As I now had my smart-phone, we decided to give the camera to Leona and let it last for as long as it would - she was almost 2.5 at the time, and it would be an understatement if I told you she was happy.
Not long after the speaker (for the sound when viewing videos one had taken) busted, and there was just some scratchy chicken sounds left when she played the videos. No matter. And then a short time after that it started catching when she turned it on, but a hard bang on the table or wall or any hard surface, when done at the right angle and at the right time in the start-up/hang-up process, would circumvent the hang-up and it could be used normally. She became an expert at it. Press power button, wait a second, BANG!!! Man do I love electronics made in the good ol days when some brute physical force was enough to fix it.
This camera was, on and off (as in sometimes, not as in the camera's powered up state), a constant wherever she went, and as Eliana got bigger, and because it was Leona's "special" (a thing owned by her that she could decide when and if she wanted to share with others), it became a thing of joyful sharing between them or a thing of contention, depending on Leona's sharing-mode at the moment.
We originally wanted to buy Leona a new camera for her 4th birthday, and then let Eliana inherit the kodak, but we didn't get around to it. Then we wanted to buy Eliana a camera for her birthday, but thought that would be a bummer for Leona, to have the old decrepit kodak camera when Eliana had a new awesome one. But this became a non-issue as we ended up not getting around to buying one for E anyways either.
To add to this, these past several months Leona started receiving a lot of hand-me-down junk...I mean toys...from the girl downstairs when she would go down and visit her. Each time she would come up with different things, perhaps an old barbie (oh how I had to bite my tongue, wipe the disgust, I mean displeasure, from my face, and keep myself from just throwing it in the trash), old slightly broken pencil case, and other such things that the girl no longer used or wanted, and Leona was thrilled! And Eliana was faced with more and more things she wanted that were Leona's "specials", where Leona less and less wanted to let Eliana use them.
Then last Sunday we decided to just go ahead and buy each of them their own new camera*, and not wait for them to go on sale again (we missed the window for when they had been 35% off), because we knew it would bring them joy, and we felt too bad for Eliana always being the one without any cool stuff. So I took out four bottles of paint - yellow, blue, white, and pink - and asked them which color they liked best. Eliana chose yellow and Leona chose pink. I confirmed with Eliana that it was yellow she liked best, to be on the safe side (last time we did this with their water-bottle choice...where they looked at pictures of the water bottles on my computer, they both chose pink). And that evening I ordered them.
*I had previously looked into what camera is a good one for young kids, and landed on the Nikon COOLPIX S33, which looked like rocks for all the right kid-friendly and fun reasons; I chose to ignore the not-so-stellar star rating as the girls are 2 and almost 4.5 for goodness sakes - they don't need some high-end performance.
We have mentioned previously that we should get Eliana a camera so she would have her own, and Leona would sometimes bring it up. One of those times just happened to be the morning after I ordered them - she came to me and said very seriously that we needed to buy Eliana a camera because she - Leona - didn't want to share with her and she needed one too.
Next day the cameras arrived! We picked up the package at the post office on our way home, and all I said about what was inside it was that it was a surprise. This was something Leona was not too content with hearing - her curiosity and inquisitiveness is not easily squelched.
I opened the box while the girls were outside playing with the girl from downstairs, and got them both ready for use, and then waited impatiently for the girl to leave after the three of them came up together a while later.
Finally, it was dinner time and we could send her home, and after dinner, it was a perfect excuse to get the girls away from the table ("go wash your hands and dry them very well, please"..."why?"..."because"). By the time they returned Eliana's camera was on the dinner table on her spot.
Their reactions were awesome.
[L, in excited falsetto: What is that?! Why is there another 'karmea'?!, and ending with E answering Judge's inquiry of "what's that?" with a very happy-smug "cama"]
And when I saw Eliana's face when she spotted Leona's pink camera I realized we may have made a big mistake not just getting the same color for her. I recognized that look immediately. It is how I feel each and every time I have ever gone to a restaurant where we order individual meals and our food arrives and I see what the other people are having. I want that. Even if they had ordered what I ordered and I had ordered what they ordered (meaning rather than ordering A I had ordered B, and rather than ordering B they had ordered A), I would still have that look on my face, because when it comes to restaurant meals, the grass is always greener for me on the other side.
But then it passed, and she was literally jumping with joy and excitement, beaming like the ray of sun she's named after.
[Stunned disbelief and joy that this baby is hers]
Next day we drove to Stryn (just me and the kids...yes, I have found my super-mom powers and can handle shopping-and-play trips solo with three kids four years and younger, one being practically a newborn), and they of course had their cameras with them, and I realized why people perhaps usually don't buy cameras for their 2 year olds. Bang slam clank thud. Thank goodness this was designed to be shock resistant...and water proof. Hovering paranoid heart-in-throat mom begone!
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