Freaky Fridays

122 Weeks

On occasion Ren and I will call Daddy while he's traveling, or his Gigi and Papa-son on FaceTime. What an amazing tool—to be able to get to know your family by seeing them in real time as they sit in their lives across the country. Since Ren has picked up on the fact that many important things happen on that device we call a "phone," he's excited to FaceTime people because it means he gets to use the almighty, special, instrument that is "NOT A TOY." We have a pretty strict no-screen policy, however, we let Ren look at a few pictures on Greg's phone for a few minutes every Friday. We feel it will be a good transition into moving images, like "Sesame Street" or age appropriate cartoons. There is a particular favorite photo of Spider-Man on which Ren practices zooming to see his favorite superhero's feet. For some reason. It is frightening how powerful a pull that small screen contains. We're all addicted. Why would it be any different with a new mind? Ren absolutely loves his once-a-week with Greg's phone. Every morning he wakes up and tells us it's Friday.

Tonight we got a double dose of FaceTime. Daddy in a car from Boston and then Gigi and Papa-son enjoying an afterwork cocktail. Both conversations were lively and fun. Ren insisted on seeing everyone's feet in both conversations and then the evening ended in a bizarre melt down over a puzzle piece with an image of Count Von Count's feet being shoved at the camera so he could see them on the screen. I don't think I could type that sentence any more clearly. It was as strange as it reads.

Children get obsessed, I know. I remember. I'm still grateful to be free of my sticker collection habit. Every single day was about my next sticker. Hell, I'm glad to be free of last week's obsession with yogurt. It's human to desire. But I'm not even sure what is developing here with Ren. I look forward to looking back on this and seeing the seed of wherever it goes. I just hope its more like a career in imaging technology and podiatry for Olympic athletes, not foot fetish cosplay films. I think I actually know people who do the latter. I need more friends in the medical industry.