Dandelions and Phone Numbers

You know it's spring when you awaken to the sun shining through the window and birds chirping noisily. On the bare trees, leaf buds are starting to form, and the tender green shoots of tulips and daffodils are starting to poke their way through the dirt.
In our chaotic home, the signs of spring also include plastic tumblers filled with water and wilting dandelions - evidence of the flowers lovingly picked and arranged by Aisling. There are chalk drawings on the driveways - created on the first warm and sunny day. Plastic toys and hula hoops are strewn across the backyard, and bicycles litter the driveway, alongside the hockey net.
And then there is puppy love...
The other day, Devlin and Ceilidh were dutifully emptying out their backpacks and lunch boxes and bringing me the "important" papers from school. Crumpled in his sweaty palm, was a scrap of paper that Devlin also presented to me.
"What's that?" I ask.
"A phone number," he answers nonchalantly.
"Whose?"
"A girl gave it to me so I can call her."
I mentally run through various responses, and come up with, "Hmmm...have we taught you how to use the phone? How are you going to call her if you don't know how to use the phone properly?"
No sweat to the young Romeo.
"Well, I gave her our number, so she can call me then," came the reply accompanied by shrugging shoulders.