8 years, 348 days, and 16 hours.
That's how long Alexis went without breaking any electronic devices.
In that time, she managed to keep my old iphone 3 in rather good shape. It was hers to destroy for well over two years, but it held up to her shenanigans. Then there was her Kindle Fire, which somehow is now in its third year of life and is still in new condition. You might have to ignore the layer of sticky goo that kids seem to leave everywhere they go, but I do know for a fact that goo can be wiped off and beneath it all is a sparkly new Kindle Fire.
It was a nice run, kid.
Today Miss Alexis felt the pain of dropping a phone and watching the screen crack into a million little shards of glass.
It was COMPLETELY her own fault. She has been told repeatedly that there is no reason to take it with her when we run errands. It doesn't have data or even a phone plan, so it's really only fun while connected to wifi. Games in the car are fine, but why she was looking at it while walking around Pier 1 is beyond me.
The same kid has also been told repeatedly to walk nicely because the ground attacks her enough when she does. There is no reason to hop or skip or walk on her heels or whatever because that's basically the same as looking at the ground, sticking up her middle finger, and yelling "COME AT ME, BRO."
Clumsy people shouldn't pick fights with the ground.
But she did.
And the phone flew and landed on its corner and BAM.
The second Alexis picked the phone up from the ground, she burst into tears. The tears quickly escalated to sobs and before you know it, the kid was even more devastated than she was that time she watched Dolphin Tale 2 and saw the dead dolphin at the bottom of the pool.
For the record, she sobbed for an hour after that scene in that movie. AN HOUR. I need movies to come with an Alexis Rating System that tells me that an animal dies in the movie so I know to run really fast the other direction.
I might have screwed up the whole Letting The Sensitive Animal Lover watch Dolphin Tale 2 thing, but I didn't screw up the phone thing. I wanted to scream "I TOLD YOU SO" in her face and do a little I'm The Smartest dance, but she already felt so bad.
So, so bad.
So instead of gleefully gloating, I reminded her that she couldn't undo that which was done. I waited as she beat herself up and then gently nudged her to find the sunny side of the situation.
The phone still works.
Alexis' birthday is coming up so she'll have money to pay for replacement glass.
And then I let her discover for herself how much that will cost.
It was a bad, bad day for the kid who loves that stupid not-really-working phone with all of her heart. I hope that maybe now that she has gotten the whole "totally her own fault she broke it" thing out of the way, perhaps she won't have to repeat the scene when it's a phone that is actually worth a few dollars.
I hope so, anyway. That feeling of watching your phone land on pavement is so awful.