Prank Calls

Owen’s room generally looks like a tornado hit it.  He and Jack play almost exclusively in Owen’s room, thus, it gets most of the mess.  One of their favorite games is one  I (not so) fondly refer to as Reappropriate the Storage Bins. In this game, one dumps the entire contents of several storage bins onto the floor.  Following this, one pretends that the bins are something else.  Depending on the size of the bin, one might pretend it is a car, a car seat, the trunk of the car, or a crib for a “nai-nai guy”.  Thus, one might sit in one, sit on one, or fill one with all the “necessities” that one would take on a car trip.  The game can turn an immaculately clean room into a tornado before I can clean up the lunch dishes…

And, as you can imagine, the clean–up of this exciting game takes a great deal of time, and is quite an overwhelming job to a five-year-old, and his side-kick (especially when his side-kick tries to help…) 

After some frustrating cleaning sessions where I did all of the work while yelling at Owen and Jack to keep cleaning, I came up with an idea that has worked wonders.  I give Owen our home phone and a small specific job in his room like, put all of the blocks in a bin.  When he finishes, he calsl me (a THRILLING event for him…) and I consult with him on what he sees in the room that he can do next.  Owen LOVES this “game” and we are both much less frustrated about room cleaning. 

This afternoon Owen and I played our phone/clean room game.  Later, as the monkeys were changing into their pajamas, and I was doing dinner dishes, my cell phone rang.

Mama: Hello?

Owen:  Hi, this Lisa.

(hysterical laughter on the other end between the monkeys)

Mama: Oh hi, Lisa!  How are you doing?

Owen: I was just calling to see if you wanted to have a play date.  Maybe this Friday?

Mama: I think Owen already has a play-date this Friday; would Wednesday work for you?

(fits of laughter heard)

Owen: That’d be great!

Mama:  Oh, ok bye!

After peals of loud laughter, Owen ran downstairs with a toothy grin and a hand behind his back.

Owen: Mama, did you just get a phone call?

Mama: Yes, Lisa called to set up a play-date.

Owen: That was me, NOT Lisa!

Mama: Oh you!  You got me you silly goose.  That was a crazy trick!

He pulls the phone out from behind his back and shakes it at me the phone to clarify the situation.  Then he pivots and runs back upstairs. Surprise!  My phone rings again.

Mama:  Hello?

Owen: Hi, this is Becca.

Mama:  Well, hello Becca!  What’s up?

Owen:  Can we have a play-date on Thursday?

Mama:  I think that should work.

Owen: Ok, bye.

Owen and Jack come downstairs.

Mama:  Owen, I just got a call from Becca, and she wanted to set up a play-date for Thursday.  You guys are going to have a very friendly week this week!

Owen: HA! That was me!  That was me on the phone AGAIN!  I called you; it was just me.

So, I guess five is the age for first prank calls.  I wonder how old Owen will be when he figures out that his voice is slightly different than Lisa and Becca’s???