A Master Button Presser

Leena has an affinity for power buttons. There is precedent, of course. Sonya, for example, first pioneered the technique of powering down the mancave – crawling under my desk and flipping the pulsating switch on the surge protector to which all of my computer hardware is connected.

However, Leena has really taken the art of button pressing to new heights. Notably, she has a finger that is dedicated to pressing things. Presented with anything that looks even remotely like a button, she will sit herself up in front of the item of interest and then her hand will pop out the chubby presser finger swiss army knife-style.

This little finger has an impressive track record.

Not content to brutishly turn off all power to the mancave, one day she padded into my office, circumnavigated my chair, and sat herself down right in front of my computer tower. Her discovery of the quite-subtle Mac Pro power button was announced to me when both of my monitors went blank, followed by the sickening whine of the machine shutting down.

On another occasion, I was sitting on the sofa in the living room working on my laptop when she pulled up beside me, peered around the screen, scanned the keyboard, and (of all 100+ keys present) chose to press the power key.

Other times, Mitali and I, clad in sexy bathing suits will be having an intense polynesian dance-off in front of some tiki huts and then, suddenly, we’ll find ourselves back in our living room, dressed in pajamas, posed ridiculously in front of a blank television; Leena smiling up at us with her finger on the Xbox power button.

And while it might seem annoying that she delinks the Xbox controller, switches off the router, and resets the settings on the scanner, as her father and a computer scientist, I can’t help but be excited for the future that lies ahead of such a young little hacker.