Today’s PARENTHOOD moment is a guest post by my DH, Christian:
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Kate knows not to call me at work unless someone is bleeding profusely, has broken a significant appendage or the house has been reduced to a pile of cinders. (We email back and forth occasionally, but we try to limit the phone calls to emergencies.)
So, on Friday, when my office phone lit up with the home number, there was a slight catch in my breath as I answered the phone:
“Hey. What’s going on?”
Greeted with absolute silence from the other end, I start to worry a little bit – has something happened? Is there an intruder in the house? Is my family safe? (Yes, the mind wanders quickly at times like these.)
“Hellllloooooooo? Anybody there?”
…and then….in a tiny voice, I hear…. “Daddy?”
“Nicholas?”
“Hi Daddy.”
“Uh, hey buddy, what’s going on?” (at this point, I don’t know whether to be very concerned that Nicholas is talking to me – has something happened to Kate and she can’t talk on the phone? – or whether I should be slightly annoyed, because Kate knows to only call me in emergencies and there doesn’t seem to be a problem at the moment except that the kids want to talk to me….. and then the third possibility hits me…..) “Uh, where are you Nicholas?”
“I’m up-tairs wit Julie-nanna (upstairs with Julianna)
“Where’s mommy, buddy?”
“She down-tairs.”
“Is everything OK?”
(big sigh) “yeah…….”
“Does mommy know that you are talking to me?”
“Uuuuhhhhh, no.”
“Uh, can you go get mommy? Keep the phone in your hand while you go get her.”
“Oooookay.”
When I finally get Kate on the phone, she has no idea that the kids had gotten a hold of the phone, much less called anyone. Apparently, Nicholas had decided to try his hand at dialing and by some small miracle, had hit the correct combination of redial buttons (our phone stores that last ten numbers dialed and I was in the 3rd or 4th position at the time) and got me at work. As I recall, the conversation ended on the subject of lunch and what would be consumed that day. Yet another lesson learned that you can’t let the kids out of your sight for a second.
Although, you know, you would have thought we have learned that by now, especially with our previous phone experience with Alex.
Kathleen M. Basi 
I love it. Better you than 911!
No kidding. 🙂
😀 that’s awesome!
That’s too funny! When my nephew was little, he got his hands on the phone without his parents knowing and somehow dialed 911. His parents found out about it when the police and fireman showed up at the door!
Huh…just last Wednesday I was in the middle of teaching Catechism, and my cell rings (one of my daughters suffers from a brain injury, so it may be an emergency). But no, it’s a call from a business associate. I go ahead & answer now that the phone is out. Turns out it’s his 3 year old daughter, she’s punching buttons and has no idea what’s going on. I tell her to take the phone to her Daddy, say bye, and hang up.
My class is laughing like hyenas.
That’s awesome. 🙂
Hilarious. Never a dull moment with kids around.
It will be an even brighter spot in your story telling when you remind Nicholas of this in twenty or so years/
Love it!