Ian has wanted an iPhone forever. He loves playing the silly app games. He loves organizing the apps on my phone. Sometimes he organizes my apps by function. Other times he organizes them by their operating system. I yelled at him a couple of weeks ago, because I couldn’t find the Facebook app. It was in a folder labeled “IOS6”. I yelled, “Ian, I can’t find my Facebook app. Where did you put it?” And he was like, “Duh, mom. Isn’t it obvious?”
He’s begged for his own iPhone over and over for years, and we’ve always said no. What’s a punk kid with no friends going to do with an iPhone? After a while, he stopped asking for one. He would just sigh as we left the Apple Store and say to himself, “I wish I had an iPhone.”
In the beginning of December, Ian put together his Santa list. It was a very modest list with three inexpensive video games and a calendar. Steve and I brainstormed ideas for him. He’s been loving music, so we thought about getting him an IPod Touch. But when I compared prices, I realized that an iPhone was cheaper with our family plan than an iPod Touch.
The Apple Store and ATT were having issues this December. It took ten trips to the Apple Store and later the ATT store to finally make the purchase on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas morning, Ian woke up first, got dressed and waited patiently for Jonah, so they could open presents together.
Come on, Jonah. Wake up already!
Alright, time to get down to business. Unwrapping time! First, Ian opened the video games that he asked for. He was very happy that Santa got it right this year.
And then he picked up that small rectangular package.
What could it be?
As he peeled back the paper, he said softly, “I got an iPhone 5S.”
He had to immediately place it on the coffee table. Like it was too hot to handle.
“I got an iPhone,” he repeated and gazed at his good fortune. It took about 30 minutes for the shock to wear off. And another 24 hours, before he had swiped Jonah’s $50 iTunes gift card and bought himself all sorts of ridiculous things.
Apt. 11d 
Aaaww. And, that smile on J’s face is priceless, too.
I’m not telling my 10yo though. My older one reports that this is the year of the iphone for the boys in her class (whose parents were holding off).
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“I’m not telling my 10yo though.”
Yeah.
Earlier this fall, I had about a 5 hour period when I believed that somebody from school was trying to cyberbully our 6th grader via my phone. I got a text message from a local area code that had my name in it, her name in it, and then a link to one of those belly fat internet ads (C has a classmate also named Amy, so I was unsure who was meant, me or the classmate–also C is a bit on the chubby side). I immediately connected the dots and imagined a bunch of boys in aftercare yucking it up over a phone. I was this close to calling school and raising heck, but fortunately I waited until late evening to call the local number I’d gotten the message from. I googled the number and got nothing and called the number and just got a very generic phone message. Then I looked more closely at the text message and realized that it had been sent around 8:30 in the morning, a highly supervised time of day for 6th graders. At that point, it dawned on me that it was just text spam and that I had been hyperventilating for hours over nothing. Oops. Worst ad campaign ever.
That whole episode (while a false alarm) has probably delayed C’s acquisition of a phone another 2 years at least.
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I love that last picture (as well as the whole story) Well done!
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(catching up)
What I love the most is Jonah’s smile! And this post made me tear up too. 🙂
I think we’re letting our almost 12 y.o. have an iphone in a couple of months, he’s been begging for one for years too…
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