When I was Jade’s age, there were no personal computers. There were no cell phones or iPods or iPads. There weren’t even any VCR’s, let alone Blu-Ray players.

The children are all very adept with modern technology, but I guess I didn’t realize how much until this week on vacation.

I brought my iPad with me to keep up to date with the business, and Jade kept asking me if she could use it. (Actually, she calls it the iPod, but I know what she means).

The other day I caught her in bed with my iPad like this:

Me: “Jade, what are you doing?”

Jade: “Playing with your iPod.”

Me: “What are you playing?” (There isn’t a single game on there, b/c I don’t like computer games.)

Jade: “You know, this:”

Fortunately, I’m her mother and knew right away that she meant she was taking photos that twisted her face like this:

Or squashed her face like this:

Or spread out her face like this:

After showing me what she had done, she pronounced, “I love your iPod!”

I knew she enjoyed playing with it, but now I know that she really does love it.

How do I know? Because of the sea turtles, of course.

What do sea turtles have to do with Jade and my iPad? Well…

The other day we took the children to a sea turtle rescue hospital here on Topsail Island in North Carolina. (I can’t show you any pictures because cameras weren’t allowed). I wanted to support some of the work they were doing, so we bought the three youngest children stuffed sea turtles. I admit it, I also bought myself a zipped sweatshirt.

When we got home, Jade decided to name her sea turtle. Any guesses what she named it?

Yep. iPod. And she says regularly that she loves iPod.

Oh, and by the way, Hewitt named his sea turtle Crush (after Disney’s Nemo) and Indigo – she’s almost as bad as Jade.  She named her turtle “Blackberry” (after my phone, not the berries).