You see, Drew?

My big Christmas present was an iPod touch. I mainly wanted it so I could listen to music inside the house with the kids, without having to transfer all of their CDs to and from the car all the time. But I've had it for three weeks, and I still haven't put any songs on it! I love being able to browse the internet or check my email quickly without having to come upstairs to the study.

I've always been bad about letting Grant hold my cell phones. So when this one came, of course he immediately wanted to play with my "new phone," as he called it. The day it came in the mail, I took it out of the box to look at it.....and it was like Gollum on Lord of the Rings.....he was dying to have that thing in his hands! I put it back in the box and up on my dresser (after he threw a fit because he couldn't hold it), and the next day that stinker made himself a stepstool so he could reach the box!

These were pictures we took a few days after Christmas.....for one short day, we gave Grant privileges to hold my "new phone" when we were sitting there right next to him. So here he's showing Drew how it works.....he loves to act like an adult when he's explaining something to Drew. He'll talk in a really high-pitched voice and more slowly than he normally does. I think it makes him feel so big to be able to teach things to his little brother, or to tell him what's right and wrong. He'll say, "Drew, we do not throw food on the floor. No, sir. If you do that again, I'm going to give you a big spankin." Here he's saying something like, "You see that, Drew? You can touch it. Isn't that cool?"

Unfortunately, Grant lost his holding privileges soon after I took these pictures (probably this same night). Because, you see, our little boy doesn't yet understand that when something fun comes to an end, it doesn't mean he'll never be able to do it again. This has been the story of my life these past few weeks. No matter how patiently I try to explain to him that it's time to give something back to me (being sure that he understands the consequences if he doesn't give it back----mainly that he won't get to have it again), it just doesn't compute in his little head. He kicks and screams and falls on the floor crying......and so now Grant's iPod-holding days are officially over! And he's actually been doing pretty well; he'll see it on the counter and reach up to pick it up, but then he brings it straight to me and says, "here's your iPod" (the Gollum in him is still satisfied because at least he lays his hands on it for a few seconds!).

About a month ago, my cell phone fell into the toilet at Lowe's while I was helping Grant go potty. It still works, except you can't see the screen (which makes it basically useless). So my friend Erin offered her old Sprint phone to me (mine was only a few months old). The day before I went to pick up this new phone, Grant wanted to play with my iPod and I told him he could play with my "boring phone" instead. He grabbed it, pushed some buttons, saw that it didn't really do anything, and said, "no, I don't like this boring phone. I like that one better" (reaching for my iPod). That little stinker knows what he wants!