A public service announcement…
If you are making playdough with your toddler, and he starts listing out the ingredients needed as you leave the room to change the baby’s nappy, and then there is a long silence, be afriad, be very afraid.
A certain toddler, who shall remain nameles *cough*Bear*cough* got all excited at the idea of sticky, gooey, tactile playdough. “Bwoo, please mummy?”. Of course, I assured him, blue it shall be. As I left the room bearing a smelly baby on one hip, the little ratbag was rummaging through the cupboard. Nothing too much he could get up to, thought I. “BWOO!” came the triumphant cry. Still not overly concerned at this stage, the actual colouring is in a box, and the lids can be a bit sticky. *chirp, chirp* Silence. Why was I not concerned?
Baby de-stunk, and back into the kitchen we go. Bear has managed to get the small blue bottle out of the box, lid off, and emptied the enitre thing (luckily) into the bowl. Thankfully it was only a small bottle, but still, this playdough was going to be a very vivid blue!
We used a recipe I found here, but due to an entire bottle fo food dye added as opposed to the few drops suggested, we had to add a bit more flour. I did opt for some variety and broke the blue into three portion & with the aid of half a bottle of red and half a bottle of green, managed to turn one portion purple and the other green. Not really sure why I bothered really, as all three portions were soon mixed back together to make a lovely teal blue.
For the 5 minutes it took to make this, it certainly has been good “value”. Cooking dinner, washing dishes, anything that even vaguely suggests being in the kitchen brings cries of “I make (play with!) my playdough mummy?”.
Lots more to blog, when I get time. We’ve had a lovely quite morning so far. Books read, songs sung, dvds watched. Biscuits baked, patterns cut, diggers made. Books finished. And the afternoon is going to be pretty awesome too. A bit of work, some tidying up. Sewing a gift. Taking some photos. Stretching my creative wings and SOARING! Let’s do this!
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I love making playdough! I use the recipe for cooked playdough on the cream of tartar container, it lasts for ages. But my son find it so hard to resist the temptation of eating it every time 🙂
Ooh and the gingerbread scented playdough for Christmas time was lovely 🙂
That was the best post I’ve read today! Something I can imagine my own toddler doing, except our blue colouring is in a big bottle and lives on the very very top shelf of the cupboard!!!
Louise – I usually do the cooked verion too, but Mister Mister wanted to make it himself, so went the safe option. And yep, despite the salt, he eats it too! Not as much as he used to though – first day at playgroup there was glitter playdough… made for a very interesting nappy that afternoon!!
Car – he’s normally really good, just got a bit carried away I think. Luckily it was only one of those tiny “Queens” dropper bottles, and he had got the bowl out first. I shudder to think what could have happened (my lovely suede dining chairs come to mind…)
Your post bought back some fond memories of my two when they were toddlers – many an hour was spent happily with the playdough and a pile of cookie cutters. In fact, I think that is why my daughter (now 12 yrs) has such a strong interest in cooking. It is great that your little guy wanted to be so involved with the making. I love to experiement with colour too:)