Phone Skillz

Brianna is really into answering and talking on the phone of late. When it rings, she races to answer it and then begs to talk to whoever happens to be on the line, and most the time it doesn't really matter who it is either. She just starts in going 90 miles an hour about her day, or more often, talking about imaginary scenarios, much to the surprise, confusion and/or amusement to the person on the other line, depending on who that may be. Yep, she'll just chatter away and only after a few solid minutes will bother to stop and say, "Who are you?" The funny part about her phone habits recently though is that she's started using this overly loud, slightly affected voice, as if she thinks she needs to talk loudly to cover the distance between herself and the other person, or as if whoever she's talking to is hard of hearing. It's like this, "WAY-ELL, TODAY-EE GINGY WAS ACTING SILLY. SHE WAS HIDING AND I HAD TO FIND HER..."

For some reason it seems Gingy, her favorite stuffed animal, is always somehow involved in just about every phone conversation. Bree is pretty sure that everyone is just dying to talk to Ginger. So at some point in the phone call, she's sure to say, "Here, talk to Ging..." and hold the phone up to her stuffed dog's face. It used to be that this was all she did and the caller was treated to a long silence while they were supposed to be having a deep discussion I suppose. Now though, Bree does the talking for Ginger and although she still holds the phone up to the dog she says things in a high-pitched voice so at least the poor victim of stuffed dog conversations isn't just stuck listening to nothing.

The real phone funnies tend to come when Bree is talking to "GooGoo" (Grammy DeeDee) though. This is because GooGoo is quite indulgent of all kinds of silliness and will not only talk to Ginger, but will let Brianna go on, respond to things as instructed, and sing silly songs with her etc. This was the case the other day when Grammy called to talk to Bree. After a brief discussion about the day and so on Bree said, "Grammy 'peat (repeat) after me 3 things. Peat this first thing: I love Gingy!" So Grammy obediently said, "I love Gingy." "Okay GooGoo now 'peat after me number 2. 'Peat this: I love Bogart." So Grammy "peated" that. "Okay Grammy 'peat after me....peat after me...." (long pause while she thinks of the third thing). Grammy during this pause, thinks that maybe she's missed something and says, "Repeat after me." To which Bree says, "NO! GooGoo. You 'peat after ME: I love Apple Cinnamon!" And so Grammy did that too.

Meanwhile I was snickering in the background...

Naturally though, like most kids Bree has yet to understand and adhere to the "rules" of phone etiquette. And by this I mean, it's really hard to talk to anyone on the phone while she's around. The minute you answer the phone she develops some urgent need that has to be addressed and taken care of, or decides to launch into some vigorous singing, and etc. So if you've ever called me you know there's a steady stream of background noise, not to mention me intermittently needing to say something or other to Bree, right in the middle of what you're trying to tell me, and there's a lot of me going "What? Sorry could you say that again I didn't hear it!" Lately, deciding she's old enough to at least start to understand, I'll say to her, "Bree, look do you see I'm on the phone? I can't hear when you're yelling like that. Please say, 'Excuse me Mom' and then I can talk to you. Or you need to wait a minute." Well needless to say this hasn't been meeting with much success so far. Although I did have to smirk when Bree got a little bit of her just desserts the other day...

There she was talking to Grammy when Noah, who was rolling around nearby, decided he was unhappy and started verbally letting us know he was grumpy. This went on for a minute and then Bree turned around and said "NOAH! I can't hear on the phone when you're yelling!" Somehow though, I really don't think that will translate into my own phone conversation being any quieter. :)