Doh

Abbie didn’t nap yesterday. We went through the naptime routine as normal. I shut her in her room as normal. I let her bang around her room until she fell asleep as normal. But she didn’t fall asleep as normal this time.

I didn’t care. Nap time is Matt time.

I left her in her room until the regular wake time in hopes that she might eventually give up and drift off to sleep. No luck. I listened to her the entire time over the monitor, and she never sounded hurt or even unhappy. She sounded content, maybe too content.

When I opened the door to her room, I saw why she was awake and happy. She had climbed high into her closet, and pulled a Play-Doh set off a shelf previously believed inaccessible. She had spent the entire “nap” time playing with her dough. For Abbie, playing mostly involves opening every can, mixing the colors, pulling the dough into bite-sized pieces, and grinding them into various fabrics around her room. Her carpet, clothes, and bedding all have tiny, fluorescent colored specs of dried dough bonded with the fibers, possibly at the molecular level.

The Play-Doh website claims clean up is easy. We’ll see about that. Regardless, I’m never again keeping a can of black dough in the house; that stuff easily left the worst stains.

* “Matt time” mostly involves sleep.