Best Laid Plans

Recently, Cora and Carys were invited to join a research panel of young children at one of the local universities.  The language lab researches language acquisition in young children.  This morning we traipsed downtown to the lab so Cora could be a part of shaping the future of language research.  Or so we thought...

After navigating the craziness surrounding the university in between classes, we found the lab, unloaded and proceeded to the study. Everything went swimmingly until they pulled out the puppets.  I mean, we all know how menacing puppets can be, right?!?  My brave and fun loving little girl immediately retreated to the safety of the IKEA chairs far away from the dangers of the furry little woodland creature puppets.  The poor research assistants weren't exactly sure what to do at that point.  I'm not sure that they expected to have this much difficulty just getting the process started!  We all tried various methods of trickery and reverse psychology, but Cora was not to be persuaded that those creatures were anything but horrible and scary.  Epic fail!  The research assistants were extremely good-natured about it and assured me that it was fine for her not to participate this time.  They even let her select a book to take home.  Maybe Carys will be more cooperative when it's her turn!