Where's the camera?

Where's the camera when you need one? Never fails, one of the grandkids is on his or her game and me without a camera.

I was wishing for one several months ago when the Duchess (age 2) had spent the night with me. She gets up at the buttcrack of dawn (thanks kids for that colorful expression!), and I'm still sleepy. Turn the TV on, lock the gate to the kitchen, gather the toys, and I'm thinking she's good, she's ok. I'm right here in case she needs me, but I'm dozy. Wanna go baaaack to sleeeeep..... *gentle snore*.....

Next thing I know, she's right in my face, watching to see if I'll open my eyes.

"WAKE UP! LOVEY! WAKE UP!" then when I do open my eyes, she grins. "Hel-LO Lovey!" like it's a day in the park. No sleeping on duty with this one!

Another time was at McDonald's, the one with the indoor playground, you know the one? Well, anyway, Tris never takes her in right away, goes through the drive thru to get food, then lets her eat as much as she will before they go in, since she always wants to go straight to the playground.

Well, I gotta be different. I took her and PoohBear in to place the order. I didn't think she would be that hungry, as she'd had some spaghetti just a couple of hours earlier, but we'd been playing hard at the house, chasing the dog, etc. so she was ready for a Happy Meal. Or the french fries anyway.

First, she was going to get her own fries thankyouverymuch, and headed behind the counter (why, for the love of all that's holy, is it WIDE OPEN???). I caught her and she decided it would be best if she waited at the table - not in the playground area amazingly. Nope, she found a table within grabbing distance of the counter and sat with PoohBear, shouting, "Do you want some FRENCH FRIES? Ok, ONE PLEASE! Lovey, ONE PLEASE!" raising her finger in demand as if signalling a waiter. I guess she WAS pretty hungry.

But what put me in mind of the camera was when Turtle and the Duchess came by the office yesterday to bring me a book. Apparently, they spent quite a bit of time up front in the reception area with the CSR's. The Duchess was feeling her oats and being quite the little show-out. They eventually came back to my office and Duchess showed out a little more for the kids in the upper dungeon - "What color is that? Thas GREEN! Look, Lovey, thas GREEN" and so on. We chatted for a bit, but I needed to leave for lunch, so we started out together.

Turtle says, "Say 'Good-bye, everybody!' " as we near the front. The Duchess parrots back a little early, so Turtle says, "Wait just a second, we're almost there."

When we get to the front desk area, the Duchess puts both hands over her eyes and throwing her hands up in the air in a grand gesture and squeals, "Peek-a-boo!"

Classic and cute, but not really remarkable, I know, except to Lovey. However, the CSR ladies giggled appreciatively and got into the game for a moment or two. This is when it got, well, camera-worthy.

The Duchess starts (fake) laughing along with everyone, leans over with her hands on her knees, shaking her head, still laughing. "Aha-ha-ha-ha... Thas funny! Thas funny!"

*sigh* Ok typing it just doesn't capture how funny it really was. Just seeing her imitate the grown-up laughter (that the whole "That's FUNNY!" sounded just like her mother) was somehow just hysterical to me.

Why don't I ever have a camera when I want one??