Kayla the cartographer

Kayla, now age 4, with her favorite birthday presents. Photo taken at her birthday party, April 2008.


This past weekend was Kayla's birthday party. Kayla loved the digital camera I gave her, as well as the globe that she got from Ate. She had asked for both. Word was she went ape shit at Barnes & Noble when she first laid eyes on the globe and had said to Ate, "It's a deal, okay? You will get me this for my birthday?" She first played with the camera, taking pictures of her bear, her dolls, her pillow, even her blanket.

Later she put the camera aside and spun the globe round and round, asking me what this yellow country or that large green country was called. She asked if there were people living in Alaska or if there were just polar bears living in igloos. When I pointed out South America she jumped up off the floor, clapped her hands once, and said that big, big snakes called anacondas lived in South America. (Where does she get these facts? What TV shows does she watch?)

Everytime she pointed to a country near Greenland she asked if it was cold there, for I had told her that Greenland is a very cold place. I showed her that the blue strip running along the bulge was called the equator, and that the farther away you get from it the colder it got. She then pointed to Iran and asked if people are hot there. I nodded, wondering if this girl really might be a genius.

Then she pointed to another country further north, asking what it was called. When I told her it's called Norway she said, "Whaaat??" She was all incredulous, as if a country ought not be called that. This was when I realized that she wasn't a genius. She was just a vibrant, highly curious, very intelligent, exuberant little girl, which is far more preferrable and infinitely more delightful.

Other countries' names that made her eyes bulge out and go, "whaat??!" are Kazakhstan, Papua New Guinea, and Mongolia. She kept going back to Canada -- perhaps the large land mass fascinated her -- and she also kept asking me to show her where her dad is when he goes to London.

She wasn't interested when I explained that all that blue she was seeing was water. She was, however, very much interested in the North Pole and asked if Santa Claus lived there. When I showed her where it was she then asked me to point out New Jersey again.

That was when she said, "Santa Claus knows where I live?" Her tone when she said that wasn't that far off from the "whaat??!" she kept screeching earlier. I said yes, he knows where she and all children live.

Kayla looked at the globe again, tapping the North Pole region. She seemed to be thinking things through. For a moment she stopped asking questions. I was quiet with her, but I was smiling. I was thinking that maybe the girl might be a genius after all.