Remember when Mazzy and I made that holiday cookie baking tutorial? The experience was fun and pain-free and Mazzy still asks to watch that video to this day. It is a source of pride and accomplishment.

Looking back, I think the key to the creation of that video is the absence of Harlow for the majority of filming, a small person I will now refer to as “Tutorial Kryptonite”.

Mazzy and I have been doing Seedling craft projects together for the past month and based on our very positive experience, Mazzy asked to film a tutorial. I pitched the idea to Seedling and they agreed, because it seems like a no-brainer. Cute kid likes your craft project, wants to create it on camera— what can go wrong?

We tried to film a tutorial with Seedling’s Designer Soap Kit and Harlow basically derailed us before we even began. She interrupted Mazzy’s intro, she dropped the craft supplies, she quacked like a duck because… why do two-year-olds quack like ducks? Why do two-year-olds do anything???

Honestly, I’m impressed Mazzy held it together for as long as she did.

Finally, I decided to shut the tutorial down and just make the soap undocumented which ended up being a ton of fun. It’s a perfect project for Mazzy’s skill level and kind of science-y, since it involves heating and freezing and changing the properties of the soap to make new shapes. Mazzy found the whole thing fascinating and was totally enamored with the finished product.

Mazzy was still keen to do a craft tutorial and I was keen on capturing it, so we tried again with Seedling’s Make Your Own Mermaid.

Unfortunately, five years-old is on the young side for that project and she required a lot of my help, which I was not exactly in the position to give her from behind the camera.

Rather than make her frustrated, I turned the camera off and just sat with her so that we could do it together. No photos, no video. Sometimes mommy daughter time is better spent when you are not trying to record it for your blog.

I know this is obvious to most people, but I lose sight sometimes since I document my kids and my experiences daily. I emailed Seedling telling them about my video issue and because they are awesome, they basically said— we would rather you actually have a good experience than feel a need to create a good experience for the camera.

So that’s what Mazzy and I did.

We worked on the Mermaid project together because it involved a lot of sewing and Mazzy had never sewed anything before. She sewed the legs together (a little crooked) but she was so so so proud of herself, she asked me to take a picture.

She helped me cut the materials and deliberated at length about the pattern for her mermaid’s tail. When the cutting wasn’t as neat as she would like, I stepped in. She decided instead of embroidering the eyes like the picture, she wanted to sew on two beads which I thought was an awesome idea. She drew eyelashes with a pen, after a failed attempt with marker. She dictated the length of the hair and helped me cut each piece while I held it out for her, which required enormous trust on my part. She opted to use the beads as sea treasure instead of using them to make mermaid jewelry as they were intended. She took breaks to play Mermaids with Harlow while I dutifully stitched scales until all the seams were hidden.

In the end, Mazzy got to see we could make something as cool as a stuffed doll at our kitchen table. I got to exercise all the hands-on crafty skills I have forgotten about over the years as I funnel more and more of my creativity through my computer.

I also realized that my job as a parent is to help Mazzy build confidence in her creative skills so that one day, she’ll be able to do projects like this on her own. Not to film the perfect craft tutorial.

When we were finished, Mazzy raised her mermaid and proclaimed, “I made her all by myself!”

Big long pause.

“Wtih a little help from Mama.”

I guess Mazzy’s confidence is firmly intact and I can feel good knowing there will be more craft projects in our future.

Today, I’m proud we made something together. Only one picture required.

I’m giving away a $250 Seedling gift card over on Instagram— you can enter here!

And the winners are…. @lotus_rainbow and @openmindomen — Congrats! Please contact abby@mommyshorts.com to claim your prize!

Seedling is giving Mommy Shorts readers 30% off if you use the code MAZZY30 to help inspire the next generation of change-makers and creators. Redeem here.

Offer valid one per customer; discount does not apply to past purchases, packaging, applicable taxes, or shipping and handling. Expires August 2, 2015 at 11:59 pm PST

This post was sponsored by Seedling but all thoughts and opinions are my own.