When my 11-year-old son’s cell phone survived a full cycle in the washing machine last month, I was impressed.

Still, I wasn’t surprised when it didn’t survive its second trip through the wash a week-or-so later. Technically, it might have survived the moisture again if it hadn’t also been thrown into the dryer. We’ll never know.

Since he refuses to make keeping track of his phone a priority, I figured replacing it didn’t need to be a priority either. I ordered a cheap new-used phone off eBay and it took a couple weeks for it to arrive and get activated.

I hadn’t realized how much I missed him having a phone.

I admit I wasn’t thrilled to have him call me dozens of times to “test” the new phone, but the real calls made me smile.

He called to tell me that he saw a commercial for a reality show that’s “kind of like ‘Survivor’ ” and something we should definitely schedule on the TiVo so we can watch it together.

Then he had his 4-year-old sister call to give me a blow-by-blow description of the movie “Horton Hears a Who,” which, by her account, (POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT) is about a boy who didn’t talk to his father, and then he did.  (SPOILER OVER)

Hmmm… I thought it was about an elephant who believed “a person’s a person, no matter how small.” Horton, the same elephant who hatched an egg, has some of the greatest moral values of any fictional character and I think my daughter’s due for some Dr. Seuss storytime to make sure she understands the messages.

But I digress. An hour after my daughter finished telling me all about the very tiny Whos, my son called back.

I think he called from Starbucks. He was irritated that he’d ordered a hot strawberry steamer and was given strawberry milk poured over ice instead. It wasn’t even a Strawberries and Creme Frappuccino! He was aghast. “They don’t know what they’re doing,” he complained (to me, but not to the barista, by the way).

A little while later, he called again.

“When are you coming home?” he asked.

Now THAT’S why I really missed him having a cell phone.

It’s practically the only way that he’ll ever let on that he might miss me.