Baby Monitor: Powerful Signals

My post about Ladies of Cataan reminded me of the times I used the baby monitor for long-distance monitoring.

Of course there was that time when we were house parents at a sorority and wanted to ring in the new year at the sorority across the street. Come on! Keep your mind clean! We were hanging out with other house parents...all of the students were gone for winter break. And besides, I think I'll veto any sorority activity when my daughter gets to the college age (more on that later).

So, we hooked up the monitor and took the receiver across the road...it worked! We tested and found that we could still hear the baby's snores. We rang in the new year and ran back home, and you can't report me to the authorities because it was, like, eight years ago.

Then when we shared a house, we could listen to the kids downstairs (our territory) while visiting with the neighbors upstairs (their territory). It's funny now to think about how our two apartments could both fit into the single-family home we're in now.

And NOW we've only tried once to monitor from afar. I left Xander with the monitor while he was reading in bed (everyone else was asleep) and we went next door to watch the Tour de France on T.V. (we don't get any broadcast T.V. of our own...more on that later.)

At one point I heard Xander talking into the microphone. "Mom. How long are you going to be over there? Can you bring me a drink of water?"

I should have used walkie-talkies to achieve two-way communication. Oh well. I picked up the phone and called Xander. Over the monitor I could hear the phone ringing (myself calling). Xander spoke into the baby monitor. "Mom. The phone is ringing. You better come home and answer it...(a few more rings)...okay, it stopped ringing now."

So, I went home ten minutes later. I decided it was a pretty successful experiment, but I had better include a lesson on how to interpret telephone caller ID before I ever try it again. If I do try it again, I will keep the event secret for about eight years. Just in case any of you readers are employed by child protection services.