Saturday, October 13, 2007

Ding-a-ling, Ding-a-ling . . . Hello . . .


This morning my cell phone began ringing. I know that's not so unusual. Before answering, I checked the display to see the call was coming from my daughter-in-law Rachel's phone. I had just had a conversation with her last night, but thought she had something else to tell me. "Hello. Hello. Hello." No response. "Hello." Then I heard a little voice but couldn't distinguish it from Josiah or Annika's voice. "Hello. Is this Josiah? - - - Hi Honey, this is Grandma." No response.

In the background I could hear Rachel and Hans. I kept saying, "Hello. Hello. Is this Annika?" Soon I realized it was she. She chattered and chattered. I kept trying to get her to say "hello" or "grandma." This went on for a few minutes. She sounded so happy. Finally I hung up and phoned Hans. When he answered I told him Annika had just phoned me. He told me they were in the car and he had seen Annika have Rachel's phone up to her ear but assumed she was just pretending to be on a call. When the phone was taken away from her, she began to cry. I felt so bad - like I had tattled on her or some such thing. I'm sorry, Annika. It was fun getting a call from you!

Hans told me they were on their way to an Irish steak house. I asked him if they were celebrating something, and he said, "No. That's McDonald's." Hans, I think McDonald's has a Scottish background. I recall the first one I visited (in the past century). We walked up to the outside window to place our order. Inside seating was not an option. The burgers were $.15 and fries were $.12. The wrapping on the burger was a red, Scottish plaid waxed paper. I always thought this theme was from the belief that the Scottish were "tight with their money."

2 comments:

MamaD4 said...

Annika enjoyed talking to you too. I shouldn't let her play with my phone, but sometimes it's the only thing that will keep her attention while we're waiting in the car. I need to find out how to lock the keys so she can't make calls. I'm glad that she called you and not 911--that happened to some friends of ours!

Sarita said...

How come no one told me Shirley Temple was reincarnated? (yes, yes, I know S.T. isn't dead) How freakin' adorable is that picture though?

Rachel, If you lock the phone, then 911 will be the only one she can call. That'll be fun! It happened to me while I was baby sitting, except the three year old meant to do it to scare his little playmate. Arggh. Fortunately the operator just called back to see if everything was okay.