Play with Me

I have a confession. I don't know how to play. I mean, seriously, what happened between the ages of 5 and 32 that causes the play chromosome to disappear? Spencer still has it, but I don't. Nothing makes me cringe like a whiny: "I have no one to play with." b/c I know what is coming. Usually: "Mom, will you play Barbies with me?" Ugh. I try. Really. I sit down, I stare at the nasty haired, scribbled on, grungy dolls and I throw a few "will you dance with me?'s" out there, but really, I am bored and somewhat tortured in about 30 seconds. I keep thinking about the million other things I need to do, or I'd rather be doing, and I can't concentrate. I feel super guilty about it. What kind of mom can't bring herself to play Barbies or Polly Pockets with her daughter for more than 2 minutes?

This afternoon, however, I made a serious breakthrough! I stared at that hair and thought, if only Emma's hair was this long and thick...imagine what I could do! And well, a little research later, discovered that even barbie can have a hair mom. We gave the Barbies a full on hair salon day, full of shampoo (dish soap), conditioner (the real stuff and a little fabric softener) and serum (baby oil) and a little trim (don't worry, Emma doesn't know about the trim...you know our history with scissors...but I couldn't look at those split ends for one more second). Half hour of combing through rats, and a few elastics later and we knocked the socks off all of those Prince Charmings at the ball. Yeah! Anyway, anyone who needs some tips on how to bring Barbie's mojo back, I think I figured it out. AND we had fun doing it!