6:00am Play-Doh Call

Kindergartners must not be getting much Play-Doh time these days. I think the teachers are too busy teaching Algebra nowadays and have dismissed certain childhood necessities, such as Play-Doh in the Kindergarten curriculum.

In any event, it become absolutely necessary for B and myself to venture out in the pouring rain last night, just before dinner (the best time to do an errand - when everyone is on the verge of hunger and grouchiness!) and lap through our neighborhood Wal-Mart (yes, I do shop there more than I’d like….it’s a mere mile from my home!) in search of several colors of Play-Doh and a bucket of sea creature shapes. I simply could not take another whine session of,

“When are we going to buy the Play-Doh?

"Why don’t we have it yet?“

And the best…“Grandma Ghee makes it. Why can’t you make it?“

This is where the single mom cracks like a stale cookie: “Oh, get in the car already! I’m sick of hearing about the (insert favorite swear word) Play-Doh!”

So here it is, dinner time, and after dinner, comes the bath and then whole bedtime routine, and don’t forget that we’re still kind of Daylight Savings time so there's a lot of eye rubbing going on. We have an assortment of Play-Doh but things are definitely starting to go south around 7pm. Thus, our window of opportunity for Play-Doh was quite limited last night. Amidst the tears of disappointment over our shortened Doh session, I think I promised something like, “Just get in bed and go to sleep and we’ll do it first thing in the morning, when you wake up.”

Boy, those little people have great retention, even when they’re dead tired. B’s subconscious mind must have turned that promise over a hundred times, at least, because at 6:00am sharp, I hear this: “MOMMY, IT’S TIME TO GET UP FOR PLAY-DOH!”

Damn that Daylight Savings switch back anyway. Why can’t we have daylight all year long and later bedtimes and later wake-up times?

But then, I was seriously amazed when B pulled up a chair, sat himself down, and proceeded to cut, roll, contort, create, and generally, amuse himself with the Play-Doh for one hour and forty-five minutes.

What better way to spend the early hours before school? I got to sit next to him, sipping coffee, and trolling the Web. My only input was an occasional, “Nice (insert sea creature name). Very creative. Keep it up.”

I even got a short shower in, (sans shampoo of course as it's only day 4 of my blow-out!) without the usual and very repititive, “Mommy, aren’t you done yet?”

We both left the house feeling calm. No rushing, no cursing (that would be me, not him), nothing forgotten. Maybe those parents who don’t allow television in the mornings are on to something.