My baby ate my cell phone.

Being the responsible mother I am, I decided to let my daughter play with my cell phone. You see, she's teething. This means I'm in teething hell. Aside from giving her a dirty dog bone or a porkchop to gnaw on, I'll give her whatever she wants, whatever it will take to make her stop crying. What usually works, you ask? My cell phone. The child is more addicted to my Blackberry than I am - and that's no small feat. She practically came out of my uterus with a briefcase in one hand and a Blackberry in the other - my future lil' business woman.

I digress.

So, to stop the crying, I handed off my cell phone. I figure, she's only 7 months, what can it hurt?

Dumb move.

After playing with my phone for a few minutes, I glanced over at her and noticed that the screen was completely white and the little Days of Our Life hour glass was spinning round and round. I immediately took the phone away and went into panic mode - 1) because I always overreact in every given situation and 2) my cell phone is company issued - how the heck would I explain this one to my boss?

I took out the battery pack and put it back in. I tapped the phone on my desk because we know this always works, right? I tapped the keys, thumped the screen, did everything under the sun to bring this poor phone back to life. Nothing worked.

My heart sank.

How do I 'splain this one?

I messaged my co-worker and told her the news.

Me: "Anna ate my cell phone."

I threw my own child under the bus. What was I supposed to do?

Co-worker: "Anna did what?"

Me: "She ate my cell phone. I gave it to her to play with, and she ate it, and she broke it."

Co-worker: "Huh?"

Me: "I'm an idiot!"

Co-worker: "Yes, you really are."

I'm totally kidding, she didn't say that, but I'm sure she was thinking it.

After troubleshooting a few more minutes, I finally came to terms with the fact that my cell phone was dead, life support wasn't possible, time to bury it and move on.

Then, a spark of life - a white screen.

A few seconds later - the hour glass makes another appearance. It kept spinning and spinning and spinning until suddenly...

...all of my icons came back! The glorious icons that are the crack rocks to my awful addiction.

My God, it's a miracle.

My phone is alive. ALIVE!