Time for an admission.

I’ll admit to being dragged — not exactly kicking and screaming — into the 21st century of high technology gadgets, gizmos and doo-dads.

Skype is one of them and recently my wife and I had the high pleasure of reaping a critical benefit of this form of telecommunication. It involved our granddaughter, Emma Nicole, who this past week turned 2.

We went to Allen, Texas, to celebrate with Emma and her parents.

Now, about this Skype thing.

Every week — or sometimes two — Emma and her parents call us up on Skype. For the few of you who don’t know, Skype is a form of Internet connection that hooks conversing parties up with video. Our techno-savvy son hooked up our TV with a computer and added the Skype software.

So … they hit the Skype button on their end, our TV beeps loudly at us, we scramble to turn our TV from one cable hookup to another so we can open the Skype connection and then — presto! — we hook it up and there’s Emma.

We chat with her and her parents, get caught up on the latest goings-on there — and they with ours — and we talk to Emma, seeking to elicit some kind of reaction to the image of us that shows up on their TV screen.

Tonight, we visited with them via Skype and had a wonderful exchange. Emma was wearing a costume dress we bought her for her birthday.

Where am I going with this?

Well, last weekend we took Emma to breakfast. Just the three of us went out while her Mommy and Daddy got ready for a birthday party. We don’t see Emma all that often in person — remember, she lives 360 miles away. What thrilled us to no end was how comfortable Emma was to be with Grandma and Grandpa. We had a blast sharing breakfast with her at a diner in the middle of Allen.

We took her shopping later that morning for some more birthday goodies.

I credit Skype with acquainting Emma with us and with enabling us to enjoy some family time with our precious little pumpkin.

I shudder to think how that breakfast date might have gone had Emma not gotten to see us as often as she does through this modern technology that, I must admit, is still taking some time to grasp fully.

This all might not seem like a big deal to those who see their grandchildren regularly. Take it from me: It’s a big deal to us.