Christmas day arrived and Santa gave Leta her own i-Pad. Santa knew that not only would Leta enjoy watching videos on the i-Pad, but the technology would help Mommy put Leta to sleep at night and perhaps buy Mommy an extra hour of needed REM sleep,from 5am-6am, courtesy of Netflix and You Tube.

And Santa was right! Leta was so absorbed in playing on her i-Pad after Christmas that I was able to read the newspapers, clean the house, write my blog, and peruse the Facebook Newsfeed. BUT that is when I noticed… my FB account had been HACKED! My latest status update, Christmas night, appeared to be a travel article about a Dude Ranch in Wyoming, complete with video. How strange. I also noticed that I had received a few “likes” on my update, one query as to why I felt compelled to post a travel article in the middle of the holidays, and one congratulatory comment that I was on vacation out west.  I quickly deleted all of it.  And then the next day the same thing happened again. But this time a cat video appeared!  I was alerted to “my” posting by my California friend’s comment: “I love the cat video Lainey.. Adorable!” And then before I could get on FB and watch, 3 more cat video comments rolled in…. I deleted everything, embarrassed that these two random postings had occurred. And then I realized….The cyber-hacking was an internal job.    L.E.T.A!

 But how did she manage to hack onto my FB account,twice now? She couldn’t have gotten through on my computer, or my phone…they were both password protected? I went sleuthing. And I quickly found the answer… When Santa gave Leta her own I-pad, the I-pad seamlessly managed to i-Cloud my e-mail, my Facebook, my pictures and my i-Tunes. What planet are we all on that this actually makes sense to anyone now? Leta had it all at her fingertips, even my Amazon account. With just one-click she could order a Nikon camera and have it delivered to our doorstep in under two-days.   So I turned off the FB feature on her I-pad and sent out an apology disclaimer to my FB friends.

I personally hate it when people send out a flurry of random status updates. I like to rely on my friends, certain friends at least, for substance. And here I was my own worst nightmare, getting “likes” for cat videos. And then in response to my apology, I received 16 “likes”, a few understanding comments about my mischevious Leta, and one suggestion that perhaps I should let Leta loose in the kitchen with a Kitchin-Aid Blender and a hot oven. what is that all about?…..at least my friends understand my Leta chaos and are forgiving… My FB street cred was still intact.

But a few more days went by, and the hacker struck again! I received a phone call from an apologetic friend.  The conversation unfolding like this:  “Lainey, I saw your recent post on cyber-bullying and I am so sorry that my son wrote those things on your daughters Instagram wall.”
“You must be mistaken, I replied,  What posting?”  And she said, “The one you posted New Year’s Eve.  I’m pretty sure it was you.” I assured her that I had NOT posted anything New Year’s Eve, not even a cheerful Happy New Year posting.   We were both confused for a moment, and she went on to apologize for her son’s cyber-insensitivity. But then I told her that it was probably my special needs daughter, Leta, who had already hacked my account twice this week. She laughed, I laughed. But did she believe me? What if she thought I was trying to send a veiled passive-aggressive message to her about her son’s cyber-bullying??   I hung up the phone, jumped on my FB account and there it was:  Another article complete with video : ” A Super Simple Set of Steps to Stop Cyber-bullying from happening to your kid.” How did Leta do it this time!!!  I was mortified and quickly hit the delete button. But not before two more friends had “liked” the posting and re-shared it.

I called my friend back to assure her that I really did not post this article and I had no bad feelings…I wanted her to understand the irony. Laugh, laugh, laugh.

But to myself I was thinking. “That 3 foot tall cyber-devil. LETA!!” ……It made no sense that she could get onto Facebook again, now that I had taken it off her I-pad.  

 And then the hacker hit one last time……a political posting, no less:  Lech Walesa decrying that ObamaCare is doomed. Oh God! Now everyone thinks I’m a radical right wing nut-job….This time my friend Geoff, who had been delightfully following all these postings and egging Leta on somehow by liking each of them, brought this one to my attention with the comment, “Now, Leta is getting political on us?” I went to my homepage to delete. But it had been up for an hour…no surprise that no one but Geoff had made a single like or comment. My friends are all Democrats, after all.

dangerous with computers but devilishly cute!

Even though these instances are embarrassing and hard to explain to the uninitiated in Leta world, I am secretly proud of my daughter’s blooming techno-savvy ways. She can not read or write, but clearly the computer makes sense to her and she is able to navigate it more proficiently than most. And it does makes me continue to wonder, what else can she do? Until my next posting, I wish you a Happy 2014 filled with more love and less chaos, unless of course you would like to have some of mine. xo