do you think they'll make toy computers as well, or go straight to the real thing?

Nilly, Owen has this toy laptop that my mother got for him. But he's starting to take more interest in the real thing and enjoys Noggin.com.

This too, but I always thought it was the fault of Cthulhu, not the Chinese.

Perhaps Cthulhu started by taking over the Chinese.

Heh - the toddlers I know don't seem to have any interest in the toy versions of cell phones -- they can tell Mom & Dad are withholding the really good toys.

My brother got a spare keyboard so he could actually use the one connected to the computer when D was wee. The phone morphed from a teething device to something the kid could call people with a bit before the he had the whole language thing worked out.

Owen has this toy laptop that my mother got for him.

What's weird about laptops for tots is that the displays are so tiny. I would think that LCD displays are cheap enough these days so they could make them bigger.

I'd be a total mess if my best friends w/ the babies moved away. It's so much harder then if it's just grown up friends moving. although that's no picnic either.

So much of the communication with toddlers (not to mention babies) is in the shared physical presence. I mean, I can talk to B when she's away. It's not the same as talking in face space, but the main part of the communication is there.

Heh - the toddlers I know don't seem to have any interest in the toy versions of cell phones -- they can tell Mom & Dad are withholding the really good toys.

How old do kids usually get in the USA before they get their own cell phones? You can see here kids, really young kids, like early grade-school age, with their own cell phones. So not toddlers, but still.

Owen has this toy laptop that my mother got for him

There's something similar that you can get here - not a laptop, but a special keyboard with really big and colorful keys, for toddlers.

One of the cutest things I ever saw was a 1-ish y.o. at a restaurant playing with her dad's keychain and using the electronic car door opener thingy like a Blackberry. She'd hold it in both hands and "type" with her thumbs, and then put it up to her ear to "talk" and then go back to texting...it was freaking ADORABLE.

After a few minutes of this, she realized that an even more fun game was to drop the keys on the floor so her dad would have to pick them up, which was still pretty funny, but less cute.

Happy Birthday, Dana! Happy Birthday, Ellie!

Hello everyone from the other side! After quite the busy week, I arrived in CA without a hitch this weekend. Currently I'm studying for the DMV test and waiting for my stuff to get here.

When the nephew was not-quite-2 and forced to do longish stretches in the car seat, he'd grab the wee remote for the car stereo and play cell phone with it nonstop, complete with answering and hanging up calls (he'd make a beepy sound, push a button, blahblahblah for a bit, then push a button before stopping...)

It was clear where he got the "cell phone" concept, but we never did figure out where he got "limo".

I don't click on scary robots.

Weenie.

Okay, I'm still freaked out by my last dream. It disturbed me enough that I went back to bed twice to see if I could replace it with something more placid, but no. Just me beating the crap out of some (not real) kids. I'd blame tommy, except his robot link would have made me feel better about it, not worse.

I also can't decide what to try and eat this morning.

happy birthdays to Dana and Ellie!

Kalshane, Mattias is wonderful - I loved the picture of him looking at his mother with that "who ARE you?" look.

And for Theo - newt (sorry, couldn't resist).