Claire + Pop=LOVE!! AND Darren's Blackberry

So I am a pretty laid back mom as most of you know. I let my kids get dirty, figure they'll put shoes on when their feet get cold, things like that (ok, I'm not THAT bad...I do make sure they have shoes on when the snow is over a few inches...). BUT there is one thing that I feel very strongly about-my kids DO NOT NEED POP!!!!! They are thrilled with chocolate milk and juice boxes for a treat, so we'll just stick with that. I do have to say though, it's probably easy because for the most part my kids don't like pop, so they don't ask for it-my feelings might be different if the situation were different, so if your kiddos like pop, that's your biz and it don't bother me a bit (enough gangsta talk...it's been a REALLY long day folks, bear with me).
Ok, back to the story at hand. I have been fighting a stomach bug the last week so I have had a bottle of 7-up in the fridge. The exception to my no-pop rule is when the kids are sick. I usually let them have ginger ale to encourage drinking and such. I have let Claire have a little when she said her tummy was hurting. She was actually wanting milk, but I didn't really want to take a chance, so I gave her some pop much to her SHEER delight. My little Claire Bear LOVES her some pop! I don't let her have it mind you, but Grandma does and sometimes she sneaks a drink of Daddy's when Mommy isn't looking. So tonight at supper I asked the kids what they wanted to drink-meaning milk or water like I do every other night, and it doesn't take a genius what Missy Moo decided she wanted to drink...POP! I gave her "the look" and told her no, her choice was milk or water. She kind of sighed and made her choice. Supper continued with all family members calmly sitting perfectly in their chairs, using perfect table manners, and having a calm and lovely conversation....SIGH...or not. It was the usual supper chaos, but that's my life! :) All of a sudden, Claire must have swallowed her milk wrong or something and starting coughing like you do when it "goes down the wrong tube". I asked her if she was ok, and she looked at my, as earnestly and honestly as you can image, eyes huge with sincerity, and said "MOM! SEE??? THAT is why I needed POP!" I looked at Sam, who was struggling not to laugh, and just couldn't contain myself. Oh Claire B-you make me smile. :)
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So awhile back, Sam's company switched cell phone providers so he got a new, upgraded phone. That, of course, made his Blackberry of no use to us, so we gave it to the kids to play with. Every so often, it surfaces from the murky depths of various toyboxes. Yesterday happened to be one of those times. My son took upon himself to carry "his phone" in his pocket all day. Now, we happened to have a VERY busy day today. We had to be to the ENTs office at 8:50, and dear friends, I try to not have to be ANYWHERE before 10, so this was a stretch for us, but we made it! Then it was groceries, lunch and wal-mart, a quick stop to drop off a few things to my mom, and finally home with 3 exhausted kids and 1 exhausted Mommy at 3:00. Alright, enough whining-back to the story.
So, anyhoo, my son has his Blackberry is his pocket all day. 1st stop-ENTs office: Darren whips out his phone and asks Claire what kind of music she wanted to listen to. Now you have to remember, he gets to play with Daddy's REAL phone on occasion and that one is FANCY SCHMANCY with games, music, cameras, flashlights, you name it. So he asks Claire is she wants to listen to some music and can she hear the princess song playing? She looked at him like he had grown an extra head and when back to her book. Not wavering at all he looked at me and said "how about you Mommy? What kind of music do you want to listen to?" I told him I felt like a little "I am a Promise" which is a song on a CD that he got for his birthday that I LOVE listening to him sing along with. Not missing a beat, he said "Ok!" and starting pushing buttons on his phone. He then turned around so his back was to me and started humming the song, pretending it was coming out of his phone...HAHA! I love imagination!
We then moved on to Fareway. The newest thing there is these little mini kid-sized shopping carts that they can push etc. I figured why not? and let each kid have one. They actually didn't do too bad with them, and the back of my heel only got rammed about 468 times, but who's counting right? Anyway, I so wish I would have had a video camera. I was in the canned veggies aisle checking out prices and look over at Darren. He is leaning kind of on one hip, proped up against the cart handle "talking" on his phone! I quickly looked away, but kept one eye on him to see what he was doing. He talked for a bit and then ended with "Ok, I'll call ya later. Bye" and pushed some button on his phone, stuck it back in his pocket and went on with his day, just very nonchalant like he talks on a cell phone all day..no biggie! I just about lost it trying not to laugh. Then a bit later "oh shoot, someone's callin' me, I better get this" and out of the pocket comes the phone and up to his ear for another short convo that involved a lot of "yeps" and "oks" and ended with "ok, see ya" and back in his pocket. The best was yet to come tho! We continued on and I was aparently taking too long looking at something or another and I look over and he is standing, kind of just a chilaxed pose, flipping his finger on the screen part of the blackberry like he was just browsing some apps. I chuckled but just went on my way, (Darren having stuck his phone back in the pocket) but there was something vaguely familiar about it that I just couldn't put my finger on. Fast forward to about 5ish. Sam is home from work, I am (still) working on putting away groceries, and we are just chatting and catching up, etc. Sam leans up against the dishwasher, crosses one ankle over the other, pulls his phone from his pocket....standing, kind of just a chilaxed pose, flipping his finger on the screen part of his phone.....Holy smokes I just about died laughing. Darren had looked EXACTLY...EXACTLY my dear readers, like Sam. He even put the phone BACK INTO HIS POCKET THE EXACT SAME WAY!!!! THAT was the reason it looked so familiar-my hubby does it EVERY DAY!!! HAHAHA!!!!! Oh man. I know all parents probably feels this way, but seriously my kids are so stinkin' funny they CRACK me up everyday!