The Perfect Parent~A mini Series II

So the decision was made 14 years ago...the perfect parent, tall order to fill.  However, I set out, me and my sick daughter would do all the things I wished my mom had done with me.  Sit and colour, make messy finger paints, sing and dance, go for hikes, strolls on the beach and best of all... home made play dough.  We made a lot of play dough and lets face it, who doesn't love the stuff?  It's also non toxic when coloured with Kool-aid and to yucky tasting to worry about your child ingesting fist fulls. (I'll share my favorite recipe at the end of this post)

In between all this fun were Doctor appointments, specialists, ER visits and more illness.  It was our normal.  Amazing how the tables have turned, it's still our normal, just that I'm the one who's sick now.  Magically, and I mean that literally we welcomed a son into the world.  I say magically because our daughter was a fertility baby and he, well... he wasn't, he was free, for lack of a better word.  A true gift.   And what a joy he was.  This little bundle brought his own set of illness with him which I think is the reason that to this day they have the most amazing bond to one another.  I've seen them both on many occasions "take care" of one another when the other was sick.  Human nature is amazing, raising children with compassion is the true skill.

My kids are amazing, truly amazing human beings who understand how precious life is, how it's a gift, they weren't born that way, it was taught to them, by me.  You see the perfect parent isn't one who gives in to every whine or temper tantrum they don't buy everything the child wants, nope...they take the time to explain, to love, to be present and most importantly to listen.

I did something really wonderful for myself not that long ago, I transferred all the old home movie tapes to  DVD so we could watch them.  I was flooded with awesome memories of their toddler years and all the fun we had.  I was shocked when they told me that they didn't really remember doing those things.  I couldn't believe it, it actually made me cry, how on earth could I have put so much effort into all these awesome activities and they don't remember?  Then I realized that while I thought I was creating memories I was actually building charter in my children.  They know how to share, be kind and respect each other, those are the things you learn from making and playing play dough, Sesame street can't give you that, you get that from the "Perfect Parent"

Kool-Aid Play Dough

• 2 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 cup of salt
• 1 or two packages of coloured drink mix like Kool-aid, use two for a deeper colour
• 2 cups of boiling water
• 3 tablespoons of oil

Mix the flour salt and Kool-aid until blended
Add the oil to the boiling water
Add water and oil to the flour mixture and stir with a metal spoon (using your wooden ones will result in lovely coloured wooden spoons :)
Once cool enough, kneed until well blended.  This part is fun for the kids, just make sure it has cooled down enough in the centre of the dough.

I've even waited to add the Kool-Aid until the end, splitting the dough up into smaller batches, but if you don't act fast you'll get "crystally" play dough as the colour crystals didn't dissolve.

I never used fancy containers just zip lock bags, one for each colour we would make.  Then we would store them in the fridge.  They should last about 2 months but if you were like my kids within a few weeks, red, blue and yellow play dough was just a big blob of brown, equally as fun, just not as pretty.

photo credits:   Kraft