Play-Doh, well-played…

A couple of weeks ago, my daughter Audrey had a light bulb moment to keep her 2-year old daughter Sissy entertained while her 4 older brothers competed in a swim meet. If you know anything about swim meets, you know that they go on and on and on.

This doesn’t bother Pop-up and me at all. In fact, we’ve spent a great deal of our parenthood and now grandparenthood lives on swim decks and in spectator stands. Five of our eleven grandkids are competitive swimmers, as were both of our daughters, Audrey and Jane.

We love the sport of swimming.

But back to 2-year old Sissy, who doesn’t know yet if she likes swimming or not, but her Mama knows that Sissy needs to be busy when her brothers are swimming.

All day!

On kind of a whim, Audrey stopped at a local Walmart on the way to that particular swim meet and bought a small gift set of colorful Play-Doh with molds and characters…

Sissy has played with Play-Doh with her 4 brothers, but this Play-Doh PLAY was different.

She was alone with her creativity. Her designs. Her colors. Her molds and combinations of designs, colors and molds. Sissy was completely mesmerized.

When there was a lull in the swim events of my 4 grandsons, I took up a little section of Sissy’s Play-Doh and I was instantly transported through time and space to my own childhood… taking a tiny piece of aqua Play-Doh and shaping, designing, creating a tiny teacup for my granddaughter.

I remembered when I was a child. I remembered the primary colors of the Play-Doh of my day — the yellow, red and blue. If we wanted to make other colors, we mixed our Play-Doh, but of course those colors weren’t real purples or greens or pinks.

Here, on this day, I was shaping tiny teacups and saucers and a glorious tiny, tiny teapot of sparkly real aqua, purple, pink and yellow!

The tactile experience of childhood was so calming and creative and colorful. I was mesmerized.

Sissy and I made tiny gifts with ribbons and bows. We made tiny fish with silly tails. We made tiny swim goggles. We were enveloped in the sights and sounds of the swim meet within our own tiny world.

And when the swim meet was over, clean-up was a breeze.

When my daughter picked up that little gift of Play-Doh on a light bulb whim, she had no way of knowing just how well-played that idea would be — for her daughter and her Mom!