Not Kaide

I remember being in High School and some of the students getting to take care of a "baby" for one of their classes.  I think some of them had a baby doll.  Most had a hard boiled egg that they decorated and put padding around and put it in a ziplock bag.  They had to keep alive for two days.

I was always interested and a little bit envious.  Fast forward thirty years and child development is still an option.  I think the main reason Aub took the class was so she could do the baby project.  The babies are now electronic.  They cry a million times a day and you have to respond within 1 minute or you get docked.  When you respond, you have different options to try to sooth the baby: diaper change, bottle, bouncing, burping.  They also have a fussy period every 24 hours where they just cry no matter what you do.

The sensors send information back to the teacher for your grade on how well you took care of him.  It tracks how long it was left in the carseat, the gentleness of care, clothing changes and more.  

Meet Micah James

Aubrey enjoyed taking care of him for probably the first hour or two, but then she was OVER IT.  She had him all weekend.  She had a bracelet monitor that she couldn't remove that scanned the baby.  So, she couldn't pass him off on someone else for care for too long.  She took him to volleyball at church.  She took him to seminary.  She had to attend to him in the middle of the night when he woke up crying.  She did have one two-hour period she could choose where the teacher programed him off.  She chose church on Sunday.  (That's all we need on our row...two teenagers with babies! Ha)

Aub's baby would start crying, and she would fly from the other side of the room to check on him.  It was comical, and she was stressed. She didn't want to get docked any points.  Unlike sweet Kaide, his cries were grating.  The worst was when you fed him his bottle.  He kept making the same recording of sucking sounds for a good 10-15 minutes.  I can still hear it now.

Feeding and burping Micah after seminary so Aub could get ready for school.  She would run in every few minutes to scan him with her wrist monitor and see if he needed burped.

FHE with the baby

Friday night church volleyball with the baby.  She had to leave her team hanging a couple of times to attend to his needs.

Tanner was a good sport and helped one time.  It was pretty cute.  He knows how exhausting caring for a baby can be.

Aub was definitely annoyed by the end of the project.  She sits with a guy named Rueben who was planning on doing the written/alternative project from the start.  Her plan was to go back to class with rave reviews on how easy and fun taking care of the baby was in hopes of convincing him to do it.  She said something like, "I had to go through the annoyance for two days straight.  I want him to have to also."

She made a 94.  The teacher said it was the highest score she had ever seen.  Aub was pleased.  

We prefer the real thing!!!!