The BIG Phone...

So anyone who knows Dave well, knows that he has become an APPLE junkie. No, he isn't consuming apple pies or biting into a Red Delicious. I'm talking about finding ourselves with a growing arsenal of IPHONE, NANO, IPAD, and MAC paraphernalia taking up counter space in our house.

From an early age, Cole has been fascinated with our IPHONEs. Who can blame him with its fabulous sounds, music, kaleidoscope of colors and its ease to manipulate, what 2, 3 or 4 year old wouldn't be drawn to it? It is like being able to hold a TV in your hands.

As parents in this day and age, we fell unto its spell as well, both a blessing and a curse. It works oh so well for distracting Cole during meals at restaurants, during our day long Denham road trips, as well as honestly when we just need him out of our hair for a time.

I swear that a preschooler created and programmed these devices since Cole is more adept at its functions than I am. His ability to gentle tap or swipe his fingers across its screen still puts me in a state of awe as just moments before in many cases he was crashing his monster trucks and dropping matchbox cars down the stairs. He knows exactly where to locate the applications/games that I have downloaded and how to get beyond the "instruction" or "how to play" text.

When Dave brought home his IPAD last fall, it was so funny to sit back and watch my two guys with their new toy. With its bigger screen Cole couldn't get enough of it. First movies/shows, then larger than life race car and airplane simulation games. The sheer amount of detail on the interface makes me dizzy and yet, Cole is a pro, instructing me when I "do it wrong".

He began calling it the BIG PHONE since it was just on a larger scale from what our IPHONES were. The name stuck and months later as soon as Dave walks in the door from work, Cole requests to play with the BIG PHONE. He interacts it with so well, expertly putting puzzles together and shouting HURRAY; zooming race cars around their cyber-track making Vrroomming sounds; listening to stories; acquiring "stickers" when he chooses the missing letter or counts and chooses the correct number.

Cole has gotten quite attached to using the BIG PHONE and thus we have had to set some rules since he began attempting to negotiate his use with it. He is quite remarkable in his logic but we must remain in control and make him realize that the BIG PHONE is a privilege. Entertainment and educational merits aside, he is four years old and listening to him run around the house playing pretend far supersedes the value of the BIG PHONE.