Facetime

We missed our Christmas visit this year with our daughter and her family, as everyone was taking sick time during vacation time.  So, last night my daughter called and we chatted via Facetime - she had my 8 month old granddaughter on her lap and my 3 year old grandson beside her (that would of course also be her daughter and her son...but this is my story).

When GD got fussy, I pushed the button one of her favorite toys for her and put it in camera view.  She stopped to look at it.  Then GS asked to hear his favorite truck noises, so more buttons were pushed and the iPhone camera shifted over to the red truck that I keep here for him.

I watched him do forward rolls, and he showed me his new truck with the big wheels.  I listened to him read a book.  I could see baby sister craning her neck to peek in to watch the screen, too.  He called out the names of the months after me...it's a thing we do - I say a month in a sing-song voice and he mimics me...February came out something like "Never-airy" this time!

He watched the puppy and dog playing and rough-housing on the livingroom floor.  When he giggled the puppy stopped to look at him on the iPhone screen and then attempted to lick him.  Suddenly we were muted.  Did you know that the iPhone is also responsive to puppy tongues?  So if your hands are full sometime, you might want to try using your tongue to text with...kind of a new way of using your tongue to talk...Still, don't tongue-text and drive.

What with the toys and the puppy excitement, GS decided he wanted to come to my house right then and there.  It was so easy.  "Drive in the car to Nannie's house."

So he left the room to get prepared.  When he returned, I could hear him in the background, "Socks!...check!"  and  "Shoes!...Check!"  He got his socks on all by himself, albeit heels up.

I had to show him the cluttery laundry room where he camps out in a sleeping bag and with a lantern night-light hanging on a branch (ok, a cabinet knob overhead), so he'd see that it just wasn't ready for sleeping yet.  Besides, it was suppertime in Pennsylvania and a long drive to Maine.

I think he was okay with waiting a bit, though I heard him "Skidoo" a couple of times - as in Blue's Clues - pretending to hop into the iPad and into my house!

This morning, my daughter sent me a picture of his bedroom - empty bed.  Guess where he slept last night...when she checked on him before coming to bed, she saw that his bed was empty and he was sleeping on the floor with his blanket and pillow.  Hmm.  I wonder if he was pretending he was at Nannie's house sleeping on the floor in his sleeping bag?

Pretend tickles and blowing kisses...all doable through Facetime, but I can hardly wait for our face-to-face, real touch-time - when the puppy can REALLY lick his face!