Thursday, August 20, 2009

Homemade Mobile

You can spend as little or as much as you'd like on a mobile for your teeny one. We had a fancy mobile that hung above the crib--it played a lullaby and was very sweet, until Feats of Strength made quick work of it, snapping it in two as soon as her tiny, freakishly strong arms could reach that high. This mobile is one I made to hang (out of reach) above the changing table:

It's super easy. Here's what you need:
A one-inch dowel (about 30-36" long)
Two cup hooks big enough to hold the dowel
Several shiny baubles
Fishing line

Center the dowel over the changing table (or wherever you're going to hang it) and mark the spots where the cup hooks will go--they'll need to be about 4" in from the ends. Screw in the cup hooks. Slide the dowel into the cup hooks. Using the fishing line, hang your baubles at varying heights over the length of the dowel.

That's it. You're done now. Stand back and admire your work.

This is the ceiling part of the diaper changing corner.
When she was tiny, we could distract her simply by gently bumping the baubles, thereby making them slowly spin. Mesmerizing. If you're motivated to do so, you could also paint the dowel and hooks to match the ceiling. I intended to do this, but, alas, have not made it that far. The Starlightz Lantern in the corner casts a great glow on the room after the sun goes down. I like using it for middle of the night diaper changes, too. The light is much less harsh than a lamp.

My favorite bauble.
Christmas is a great time to add to your bauble collection. A lot of ornaments can easily double as hanging decorations and they're often quite shiny.

More of the corner.
The baubles used to hang much lower than they do now. As the reach of those tiny arms grows, the strings get shorter. The moment she could grab something, we hiked it up a bit.

The whole darn corner
We've still got a few more things to put up, but it's coming along nicely.

In the opposite corner of the room, we hung a beautiful cross-stitch we got at an antique store. Someone spent an awful lot of time on this and it's held up quite well through the years. We go through the list of animals from time to time, trying to make the corresponding sounds. I'm sure a kangaroo doesn't say "boing!", but I have yet to hear a kangaroo sound, so "boing!" will have to do for now. I can never remember what the "V" animal is, though. It looks a lot like a llama, but it's not. Any ideas?

1 comment:

  1. It is a vicuna, My Dear, a South American wild camelid.

    ReplyDelete

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