Phone Nazis

Once I had kids, I lost a lot of privileges I used to take for granted. I lost the right to take a shower without making a prior announcement, sleeping whenever I wanted to, and eating an entire meal without getting bothered by the kids. Now I've lost phone privlieges as well. Everytime I try to talk to a human being on the phone, the kids can't take it. My son demands to know who I am talking to and trys to grab the phone away from me. He wants to talk on the phone too. And the girls realize that I'm not paying attention to them anymore and start screaming or jump on top of me to pull my hair. Just a few days ago, I tried to talk to a dear old friend of mine who I wish I could keep in touch with more often. I had been wanting to talk to her for such a long time, and finally when I saw the kids were busy playing a game, I decided to dial her number. As soon as I got her on the phone, the kids went ballistic. My son demanded to know who I was talking to and wanted to speak to her as well. The girls started fighting with each other over the same toy. I went into another room to talk to my friend quietly and the kids followed me there as well. They started piling up on each other on top of the glass coffee table. My friend must have thought I live in a complete nuthouse. Realizing my time was limited I started talking really fast, trying to get as much in as I possibly could before I had to hang up and yell at the kids. Then the doorbell rang, it was Dominos, so I had to get the door. Another conversation cut short unfairly. I'm lucky my friend is understanding. She, amongst other far away friends of mine, is the main reason I started this blog, so I could communicate with people at odd hours like 3 am, the only time I have to myself in the entire day. It seems that when I'm typing away on computer, the kids don't realize I am actually communicating with people. But I have to wait until they are asleep to type otherwise they will smack the laptop and try to pretend to type as well. I pray this phase of theirs will end by the time preschool starts. I want my phone privilges back.