My new baby is five days old and my three-year old gal is still adjusting to the presence of her built-in best friend. This morning, I broke out the Play-Doh and spent over two hours rolling, cutting, shaping and growing hair with the world’s most famous colorful compound. There is so much to love about this stuff. It is readily accessible, fairly affordable, safe and non-toxic and is capable of entertaining a toddler, even one whose attention span is at an all time low, for hours on end.
One of the strange things about my girl’s recent behavior has been her lack of focus on a single activity. She is all over the place, frantically jumping from the swing, to the blow-up kiddie pool, watering my herbs and her flowers to whining for mom’s attention. This is very far from her generally studious and mellow attitude. For most of her life she has been in a monogamous relationship with her playtime activities – one at a time, dedicated, true and earnest in her commitment to that singular fun thing. I am guessing that the new baby – both the pending arrival and eventual reality of the 8 lb bundle of sibling flesh – has a lot to do with her current state of mind.
That is why our turning, together, to the old faithful of kids’ toys, Play-Doh, was so fun and refreshing. The scene was a simple one, just she and I in the playroom with a table, two chairs and five different colors of clay (3 of which I managed to keep separate. I did let her indulge her Play-Doh dark side – blending and mashing royal blue and hot pink together – resulting in a super cool tie-dye look with hints of purple). We have a little guy, nicknamed “dude” in our house, which was the centerpiece of our early morning weekend fun. He is a Play-Doh accessory that comes with several removable scalps, each with alternative hair growing options, scissors, hairbrush, bib, and pretend blow dryer. There are also molds for a hat, tie, ponytail and a ribbon attached to him. My gal was her old self again, studying the hair, parting it and clipping away until he was once again bald. Only once did she leave hair atop his head, brushing his brown ragtop hair into two pigtails and then using a couple thin strands of brown Playdoh scrap to create ad-hoc hair ties. I also taught her how to make a Doh-hawk (a Mohawk made from Play-Doh).
Great dad and daughter fun was had, for hours and hours, as mommy and baby napped after a long night of, virtually, non-stop feeding. Play-Doh is classic, affordable and long-lasting fun for kids (and adults) of all ages!
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