Our son was obsessed with trying to get his hands on our cell phones. When he did, he’d hold them up to his ear, chat away and push the buttons just like mom and dad. Trouble was, he actually ends up calling people more often than you’d think. He’s even managed to get 911 on the line.

We tried getting him a toy cell phone with Mickey Mouse on it, but he knows that thing isn’t real. He’ll cast it aside in a second.

So, when my wife and I upgraded our phones, we gave him our old ones. They’re disconnected from service, so he can get all the fun of pressing real buttons on a real phone without the prank calls.

He loves gabbing on it, and will have gibberish conversations with no one in particular. We love it because it encourages his imagination and speech development. He loves it because he gets to act just like mom and dad.