Birthdays and Cell Phones

Last week, Erin turned 18. Which means that Kris and I are officially really old. For her birthday, for those of you who have not already figured it out via the flood of text messages now coming your way, Erin got a cell phone. Not only that, but I got one too and just for fun we got a third one which was designated the 'family phone.' It travels with various children when they are out of the home. We are coming a little late to the whole cell phone thing, but until the last year or so have not really felt we were suffering too badly. Now, with the kids home alone more often, or at classes or activities it made sense to us to start passing out some cell phones.



What the kids really love though, is the cameras and the texting. I actually had not anticipated that the phones would have cameras, didn't even occur to me. Well, they do. One day I opened my phone to find a picture of our trash can (his name is Bob, but that is a whole different story) as my wallpaper. Bayley spent a good half hour entertaining herself as she sat in front of dressing rooms waiting for Erin by taking pictures of herself. It took her awhile to figure out just how far away to hold the phone and how to center her face, but she was persistent. And, of course, Liam and Fionn are always happy to be the subjects of an impromptu photo shoot.






Then there is texting. Interestingly, the phones actually have a stock of instant texts to choose from in case you are slightly texting challenged, you can just choose from their stock of phrases ("On my way," "Where are you?," "You're the best!"). Mostly this is way too boring for my kids though. Kegan can frequently be found hiding out with a phone, chuckling to himself, and later when I turn on my phone I will find lots of messages like "Whazzzzap" and "Hehehehehehehe...." Most recently, the boys discovered they could record and send sounds via text message. I opened my message only to hear a terrific belch courtesy of a very talented friend of theirs. Sadly, my texting skills are not quite up to par, in fact I am completely incapable of texting while walking or eating or holding a conversation. This pains my children, who often feel compelled to take over and just have me dictate.