Imaginary Friend Photo Frustration

Kate's imaginary friends seem to be appearing more and more frequently lately. I'm not exactly sure how to respond to these "friends" that join us at random moments, but I usually just play along. I think those are great opportunities to play pretend and help develop her little imagination - so unless these little friends of her start encouraging her to disobey or misbehave, they're welcome in my house.

This morning Kate ate her oatmeal and blueberries at the table next to an imaginary turtle. She insisted on wearing her party hat left over from a birthday party she went to last weekend because she told me that Turtle was wearing its party hat and wanted her to have one too. And then she begged and begged me to take a picture of her eating breakfast with Turtle. So - being that my camera is always handy - I took the desired picture.

None of these activities were that unusual for our mornings around the Bettis house. But then the girl wanted to see the picture on the screen on the back of the digital camera. It was at that point things got tricky for me...

Kate couldn't understand why she couldn't see Turtle in her hat in the picture. She was pretty sure it was my fault - I simply wasn't showing her the right picture. She eventually started crying because she wanted me to show her the one with Turtle in it. She thought I didn't understand her or that I was being mean for some unexplained reason, but I couldn't get her to understand that Turtle can't be in a picture because she's not like Kate or that I did understand what she was asking even though I couldn't make it happen. I was at a complete loss.

What was this momma to say?

Advice from the older, wiser mommas out there is needed :).