Ian’s always loved music; for a while, he was even fascinated by James Brown. Okay – he laughed whenever I sang ‘baby, baby, baaaaaby!’. Still does.

Some time ago, my sister gave him a mobile phone toy, which can record and play a short message. Since the record button is on the side, large and in plain view of Ian’s button-loving fingers, it didn’t take him long to erase the loving message recorded by my sister and mother.

So I gave him a new message:

‘Baby, baby, baaaaaby!’

Each time he’d play the message, Ian would giggle and laugh. His eyes would grow wide, he would point at me and say, ‘Daddy!’

I’d forgotten about the message until last night, when Ian dug the phone from the unused depths of his toy box. He quickly deleted the message.

Then I remembered that my son could talk. (Sometimes I forget things like that. It’s worse when I forget that he can hear and, worser, remember, and, worsest, repeat.)

I pressed ‘record’, and held the phone to his mouth. He leaned toward the phone, smiled, and said…something. I pressed ‘play’, and Ian giggled when he heard himself coming from the phone. Then he deleted the message.

We tried again. And again. And again. Delete. Delete. Delete.

Finally he said another something which sounded like ‘Beee veee!’. TV, perhaps? When I played the recording, Ian grabbed the phone from my hand and yelled back at it, ‘Beee veee!’ He pressed ‘play’, and this time shook with the effort of yelling back at the phone.

Kelly and I raised our eyebrows at each other.

Ian played the message again, and his fingers grew white as he gripped the phone in his hands. He screamed, ‘Beeee veeeeeeeee!’

Ian was stuck in a loop. Maybe it was the excitement of hearing himself, or maybe he really agreed with what he’d said. Or maybe he was jealous of the phone for stealing his idea. I have no clue; but rarely had I seen such a strong emotional response from my son – and this was a toy! It was almost like a mindless rage, except that he didn’t seem angry. He didn’t seem upset at all, just really, really excited. A Little Tikes berserker.

Eventually he calmed down and forgot about the phone. But, frankly, I’m a little scared of my son.