Up to now, I've been a firm, no play-doh in the house person. I'm kinda hoping Thomas doesn't even know what play-doh is. But then somehow I got a crazy desire to play with Thomas and some play-doh. I have no idea where these things come from. Can the brain have cravings for play?

Anyhow, I obviously didn't have any in the house, but some vague memory of childhood surfaced about my mom making us a version of the stuff. Specifically, I recall an elementary school diorama Heather made that had a wolf made from homemade play-dough. No idea what the wolf was for, maybe she can enlighten us. But thanks to the wonder of the internet, we soon had a recipe for homemade play-dough. And since Thomas has been showing such interest in the kitchen, I thought he could try to help.

And he tried really hard to help! Unfortunately the dough gets pretty hard to stir once you start mixing it, but he stirred it some while he could. He also tried to taste test it even though I tried to explain it wasn't technically food. Oh well, he only tried it a few times before giving up on it... Then I gave him a finished batch to play with while I tinted the other ones.

I demonstrated how to roll and squish it, but he really didn't seem to be getting the concept. (This photo was taken right before he tried to eat it.) So then I had the brilliant idea to pull out the cookie cutters and play with it that way!

That wasn't too successful either. You can see the two shapes I cut out as a demonstration. He seemed pretty excited about the cutters and then proceeded to put them on top of the shapes I made and press on them ever so slightly, then pick them up and rearrange them. At least he was having fun!

I decided to make him a super exciting thing out of the play-dough while he played. But apparently I'm not that great at play-dough either because this was what I came up with:

Ha - I bet my parents are questioning that sculpture class I took in college right about now. At least I live in Alaska and a snowman is somewhat appropriate for 6 months of the year. So much for all those amazing play-dough creations I saw online that were so inspiring. I guess we both will have to work up to that...!