If Kaiya takes an afternoon nap, she gets to stay up a little later that night. One of the things she loves to do during that time is play games on the computer with daddy. Some of her favorites are found on Starfall, Up to Ten and PBSkids. The computer games and maybe an occasional video or You Tube clip, pretty much sums up Kaiya's knowledge of using a computer. That statement in and of itself makes me chuckle because she isn't even three years old yet. Anyway, when Kaiya sees me on the computer she almost always drops what she is doing to come over and check out the screen. Right away she asks if I'm playing computer games and my typical response is that I'm checking my email. After she sees for herself that I'm really not engaging in a riveting snail race or an intense matching game, she will return to whatever it was she was doing. 

Kaiya has never asked me what email is or why I'm checking it. She actually had never mentioned the term until a few weeks ago when my mom was visiting. Mom was on her computer printing boarding passes for her flight later that day. Kaiya came into her room and asked, "Babka, are you checking your email?" Mom explained what she was doing, but Kaiya wasn't interested in boarding passes. She told Babka that she needed to check her email. Babka decided to play along and opened up an email my dad had sent with a picture of him and some of the fish he had caught during his trip. Mom printed off the picture and told Kaiya that it was her special email from Papa. They hung the picture on the fridge and Kaiya proudly told anyone and everyone, "Look at my email that Papa sent me! It's on the 'frigerator!"

The next day, I was washing dishes and Kaiya ran into the kitchen exclaiming, "Mama! Mama! I sent you an email!" I questioned, "You did? Where did you send it?" Looking at me like I was crazy for not knowing about email, she replied, "It's on your computer. I sent you an email on your computer."

Curious as to what kind of email she sent me, I followed her into the living room. Sure enough my computer was covered in green post-it notes. Each one contained several scribbles that she had carefully written my "emails" on. We laughed together as we read each email.

A few days later, my dad sent Kaiya an actual email. I pulled her up in my lap and showed her that the email was for her by pointing out her name at the top of the email message. After reading it to her, I asked if she wanted to send Papa an email. She happily exclaimed yes and before I could hit the reply button, Kaiya jumped down from my lap and ran into her room. She emerged moments later with a green post-it note with little scribbles all over it. With a huge grin on her face, Kaiya said she was ready to send Papa his email. She then went promptly into the kitchen and attached it to the refrigerator.