Double Happiness

Re-creation of Bing Nursery School Experiment (Footnote added)

(The "Don't Eat That Marshmallow Yet!" Experiment)

I've always been fascinated by experiments like this so when my husband forwarded me this article this morning, I devoured every paragraph.  Then I spent the rest of the morning thinking about how my children might have responded.

I really recommend that every parent read that article but for those who won't read it, here's my much less interesting and pathetically abbreviated Cliff-Notes version of it:

Back in the late 1960's a bunch of 4 year olds from Bing Nursery School were invited into a room at Stanford University and presented with a plate of treats.  They were told that they could have one treat right now OR if they waited some unspecified amount of time, they could have two treats.  The test revealed that the children who postponed or delayed gratification had personality traits that helped them do better in school and, generally, in life.  Some thirty years later, they tracked down the participants and confirmed almost of all of their earlier findings.

Obviously, I wondered how my kids would do. 

Maddy isn't really motivated at all by food (so two treats might never tempt her) but she does love an oh-so-fluffy-sticky- puffy marshmallow.  A treat even sweeter since she only gets them once per year - when I bake sweet potatoes.  

She has pretty good self control so she might see this game as an easy victory.  Really, it could go either way. 

Gwen is a totally different story.  She dislikes almost everything but the few things she likes, she REALLY likes.  So much that she'd eat those things nonstop if we let her.   Marshmallows are on her impossibly long list of 'disliked' foods so I did this experiment with one of her favorites:  Red Licorice. 

I told her she could have one piece right now or two pieces "later"  (without explaining how long that might be). Where her favorite foods are involved, she has less self control than her sister.  I really thought she'd be unable to resist the immediate gratification of scarfing down one piece of candy right now.  But the enticement of the 2nd piece of candy was enough to tempt her to stay the course and wait for the bigger prize. 

To make the game more difficult, I insisted that they sit at the table with the treats while they waited (otherwise they'd just run off and play).   I don't even put them in time-out for more than 5 minutes so I felt a bit guilty about forcing them to sit there in front of those treats for 15 minutes but that was how long most of the kids in this experiment waited -- so we did that too.  To my amazement, they didn't really seem to mind!   

Interestingly, both of the kids started singing almost immediately.  The article discusses this as a method of distracting themselves from the "hot stimulus" and such behavior was considered critical to successfully navigating such situations.  I was so proud of them!   Then I was less proud when they started smacking one another.  Hey, that's a distraction too, right?  Hee hee... whatever works!

The experiment took fifteen minutes but here's a little condensed video of what the kids were up to during that time.  It's only 5 minutes long and (I think) it's pretty cute! 

I have to admit that I couldn't have predicted how my kids would respond to this test.  I'm glad they showed some self restraint because I really don't think that's their usual MO (at age four). 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.    How much of this is a genetic personality trait and how much do you think we can influence as adoptive parents?   Will you try something like this with your kids?  (Please let me know if you do!)

Let's Skate! (update)

Temps only in the mid 40's all weekend but the sun is predicted to shine brightly in a clear sky so what better thing to do than hit the ice rink?   The girls could have easily spent the entire day doing this even though it's only their fourth time on ice and they're working pretty hard to keep their legs under them.  Gosh, they're just so stinkin' adorable!    Special thanks to Daddy who thrilled us all with his amazing backward skating technique (essential for holding the camera and catching all this super cute action!).

The video is only a minute and a half long so disregard the dead space at the end of the video.  No doubt, it's due to my poor video editing skills!    The soundtrack is Mr Sinatra singing about how he's got his love to keep him warm.  We whole heartedly agree with his premise but we also have a hard time getting around the appeal of a good pair of fuzzy mittens.

Today, we're off to the uber famous breakfast buffet at Marie Calendars to taunt our eldest daughter with the cheesy goodness of their potato soup.  After that, we're heading to our local lake to try to walk off some of those surplus calories then we'll meet up with old friends at another park up north.   Hey, anything that doesn't involve going to a mall on the weekend before Christmas is a good thing, right?

Update:  Wow!  Not sure what the weather man is putting in his eggnog this year but he couldn't have been more wrong about that 0% prediction of rain today and it's been steadily coming down for hours!  So much for working off all the yummy Marie Calendar's cheesy soup by taking a brisk walk around the lake.  Sigh....

Nothing to do now except lay around the house and chug hot chocolate and gaze at the Christmas tree and scratch our belly.  (Ahhhh!  That feels good!)

And how was your weekend?  :)

The Pooping Kitty Candy Dispenser (no kidding)

I was shopping at Michael's while the girls were at preschool this morning and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this "Tricky Kitty" pooping candy dispenser. I knew my son would love it and couldn't wait to show it to my daughters (who I believed would be rightfully skeptical). Here's their reaction when they first saw where the candies were coming from.
Maddy must have reasoned that the candy was still candy (since the kitty was just a toy) but Gwen was having absolutely nothing to do with it.

I'm proud of Maddy for her courage and Gwen for erring on the side of caution when it comes to eating poop!

Happy Birthday Gwenny!

Gwen's 2nd birthday is this Sunday (June 25th). But, since there was family visiting for Michael's graduation last weekend, we decided to have her birthday party a week early.

Here are the pictures. But first, a few stats:

At 24 months, Gwen weighs 25.5 pounds
--90th percentile on the Chinese charts
--38th percentile on the US charts

At 24 months, Gwen is 33.25 inches tall
--75th percentile on the Chinese charts
--43rd percentile on the US charts

	She's two!
	We had a really fun birthday celebration for her. First, there was the pool party with her best friend, Benjamin. You might remember him from this jumping on the bed video.
	Lots of splashing and slipping and throwing water everywhere! Lots of smiles!
	Then there was some cake. There's no reason to get your hands messy when you can so easily just put your face right in your plate!
	Mmmmm! Yellow confetti cake with vanilla confetti frosting! A party can never have too much confetti!
	Yummmmmy!
	Then presents! Gwen gets a little help with unwrapping from her pal, Benjamin. She calls him "B!" (strangly enough, she also says "D!" instead of "down". Does this mean she'll be an early speller?

Videos from Gwen's birthday weekend!

Click the title -----> to see a cute music video of Gwenny lovin' her kitty cat! (duration: 2:07)
Click the title -----> to see a cute music video of Gwen jumping on her trampoline! (duration 2:16)

Jump!

Gwendolyn (22 months) & Benjamin (28 months)
Click here to see a cute 1 minute video of these two little jumping monkies

.

.

(I made this collage with FotoFusion by Lumapix.)

Monday: Gotcha Day!

Click below to view our Gotcha Day Video!

	Today was GOTCHA day. We're exhausted so we'll post some pictures now and then try to get some sleep (baby is sleeping now) and flesh out the details for you tomorrow. Enjoy the pictures! The first picture is the very moment we saw Gwen. She's being carried to us -- about 10 feet away. I tried not to cry but it was no use. She was pretty scared and cried immediately after being handed to us.
	The Director of the Shenzhen Social Welfare Institute is standing with us.
	After a bottle, Gwen fell into a deep sleep and slept all the way through the bus trip back to the hotel. When she woke up, she was very cheerful and didn't cry again until bedtime. She's so incredibly precious. Our heart sang when she finally smiled at us. She's smiled a million times since then. We are so happy to have our baby girl!
	Gwen loves her Daddy! Her first smile was for him. Aren't they beautiful! I'm so happy --- and sooooo tired!

Until tomorrow....