The cutest lab rat ever

Chad and I took part in another Duke Research study.  We got into this one because we've been helping out with the NEST study.  This one is called NURTURE, and it looks at things like stress, activity level and growth.  A nice lady came over to our house and we all got to play with Chad for an hour.  She had all sorts of toys and she let Chad have them one at a time to see what he would do with them.  The blocks went into his mouth.  The ball went into his mouth.  The large plastic ring went into his mouth.  The ring became sort of a distraction, because no other toy was as fun as the ring, and we had to hide it when other toys came out.  There was a large plastic bar with holes in it, and that went into his mouth.  A cup went into his mouth, but was immediately thrown onto the floor when he spotted the ring again.  The bell went into his mouth.  The book went into his mouth.  It's a good thing she sterilizes toys between babies.
Next she watched his gross motor skills, like rolling over and eating his feet.  We both got weighed and then she left, but there was some homework for both of us.  I had a big questionnaire to fill out, about topics such as how Chad and I are sleeping (straight through the night, thank you!), exercising (I'm doing fine, but Chad has yet to strap on his first pair of running shoes), and eating.  Chad and I also provided three saliva samples each the next day, and those will be tested for the stress hormone, cortisol (if you don't know much about the effects of stress, I have a 400+ page thesis you can read), and Chad wore an accelerometer for 24 hours to monitor his sleep and wake patterns.  The daycare teachers thought he was on house arrest when he showed up with an ankle bracelet.  He didn't even realize it was there.
For our participation, we were given a cool $75!  We agreed to split it 50/50.  Chad is using his half for diapers, and I'm donating mine to the "I Can Has New Car? Fund".

Our little cash cow