Gah, what a waste of time!

Every now and then, the Johns Hopkins Child Development Lab calls us up to ask us to participate in a quick study. They're usually fun studies for the kids to do, they have nice toys to play with in their waiting room, and they get a free prize in the end, so I've never said no. Today we were scheduled to go down again. I was told Melinda and Jacob were both the right age for different studies. Great!

Well, it wasn't so great. They changed parking locations since the last time we went, and I got lost on the way there. Well, not lost lost, but I did miss a turn and have to go a number of blocks before I found a non one-way street to turn around on, and then had to adjust the directions in my head to accommodate the different way I was coming in. I ended up being 10 minutes late, and they have someone waiting there for you 5 minutes early. So I kept the poor girl standing and waiting for 15 minutes. I felt so bad about that. :(

And then we had to walk a sizable distance from the parking spots to their lab. Which would have normally been fine, because it is an absolutely gorgeous day outside today - 63 degrees (and sunny!!) by the time we got home! But Jacob absolutely did not want to walk - I had to carry him. Which, you can probably imagine, is incredible difficult and straining to do when you're nearly 37 weeks pregnant. So I started getting grumpy. Even though he was going on and on about exciting things like the wind blowing a leaf across the sidewalk, or the "circles" (manhole covers) that he could see, or the pockets in his jacket. Normally all that would be cute. But not when I'm struggling to walk with my big ol' self (I broke 200 pounds, people!), and having to carry a heavy 2.5 year old on top of it all.

When we finally get in, the kids played with the toys eagerly while I filled out a couple pieces of paperwork. And they informed me that the person who called me thought that Melinda was eligible for a study, but she had actually done that particular one over the summer. So she didn't have a "game" to play, which was a bit sad. After the paperwork was done, they were ready to have Jacob do his study. Just a simple one we've done before with Melinda, and a younger variation with Jacob, too. They have 2 computer screens set up, each with a single object pictured on the screen. They ask the child to point to the motorcycle, for instance, when a motorcycle is pictured on one side, with a paperclip on the other, etc. Eventually they introduce really odd looking objects along with a normal object, and ask the child to point to the "glark", or other strange name. The idea is, at the end, they show all the strange objects together, and try to see if the child can remember any of the object names that they hopefully learned by deduction. Jacob sat in the little green chair at the little table, grinning, and happily pointed to the correct pictures during the very short practice session.

Then the real thing started, and the girl running the study went behind a curtain to begin the program. That was a really bad idea. As soon as Jacob saw that she went behind a curtain, he absolutely had to discover what was on the other side. The study started, pictures started appearing, and Jacob had absolutely zero interest in looking at the computer screens, let alone pointing to the pictures when prompted. All he wanted to do was run behind that curtain. And the girl stayed back there, the study continued on relentlessly, and I found myself on the floor trying desperately, and vainly, to keep him interested enough that they would be able to gain some usable data from the study. He was locked in my arms, straining against me to get to those curtains, not even looking at the screens.

You would think, when working with kids in the 2 year old range, study developers would take into account this very keen curiosity that the children develop. And they already have the mobility and the absolutely unshakable willpower factors down pat, so they turn pretty unstoppable without something more interesting to take over. You would think they would be able to do something as simple as have an extra person already behind the curtain, ready to run the program, so that a child wouldn't have to actually see someone go behind them.

At any rate, it was all over quickly. We spent maybe 10-15 minutes inside, after a 20 minute drive. Then we collected a prize, a couple certificates, and had to return to our car. Of course, neither of the kids actually wanted to leave the room full of interesting toys. But we needed to free up the lab workers, and get home and have lunch, as well. After I finally convinced them to leave, I had to repeat the process of the walk in - Jacob absolutely insisted on being carried. I tried putting him off, which only resulted in him dropping to his knees in the middle of a courtyard, sulking with all his energy, refusing to move until I picked him up. I was beyond annoyed at this point. He had already managed to waste a whole trip down (I'm sure they won't be able to learn anything from Jacob's study today), and I really just wanted to get to the car without killing myself. But I couldn't think of anything to get him to move, so I ended up picking him up again.

And we finally made it to the car, and finally back home. An outing totaling almost 2 hours, for pretty much nothing. On a beautiful day where that time could have been spent in much nicer ways.

Oh, and did I mention that Melinda and Jacob have been staying awake until almost 10:30pm lately? I think I'm going to have to start cutting back on Jacob's naptimes - every time he naps several days in a row, he suddenly won't fall asleep easily at night. And no quiet time at night makes mommy very easily lose her temper. Sad, isn't it? But when you go to bed annoyed that you lost your evening quiet time, and then follow it up with a morning like this one, you find yourself wishing you could just throw your kids in a box and send them to the grandparents for a couple months, just so you can enjoy some peace and quiet.

Maybe I'll get some peace and quiet in another 20 years or so. If I can manage to hold out that long!