother stands at the far end of the glass segment. The baby crawls toward her. He always hesitates at the apparent cliff, but if the mother smiles and makes an encouraging face, he crawls right onto the glass. If the mother looks frightened or shocked, he stops and won't proceed. Basically, it's an experiment for facial communication of information to babies. But it also implies that they will to some extent go at your whim!

the "visual cliff" experiment

[(Anonymous)]

Didn't the experiment partly depend on the age and mobility of the baby?

We used to joke that SMNH had no concept of the visual cliff. When he first started crawling, we could put him on the bed and he'd happily trot off the side except that we'd be holding his ankles to stop him (while saying "visual cliff! Where's your visual cliff???"). But now that he's even more mobile, he seems to have developed the concept and will get to the edge and peer over without proceeding. We still can't leave him on the bed, since he'll sometimes peer a bit too far or not realize that the edge of the bed is behind him and lean back. But at least he doesn't (usually) try to dive right off the edge.

And not having a dog of our own (on purpose), we discovered the game of 'chase the puppy' last weekend at ACNH's cousin's house. The dog is only a bit larger than SMNH, who gleefully chased him around the room. I was both concerned for the chance of S getting bitten and the dog getting his eyes grabbed, but neither happened. Much fun all around. :)

-MJNH

Re: the "visual cliff" experiment

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Mac totally hasn't gotten the visual cliff yet. I am reminded, though, of something you mentioned a few months ago, in that he is no longer nearly as interested in just sitting quietly in my lap and cuddling or reading. It's Crawl-Crawl-Play! all the time...

[resonance42.livejournal.com]

Heh. Reminds me of chunks of the spiel I give to my babies' parents at this age as part of the anticipatory guidance and safety segment of their well child visits...

:-)

[orichalcum.livejournal.com]

Do not put them on glass tables?

I rely mostly on a book called the Portable Pediatrician by a family friend, Laura Nathanson. She says lots of common-sense things like "babies can't fall off the floor" and "the cry of a baby left alone to sleep is not one of grief, but of anger."