Baby Lab at ATSU

The YMCA sits right next to AT Still University, a school for medical students.  They had posted a flyer up at the Y saying that the second year human development students were having their annual "baby lab" where they observe babies between the ages of newborn and fifteen months.  They were in need of babies to observe in these age ranges.  I remembered my child development classes in college and felt like Hudson would definitely be an interesting baby to observe so I called the professor and signed him up.  We woke up, had breakfast and then headed to the campus.  They had a room all set up with mats and toys everywhere.  Hudson was totally happy and got busy playing.  Soon the students came in and we introduced our babies.  Hudson and another baby named Austin were the only two babies that could walk out of the ten babies participating in the study.  The professor then assigned two students to each baby and they came over and introduced themselves and then started playing with Hudson.  He was being a total ham ball, it was great.  He waved at them and said "hello!" then showed them how he could kick a ball, identify his eyes, nose, mouth and hair, gave high fives, said all sorts of words for them.  It cracked me up how floored they were at how many things he can say.  (He reminds me so much of Hunter with his verbal/social skills) 

Soon it was time to rotate and another pair of students came over to greet us.  Again Hudson was ready to put on a show of all the things he could do.  It made me smile to hear them discussing his different movements and have them ask me questions about his development.  Taking notes as they observed and interacted with him.  By the time the third group came over to us he had found the play food and had put it on plates.  He picked up a plate with some cake on it and walked over to another group of people next to us and sat it down in the middle of them.  Satisfied he came back over and got another plate with a piece of chicken on it and carried it to a different group and once again sat it down in the middle of them.  "Hello" he said and then grinned and headed back to get more food.  He socializes just like Hunter did at his age.  Not afraid of anyone, everyone is his friend and he wants to be a part of every social things happening in the room.  So funny.

We continued our rotations through all the students for two hours and then it was time to go.  The students all gathered on the mat with their teacher and began discussing their observations as the parents filed out.  Emma spent way too long picking out which type of muffin she wanted at the little table they had set up for the families and we were the last ones in there.  As I hurried her out I handed Hudson a muffin and picked him up to leave.  He wiggled wanting out of my arms so I put him down to walk.  He walked by the door, turned to the entire group of students, muffin in hand and said "Bye!!" and started waving.  "Bye Hudson!" they all started calling back to him.  He grinned as if he had reached celebrity status and kept waving and saying it over and over until I had to pick him up and carry him out with him protesting "out, out" which really meant put me down.  

They were all cracking up and I couldn't help but laugh myself even as he scowled at me in the elevator wanting me to know he was still not happy with me for interrupting his moment.  Mr. Magoo you are a hoot that's for sure.  I only wish I could've been a little fly on the wall as they discussed their observations to see what they thought about you little man :) :)