Life Is Like This

So I haven't blogged in a million years. Why? Because life around our house is like this:

Yesterday, Bill and I were talking about how our landline phone literally never rings. Never. We really only use our cell phones but it seemed like the land line should ring at some point, right?

This afternoon, as Bill was walking past the phone in the kitchen, he looked down and noticed that the little red light on the phone was blinking. That's when he realized that the ringer was turned off, and had been for... several months? Roughly? So he turned it back on.

Two hours later, I heard what I thought was Bridget's toy phone ring. A couple of minutes after that, I wandered into the kitchen to find Louisa leaning against the counter, phone to her ear, carrying on a casual conversation. Now, she does pretend to talk on the phone pretty often, but typically she holds those imaginary conversations on Bridget's toy phone. At the time, she was holding the real phone. She glanced up at me and kept talking. "Yeah, me and my mom are going to make some cookies..."

"Um, Louisa? Who are you talking to?" I asked.

"Spring," she said, with this look of duh, mom. Spring is our neighbor.

I walked into the living room where Bill was working. "Did you know that Louisa is on the phone with Spring?" I asked him.

"Spring? Huh?" That's a no, then. At the same moment, Bill and I both realized: that was a real phone that rang?.

Right about then, Louisa called out, "mom or dad? Spring wants to talk to you!"

So, let's recap: we turned the ringer off on our only landline phone months ago, forgot all about it and didn't notice until today. Within hours of turning it back on, the phone rang (Imagine!), Louisa answered it, and proceeded to have a conversation with the person calling. So hey! Who needs an answering machine? We've got a four-year-old! She might be the best weapon against telemarketers. She'll be like, "hi, I'm Louisa, I'm four, I have on sparkly shoes! My sister likes to chase the cats. The cats are crazy!! But one of them is black and one is striped. My tights are striped. I ate pancakes for breakfast. There is snow outside! Yesterday I..." and then I'm betting they will just give up and hang up. Brilliant, no?