Play Dough Magic

In a desperate ploy to try and buy time to help Molly with her homework tonight, I strapped Maeve into her seat and plopped in front of her a ball of bright blue Play-Do with two little Play-Do toys. 

I was hoping for five minutes of peace.  

Fifteen minutes later when I went over to make sure she hadn't eaten all the Play-Do, I was amazed at what I found.

She'd figured out how to roll shapes between her palms and was making little Play-Do worms.

When she tired of that, she'd switch to pressing the tools into the dough to make shapes.

(We only caught her with it in her mouth twice.)

Then she'd dig some dough out of the shaper and start rolling worms again.  

In complete SILENCE.  

Not a peep.  

Not even HALF a peep!

Forty minutes later, I had to take the dough away from her so that we could get the kids to their evening activities.  

FORTY MINUTES!!!  

To get an active 20 month old to focus and play with one toy for forty minutes??  At least in my house that is unheard of!  It was some serious Play-Do magic.  Maybe even a Play-Do miracle.  I don't know who the patron saint of Play-Do is, but he or she was working hard tonight.

Takeaway lesson: you bet your bippy I'll be including Play-Do as an essential part of our regular evening routine.

(Because I'm a geek and I looked it up, St. Claude is the patron saint of sculptors according to AmericanCatholic.org.)