If there’s one thing our daughter could spot a mile away, it would be a camera lens. For the last 3.75 years, she’s had that thing in her face nearly non-stop without much complaint at all.

In fact, for most of that time, she barely noticed the thing constantly hanging around mommy’s neck. Unlike most kids I know, she couldn’t even be bothered checking out the pictures in the viewer – even the ones of her. The camera was just a part of our dynamic, like a purse or breathing:)

Until lately.

She’s all over seeing how many goofy poses are available in the making-mom-giggle department. But, really, if she had her way we would have dropped a couple of grand on the 5D and hung it around the budding artist’s neck to see what would come out.

“Mom, you know, photographers go all over the world,” she revealed to me in a recent chat about things she needs to be teaching me.  “They take pictures of everything cool, nothing that’s boring.”

She is, apparently, going to be taking her camera down into the ocean to “photographer” purple octopus. They aren’t boring.

Since the 5D isn’t waterproof, we decided to try her hand at this art form with a bit more scaled down version.

While the new love of the camera is in play, Ken and I are continuing our secondary storyline of the parents competing to come up with the coolest craft.

Some people marry a person who is the exact opposite of them – there’s a dominant personality and someone a bit more low-key.

And then there’s Ken and me. A Type-A Type. Hmmmm…

I like pretty crafts, not always useful yet sweet. But, he’s been kicking my butt in the fun craft department lately and I’ve nearly been voted off of Martha Stewart island by the preschool crowd.

So, the gloves came off and I decided it was time to hook the kiddo up with her first camera.

Here’s what you need:

- Cardboard from the recycle bin

- A smallish bottle cap

- A toilet paper roll

- A paper creature (or make your own)

- Hot glue gun

- Tempera paints

- Stamps (because pretty still counts)

- Paint brushes

- Ribbon

Directions:

1. Let your tiny person paint the cardboard while you cut the TP tube in half. Paint it too. Let everything dry.

2. Cut two rectangles, basically the same size, out of a portion of the cardboard. Then, cut 1-inch strips (two long, two short) the same lengths as the sides of your rectangle.

3. Use the glue gun (adults only please, so hot!) to glue the sides on one rectangle, then glue the other rectangle onto all of that to form your camera body.

4. Glue the half a TP tube onto one side of the box to make a lens. Cut out an eye piece and glue it to the top of the camera base.

5. Meanwhile, take an extra piece of cardboard (I used a box top that was a bit thinner) and fold it into an accordion. Glue the creature onto one end of the accordion and glue the other end to the box inside the TP lens.

6. Take about 2-feet of ribbon, string, even corrugated cardboard and glue it on to use as a strap.

7. Let it dry. Then hit the garden, the park, anywhere you like for some serious photo fun.

Ken laughed at my crooked, misaligned, not-so-precise creation. I laughed at him when the kiddo spent an hour “photographering” the garden.

OK, so who cares whose craft is the most fun?:)