Where, oh where, are you Play-Doh?

One of the first things I did when I came home from work Monday, now a new stay-at-home mom, was to pull out the Play-Doh to celebrate.

Ladybug loves Play-Doh. When she sees me go into the closet to reach up on the top shelf, she knows what it’s for.

“Oh! Wuts dat? Wuts dat? Oh!”

I’ll roll the Play-Doh into little balls while she breaks them into tiny pieces and drops them back into the container. Yesterday we made Play-Doh shoes, Play-Doh jewelry, matching Play-Doh princess crowns.

But when it came time to pack up the Play-Doh, I couldn’t find half a container. How did that happen? We had been sitting in the same spot the entire time, or at least so I thought. I hunted high and low, retraced my steps, looked in Ladybug’s favorite hiding places, and still no sign of the lost Play-Doh. I gave up.

Then this morning as I sat down at my computer with a cup of coffee, Ladybug playing behind me, I heard “Oh! Wuts dat? Wuts dat? Oh!”

And there it was, a pancake flat chunk of brown Play-Doh, mixed in with her tub of plastic cookie cutters. It was a little crusty but still malleable.

Ladybug broke the Play-Doh into tiny pieces but with its container packed away in the closet, ended up dropping the fragments into whatever receptacle happened to be nearby – her play wagon, her mini school bus, the floor. I was picking up brown Play-Doh pellets throughout the house all morning.

At least, that’s what I hope they were.