Play Dough

My sister was in town for the weekend but sadly had to leave today. LB and I were both pretty bummed. After I put LB down for a nap, I found myself wallowing over the fact that my family doesn't live closer. To beat the blues I decided a distraction was in order. I have been wanting to make play dough for LB for a while and so today was the day! I know I could just as easily buy some at the store but I wasn't sure if LB would try to eat it. He still occasionally explores things with his mouth and I didn't want to risk him ingesting it. But if I made it then I knew it would be safe just in case. Plus it is cheaper! I was weirdly a little nervous to give this a try. Crazy, I know. It is the easiest recipe in the world but making play dough falls under the crafty category and the cooking category. A double whammy in my book. Those are definitely two areas where I am still building confidence. However, I actually enjoyed myself. I got the recipe from my mother-in-law. Here it is:

2 cups water
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2-3 tsp cream of tartar
3-4 Tbsp oil
food coloring

Put all the ingredients, except the food coloring, into a large saucepan. Mix well. Cook over medium heat, stirring until mixture pulls from the sides of the pan. Once done place on cutting board and knead in food coloring.

Here is a link to a website with a recipe as well. It is basically the same but makes a little more. Her play dough also looks much prettier than mine.

I was surprised by how quickly it cooked. I may have cooked it a touch too long but it was fine. I put wax paper over the cutting board to help contain the food coloring mess. I also divided mine into three sections so that I could do three colors. The first two colors, green and blue, turned out pretty well. Sadly my yellow was a bit of a fail. I had to rush at the end because LB took a super short nap and I could hear him as I was trying to finish. So I got a bit careless and some of the green coloring mixed in with the yellow and I didn't get to knead in nearly as much for a pretty yellow. Oh well. We still used it even though it wasn't pretty.

I put glad press and seal on LB's little table in the basement and put some play dough out for him. He totally didn't know what to do with it. So I started showing him how we could smoosh it or roll into balls. I also brought out some cookie cutters and a little rolling pin that he has for his kitchen. I should not have shown him how to make balls so early in the process. Given that he is obsessed with balls this meant that he always wanted to hold a ball in one hand. It is also something he tends to do when we are trying a new thing involving touch. His OT says it is like he is keeping one hand "safe." I tried to take it away at one point so he would play with both hands but he wasn't interested in that and I wasn't in the mood to battle. Even though he used mostly one hand throughout the whole thing I think he really liked it. I was also glad we finally got to use his new, little table for something other than coloring. I bought the table at a garage sale in the fall for $8. It was in bad shape but just needed a paint job. D painted it when the basement was finished and I think it looks good as new. I remember having a little table like that when I was growing up. I have memories of using it to play school with my sister or to watch Saturday morning cartoons while eating pancakes. Hopefully, LB will get a lot of use out of his table as well. Today was a good start.

He loved making the shapes with the cookie cutters. I only have a star, a heart and a gingerbread man. I need to get more. I remember seeing an Africa shaped one some where. I am now on a mission to find it. LB couldn't really do the shapes himself but he helped me. I thought it was pretty creative of him to give the men belly buttons. The funniest part was when he decided that one of the men had a tattoo. I guess that is what happens when your dad has tattoos. After a while he didn't want to sit any more so I just pulled the chair away and he was able to continue playing while standing. I showed him how to make letters and I made him a little airplane. He played with that airplane for a while. I couldn't believe it when I looked at the clock and we had been playing for an hour. That is an eternity for an indoor game at our house. I know it was the first time so future play dough adventures may not be as long. I'll probably try and make more as well so we can have lots of different colors. Apparently, if you store the play dough in tupperware it will stay good for a long time.

This was a really easy project to clean up as long as you don't count my hands. I can't tell you the last time I used food coloring, if ever, and I was not expecting the food coloring to stay put on my hands after multiple washes. Although, I have to admit that the stains made me feel very crafty. Totally worth it.