Monday, October 23, 2006

Emma & Levi - the TechnoKids

Saturday evening Tara and I upgraded our wireless phones. Tara's mom came over to watch Emma, Levi and Isaac for the hour, while we drove to Jefferson Pointe, to the Verizon Wireless store to check out a new phone model.

So we get into the store and look at the gajillion models in there. Thin phones, fat phones, tall phones, phone gadgets for your ears, for your waist, for your purse, games and software for your phone. We just wanted a phone...that's it - a simple cell phone. No picture taking, video recording, music playing, game playing phone. Just a normal phone. Apparently they don't make those kind anymore.

So we get the phones, each of us have one, and we drive home. Tara and I walk in the door, Emma and Levi come charging at us. Emma runs up to me and asks where we were. I reply that we went to get new phones. Her reply: "Did you get one that takes pictures?"

How did she know to ask that?!?

We asked her to repeat her question, just to make sure we heard her right. So then we grilled her about how she knew that there were phones that took pictures. We didn't get a good answer. I don't even know that she's ever seen a phone that takes pictures. Amazing.

Then she wants to see my phone, as if she is going to examine my purchase and grade me on my choice of upgraded technology. It's as if she is comparing my phone to all the other ones that she has reviewed. She looked it over, trying to figure out how to take a picture. I couldn't believe it. I get my phone back from Emma by declaring that I don't know how to use my new phone - I'm technologically stupid. Give me back my phone before you embarass me.

Of course Levi has observed the whole thing. So when Emma finally gives me my phone back, he grunts and indicates that now HE wants to examine my phone. He flips it open, starts punching buttons and is totally engrossed in this new toy. Amazing.

I had to persuade him to give me my phone back so that I could learn how to use it. He relunctantly assented.

On Sunday evening Emma was helping type in info for my hotel reservations. She then told me she wanted to practice her typing on my Mac laptop. As she was working on her composition skills (at three years old) I tried to explain to her the significance of her actions, tried to help her understand her place in human history as a child typing on an advanced computing machine that could accomplish amazing feats. She gave me a blank stare.

Emma then asked me how to send an email. Amazing.

2 comments:

sdennie said...

Very funny! Enjoyed reading about your tech-savvy kids. Just give them a few years and they'll really be running circles around you.

Chris Kuntz said...

Tim, get used to it. Both the older boys are already asking to play games on the Internet and sadly enough know how to get there on their own. I must now regrettably set up a password for the computer. Although I'm sure they will, in the near future, be able to hack into that as well.
Chris