Things Your 13 Month Child Can Do That You Can't...

Zoe already knows how to get past the key-lock on Mommy's iPhone. She presses fervently on the home button, until the camera icon comes up, which does the trick, and then she's in... At this point she inhales, eyes wide, big smile, sits up straight, and looks around to see if Mommy has noticed that she got through, shrieks with excitement if she discovers she's in fact been "made," and clutches the iPhone with both hands to her chest, knowing all too well she is only a couple random taps away from an email, or YouTube, or something pretty cool, and has only a few seconds before Mommy comes in to snatch it away...

Zoe also knows how to take snapshots of Mommy's screen, like the one above. Mommy is impressed. Mommy and Daddy still can't figure out how to do that!

Generation i(Phone)

All those baby, toddler, children, do this now, do this when - parenting books... they are all missing a huge baby step. They are going to have to add an "iChapter." Today, regardless of how tech savvy they are or their parents might be, toddlers are exposed to a world where mobile technology and hand-held communication devices are a normal and constant part of everyday communication. Learning to communicate by watching how their parents communicate means that kids want to use phones and computers. Hannah, when she wakes up... can sense Mommy's iPhone location before she wipes the sleep off her eyes... She can turn it on, navigate the touchscreen to the icon she wants with her fingers, and best of all, she can hold it in her hands and control it. How could the above iPhone screen not draw in a child? Hannah loves to watch videos of herself which are easily accessible on YouTube, as well as play the free video games which Mommy has selected for her. She likes Tetrus the most, but there are a host of other applications, such as sounds, bubbles, and iTunes which she loves to play with. she can watch Cookie Monster sing "C is for Cookie," Ernie sing "Sing Myself To Sleep," herself star in a home video recital of "ABCD," and then play a memory game where she picks the correct square for the Animal that was showing moments earlier... Mom has done a great job of keeping the applications educational, but clearly, keeping up with Hannah's insatiable appetite for "Mommyphone" will be vital to ensuring she is benefiting from her technology toys. For now, as long as she knows she has something special, and we see her interacting with it, it is an impressive aspect of her daily growth...