Last night was the first time that we’ve tried to use Skype while I’ve been traveling.
He really loves technology – he can use an iPad or iPod without too much trouble, and he loves to play with our Nooks. It’s not too difficult for him to get into the books or games he wants to play at any given time. But to date, we’ve kept him off of our computers.
My company gave me a MacBook Pro to use for my daily work – it’s a lifesaver in those circumstances where we can’t get into the office, or when I have to be working from home to give the wife a hand. MBP’s all have cameras, which is convenient for Skype, especially since half of my team is located on each coast. The wife bought a small, cheap webcam for when I travel so that she could video-chat with me, and we set that up on the spare laptop.
So we called.
Child #2 (who is all of five months, and yes, I’ll come up with an appropriate nickname for him eventually), was somewhat oblivious as one might expect a child to be – it’s that whole not-quite-established permanence-of-objects bit. He did, however, react when I did things to get his attention.
Monster, on the other hand… was responsive for a bit. He seemed to pick up on the fact that I was ‘live’ on the computer screen for a little bit, responding with appropriate “Hi, Abba!”s and the like. And then he noticed the little window in the corner of the screen that shows your own camera. That fascinated him more than I did, apparently – he started making funny faces at the screen to see what his image would do, before he lost interest entirely. I’m not wholly surprised, since he doesn’t quite grasp the concept of a telephone conversation either, but it’s a starting point.