“IE-IE-YO?” She asked.
She happens to be my granddaughter, Makenzie, almost two years old and not quite three feet tall. Her face is raised upward to meet mine. “IE-IE-YO?” She implores again. Her light tousled hair falls partly across her forehead and covers one of her brown eyes. The face is a study in inquisitive precociousness. Her head is tilted to one side with one eyebrow raised as if she might be up to something.
I can’t always oblige her requests. Sometimes I am busy reading or researching something on the internet. Sometimes there is no time, it might be too close to dinner or bedtime. But today nothing is pressing.
“OK,” I say. Her face lights up with joy and she moves her hands like she’s clapping, even though they never touch. In her arms she holds two stuffed animals which move with her.
“Where is my computer?” I ask.
She hops over to the cubby where it is stowed and touches it. I reach over and take it out of its bag and set it on the floor in front of her.
“Would you like to help me open it?”
She shakes her head and the stuffed animals tumble to the floor as she bends over. Now her face is one of focus and concentration. Her little hands reach over to the zippers on the case. She grabs one and begins to unzip the top. Even though we have done this dozens of times she still has a little problem negotiating the zipper around the corners, so I rotate the case around to give her better leverage.
After the case is unzipped she jumps up and gathers her animals while I take it out. Then she moves over to help me plug it in. I never let her touch the power supply cord but I do ask her where the plug goes. She points to the correct location.
“Good!” I exclaim. Then she points to the modem port and I plug in the phone line. Having accomplished that I lean back in my Lazy Boy and unfold the leg rest. Now I’m ready for her to come aboard. Using the lever as a step she begins to climb over the armrest, stuffed animals and all. I help her and in a few moments she is sitting beside me as I turn on the computer.
After it boots up I ask her, “Which one do we push?” She points to a green icon on the screen. “That’s right! We have to touch it twice.” I say this as I am doing it, knowing she has no idea how to call up a program using the touchpad. She waits patiently while the program comes up. Then I ask, “Which one do you want to watch?” She points to one of the three videos on the screen. Actually two of the three icons are identical, But I know which one she wants to watch. It’s the Christmas video, even though it is the middle of summer. If I click on the wrong one she will signal her displeasure almost at once. “No! No!” She will exclaim. As the video starts I ask her about her two ‘friends’.
“Who is this one?” I ask, pointing.
“Ju-Ju.” she replies.
“Junior?” I ask.
“Yes, she replies. Not yea or right-o. Yes.
“And who is this one?”
“Dumbo,” she says.
“Dumbo?”
Again, “Yes.”
I know her animals names already, but I like to draw her out and get her to talk. I like the sound of her voice. I’d rather have her to talk to me than me talk to her.
The video is running now and sometimes we sing along. During some parts I take her little hand and move it back and forth with the music like a conductor. Her attention never wavers. She laughs at certain parts, and answers my questions immediately. She has watched this with me many times and knows what will happen next, sometimes shouting out a word, like ‘house!’ right before they show the making, in fast motion, of a gingerbread house.
During some parts she will look at me and smile. As we watch I take note of her eyes. They appear to be a little droopy. She looks tired. Maybe she got up too early from her nap today.
I say, “You can lay back and still watch the video.”
I adjust the lazy-boy back a notch and move the computer screen slightly. Without a word her head settles back on my shoulder.
