Since Brooks is now getting into everything (read: EVE-RY-THING), I figured it was about time to introduce him to some mommy-approved messy stuff. (Apparently my thinking is the house is TOO clean)

Play-doh itself is one of the greatest inventions known to mankind, but since B is in his "everything-MUST-go-in-my-mouth" stage, I figured I would see if I could make our own with ingredients I wouldn't freak out about if ingested (I draw the line as random pieces of dog kibble and dust bunnies).

After trolling the internet a little, I mixed and matched some recipes I found and created the below which worked great for us.
When you first put everything in, it looks a bit like porridge and pretty liquidy.
 After 2-3 min on a low heat (I think I had ours around a level 3), it started to clump up and become a lot thicker as I spooned it around the pot.  I was worried about it burning, so I just kept a slow stir going the entire time.

You will notice its "done" when its thick enough to form in a ball and all the ingredients clump together.
 It still will be pretty warm (too hot for little hands) so let cool at least 15 minutes.
 Before dishing it out to a kiddo, kneed it up a bit to make sure there are no random hot spots.

Then, set in front of your freakishly adorable 10 month old and enjoy!
Brooks like to hit it with his palm and I rolled some pieces up to create different sizes for him to play with.
When you roll them, its doesn't HAVE to look like poop, that's just the shape mine took... sorry about that. I guess we now know why they don't make play-doh in brown.
 Brooks loved moving the round, ball shaped ones.  It was fun to see him figure out the difference between moving the long ones with his hands and then only needing his finger to move the larger balls.  Very Montessori learning.

He even invited me to get in on the action.
Such a good little sharer.

After playtime was over, I balled everything up and put it in a glass pyrex in the fridge and we were able to use it for 2 more days before I tossed it out.

At one point, Brooks did try to eat it but the overwhelming salt taste made him stop pretty darn quickly.  It did make his hands a bit salty, but definitely no dirtier than playing with playdoh.  Super easy clean up just using a wet rag.

I think next time I make it, I'm going to throw some food coloring in there just for fun.  Fingers crossed it won't stain B's hands, but I will let you know.

Has anyone else ever made homemade play-doh?  Any other fun at-home recipes you know about?

-Samm