Bionic Boy

Three days ago I was holding baby in the rocking chair and needed to put him down for a minute. I spread a blanket and set him on it while I went to take care of some dinner boiling over. A few moments later I returned to find my child sucking on the end of my cell phone charger... while the other end was still plugged in. "Jed, stop that!" I squawked as I rushed over in an overly-concerned first-time mother sort of way. He smiled up at me, spit oozing from his mouth and dripping from the charger onto the carpet. Yum!

Jed's learned to roll. The next day I put him in front of the couch while I put away some laundry. Five minutes later I returned to find him with one arm shoved all the way in the cassette slot of our VCR. Drool poured from the front of the slot. Giggling, he thumbed the remote.

Jed's love affair with my cell phone (he can fit the entire upper half in his mouth before gagging, gap-toothed smiling proudly at his accomplishment) inspired me to have Michael to dig out his old, old cell phone that we had pack-ratted away "just in case." Michael wiped it off and we presented it to baby as his very first personal electronic device. He looked please and immediately shoved it in as far as it would go. Michael made the phone ring, which made us giggle as the ring slowly muffled and disappeared into our first-born child's esophagus. Then we noticed--the phone's battery icon was blinking. "Battery Charging" a popup message read. Ha ha ha ha ha. Guess that phone charger really worked!