Why babies and blackberries don't mix

You know how they say "it only takes a second"? And by they, I mean anyone who ever preaches about how quickly things can go wrong. Well, they weren't lying. Especially when it pertains to children who have the slightest ability to move.

Case in point:

Lil J was just beginning to roll over, but usually didn't move as much when she was calm and sleepy after a nice warm bath. She was all wrapped up naked and snug in her little hooded towel when I set her on the bed and turned around to grab her diaper that was hanging on the shower rod. Bet you can guess what happened next.

Yep, my giggly naked little infant was giddy as she turned herself over on her stomach. I saw her smile for a split second before her little body rolled off my California king-sized bed, feet first. It was the saddest thing I had ever seen. Luckily she wasn't hurt, just surprised into tears, and I scooped her up and soothed her.

Of course my husband came running upstairs to ask what happened and chastised me for turning away from her.

"It was only a second!" I defended.

But that was all it took.

You'd think I'd learn my lesson to never take my eyes of my little one, especially now that she is extremely mobile, opening drawers pulling things out, throwing things etc. I'm not sure if her favorite thing to get into is the spatula drawer or the toilet but neither are a real good thing.

She loves water so we have to be sure to shut the bathroom or else she'll crawl in and play in the toilet. Not climb in, but she'll splash around.--I know, it's gross. But we don't let her do it, we grab her and shut the door as soon as we see her going for it.

She also likes to play in the bathroom while I'm using the bathroom. I'll usually hand her something like a (closed) tube of mascara or a bag of baby wipes to keep her entertained, and from reaching behind my butt when I'm going to the bathroom. Last night, I handed her my blackberry.

After I was done, washed my hands, and ready to get a move on, I realized I had forgotten my iPhone on the porch, where we were just a moment before taking pictures. The guest bathroom is a few feet from our front door, so I left Lil' J content with my phone in the bathroom while I ran and opened the front door to grab my other phone.

Just a moment after shutting the toilet, turning away, and opening the front door to grab my phone I heard it... CLUNK!

It wasn't a large enough clunk to be Lil' J but it sounded a little louder than her hand. I turned back around and looked in the bathroom to see what I'm sure thousands of mom around the world have seen. A blackberry sinking to the bottom of the toilet, and a very proud baby looking down amazed--hand still outstretched, and palm still wide open with excitement over her achievement.

I couldn't be mad at her. I actually laughed. If I were watching a movie about this experience I would have seen this coming from a mile away. Turns out, Hollywood can be more realistic than I thought.

For a moment I even thought of taking a photo but that just didn't seem right. I'd better save the phone first. But inspired by Amber Dusick's series of "real life parenting" series, I decided to draw a depiction of how it went down. Dude, Paint is way better than Photoshop, I'm all over this!

I quickly grabbed it from the toilet, said a quick prayer of gratitude thanking the Lord for not letting us be one of those "if it's yellow let it mellow" families. --Maybe pre-kids but once you have a baby you've gotta flush that stuff. Or get a child safety lock on your throne, and hope you've never have a restroom emergency while forgetting how to get it unlatched.

I disassembled the phone and set it on the counter to let it air out. I had another phone once that had gotten a little wet, but after setting it in the sun to dry off for a bit it worked like a charm.

My husband got back from his jog and noticed my phone in pieces.

"What happened to your phone?" He asked me. I didn't feel like admitting my stupid mistake.
"Don't worry about it," I told him.
"Why it is in pieces?"
"Because she threw it... in the toilet" I added softly.
"She threw it?"
"Yes!!!" I was getting annoyed.

I don't know why he didn't just leave it alone but he put my phone back together and asked why it wouldn't turn on.

"BECAUSE SHE THREW IT IN THE TOILET. WILL YOU LEAVE IT ALONE?"

My patience was running out with these people as I was still looking for my other phone (which wasn't on the porch like I had thought).

After using "Locate my iPhone" to find it stuck between the couch on silent, (this is actually a really cool tool. You can get it to make a noise for two  minutes even when it's on silent so you can find it) I was ready to handle to the original problem.

I grabbed the pieces of my blackberry, a Ziploc bag and some rice from my cabinet. I remember reading someone's facebook status just a day earlier about her son dropping her phone in the toilet (seriously, does this happen to everyone?) and several people had told her to put it in a jar/bag/container of rice and that it would suck the moisture out.

I'm not sure if it matters if the rice is white, brown, regular or minute, but I used the brown minute rice I had on hand.

I put all of the ingredients together in a Ziploc back and swished it around. Then I realized I wasn't making shake and bake chicken and that my additional technique probably wasn't necessary.

"What are you doing?" My husband again had the nerve to interfere.

I told him I had read somewhere that uncooked rice can help suck the water out of dunked phones.

"Really?" He wasn't buying it. "What if it's some kind of a sick joke to mess up your phone?"

"Well it's already broken anyway so it can't hurt," I pushed back. "Besides, this is like all over Twitter and Facebook, how could that many people be in on it?" I couldn't believe I had just cited social networking sites as my source but I guess that's the day and age we live in.

So my phone is sitting on my counter, immersed in a bag of uncooked rice. I would have been more devastated if this were my iPhone but my blackberry isn't as much of an addiction. I'll take it out of the bag in about 12 hours and hope for the best. I'll let you know if it works.

I'm also probably going to buy a few of these just in case.