beautiful

flippity fone

Riley has a ton of little toys that make some sort of noise, contain little plastic balls encased in a bubble, or are soft and generally boring to her.

but she loves my cell phone!

it's one of those niffty little flip phones with a camera and video recorder on it. i've taken a couple of pictures of Riley and set her up as my wallpaper. so whenever you flip it open, there she is in all her super cuteness.

i think she likes the phone because it has her picture on it, but really it's because of all the buttons and shiny flashy lights that appear when said buttons are pushed.

she's been in love with this thing since i first time i let her play with it.

big mistake.

first, when she plays with it I have to watch what she is doing. i can't just hand it to her and let her play uninterrupted because she'll call people that are on my phone, whom i have no desire to talk to. they'll call me back and we'll have the obligatory "Sorry, my baby was playing with the phone and called you on accident. What? Yeah, I'm pretty good. How are you doing? blah blah blah...". totally lame.

second, she'll log on to the network (i don't even know how to do that) where you're charged a bazillion dollars to download ringtones, check scores, etc... i noticed this handy feature after letting her play in silence for a good twenty minutes. i picked up the phone and noticed a little world icon in the corner conveniently letting me know that i had been logged on for "x" amount of minutes. sweet! thanks Riles!

so Riley has become a master of the cell phone, only there is one thing she hasn't been able to do yet.

flip the phone open.

so i'll let her play with the phone and sit behind her, hanging up when she calls people, logging out when she tries to download "sexy/back" as my ringtone (i prefer "cry me a river") and occasionally to help her along with her motor skills, i'll close the phone.

she will immediately start crying. the crying where she's trying to cry (i find this infinitely amusing) but can't muster up the tears until she's warmed up.

crying, she'll pick up the closed phone and hand it over to me with the understanding that i will open it for her. I simply say "no". this produces more theatrics, which honestly fills my eyes with tears because i'm laughing so hard(on the inside of course). we do this back and forth for awhile.

by this time she's warmed up enough to be sporting real tears and a trace of runny nose. crying like something is horribly wrong with her. she looks into my eyes as if she's saying "please, father, won't you help me!!? if this phone is not opened for me, my very lifeforce, nay, my soul will be destroyed! how can you not help me?! how can you sit there and watch my soul slowly being extinguished?! when was you're soul destroyed, father?! do not let that happen to me, as i am young, not old and bitter as yourself! seriously, open the phone or i'll keep crying like this".

it is at this time that i'll open the phone and hand it to her and like a director yelling "CUT", the water works are over. and in their place, the happy eyes return, saying "thank you dear father! your love knows no bounds!".

it's the little Riley things that make my life so full.