Tech-Savvy Boy

While we weren't paying attention, a little boy has become quite proficient with all kinds of gadgets and buttons around here. It started with an interest in learning to use our digital camera. In no time Ryan had mastered taking photos, deleting photos, changing the date/time stamp, and mysteriously turning on a chirping noise every time a photo is snapped.

That was just the beginning. Now Ryan can hook the camera up to the computer, upload photos and add them to his personal folder in iPhoto, all on his own. He's very proud of this achievement, and meticulously arranges his roughly 84 uploaded photos, routinely going through his assortment of random (and mostly unflattering) shots of his parents, firetrucks outside the grocery store and poses of his loved ones, batting helmet, and train tracks.

Once Ryan mastered the digital camera, he became quite intrigued by the Netflix envelope that occasionally appears in our mail. For many years we had kept this a secret, maintaining that only "Mommy & Daddy shows" could arrive in a red envelope. Everyone seemed okay with that, until we were all sick one week and I began searching Netflix for some kids' movies to get us through a long stretch indoors. Once Ryan caught sight of the Diego and Little Einsteins movies on the computer screen, the jig was up. Our queue has never been the same since.

This all seems so different from my childhood, when developed photos came in paper envelopes at Longs Drugstore, and movies were a slumber-party treat on a rented VCR from the video store. Now our four-year-old now knows how to work a TiVo remote and greets me at preschool pick-up with, "Mommy, mommy -- did you get Daddy's text?"

Thankfully, low-tech games involving a blanket, a giggling sister and yelling "BOO!" out the door at the rain (I don't get it either) are still some of the favorite activities in our house.