My granddaughter, Caedan Ray, is accustomed to looking into a cellphone camera while her parent on duty sends pictures\u00a0 to the parent at work.\u00a0She obligingly \u00a0treats a cellphone as a camera and has\u00a0learned various ways to get into the mood for a pose.\u00a0 At school someone told her to “Say cheese” for the pre-school photo and she now says that once in a while.\u00a0\u00a0 Her mother calls her gap-toothed grin her Spongebob Smile and Caedan responds happily to any mention of his name.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Thanksgiving afternoon,\u00a0Aunt Terri and Uncle Leslie gave her a birthday gift (her third birthday was the Monday before Thanksgiving) and she opened a package containing a baby doll with a magnetic pacifier, which we adults cooed over.\u00a0 Next\u00a0she pulled out a pretend cellphone.\u00a0 She had a play cellphone when she was much younger, but this is her first one with a pretend camera.\u00a0 It has sound effects.\u00a0\u00a0Point and click and it makes a credible camera sound.<\/p>\n
All afternoon and into the evening the\u00a0cellphone\/camera never left her hand.\u00a0 All twenty\u00a0of us smiled and posed repeatedly as if for real pictures.\u00a0 Someone mentioned – perhaps\u00a0it was Cousin Jeff or Cousin Greg or Cousin Pattie or Cousin Billie – all of whom had posed at least a dozen times –\u00a0that cellphone\u00a0must have a huuuuge<\/em> memory.\u00a0<\/p>\n Caedan\u00a0approached a group of ladies\u00a0who were giggling on the couch.\u00a0 There was Aunt Terri, Aunt Terri’s sister, Pam, Mommy and Cousin Tracy.<\/p>\n “I take you picture,” she said.<\/p>\n She pointed her new toy at them and asked, as we always ask her,<\/p>\n “Ready?”<\/p>\n Each of the women offered the peace sign and big smiles.\u00a0 Everyone laughed.<\/p>\n “I take you picture again.”<\/p>\n Before they could get a pose ready, Caeden held up two fingers, imitated their previous pose and ordered,<\/p>\n “Say two!”<\/p>\n Until just this week, the peace sign was also the symbol for how many years she was old.\u00a0 She assumed, with a toddler’s absolute self-absorption, that they were all talking about how old she used to be, before she got to be three.<\/p>\n As soon as we left Cousin Tracy’s house, Caedan fell asleep in her car seat and when the cellphone\/camera dropped out of her hand, she woke and asked us for it.\u00a0 At home, one parent carried her inside while the other got her pajamas.\u00a0 She started to cry.<\/p>\n “My cram-ruh!\u00a0 My cram-ruh is in the car!”<\/p>\n The day after Thanksgiving, her Abba and Mommy were both scheduled to work a long day.\u00a0 I was Hammy On Duty.\u00a0 This is how it went.<\/p>\n “Hi Hammy.\u00a0 What are you doing?”<\/p>\n “Cooking eggs.”<\/p>\n “I take you picture cooking eggs.”<\/p>\n Click.<\/p>\n “Hammy, what are you doing?”<\/p>\n “Reading.”<\/p>\n “I take you picture reading.”<\/p>\n Click.<\/p>\n “I take you picture drinking coffee.”<\/p>\n Click.<\/p>\n “I take you picture changing clothes.”<\/p>\n “Umm….”<\/p>\n Click.<\/p>\n And so it went all day long.<\/p>\n Lately when her Mommy or Abba comes\u00a0home from work, Caedan greets them with a dramatic scene.\u00a0 As soon as she hears the car in the driveway, she throws open the door and shouts, “Mommy!”\u00a0 or “Abba!” As the parent\u00a0appears in view, she extends her arms wide and announces, “You came home!\u00a0 You back in my life!”\u00a0 No one knows where she learned this or if she even knows what it means, but it does make for a gratifying homecoming.<\/p>\n The night after Thanksgiving, at the end of her day with Hammy, she heard her Mommy arrive and ran to the door to perform her greeting.\u00a0 Right after “You back in my life!” and at the point where her\u00a0Mommy usually reacts with a big hug, Caedan stopped her Mommy from entering.\u00a0 She yelled,<\/p>\n “Wait!” and ran\u00a0to get\u00a0her new cellphone\/camera.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “I take you picture coming home.”<\/p>\n Click.<\/p>\n