Tutorial:: Make a Simple Baby Gym (part II)

Well, it’s not Monday anymore. It’s not even the day after Monday. I shouldn’t make promises about when I’ll make a blog post because then things get crazy and I can’t get to it. My husband is judging the International Science and Engineering Fair, and since he was going to be gone over my birthday (today) he had Hunter and I tag along for some rest and relaxation. We’re having a great time.

But, on with the reason for this post: springy-toy-dangler-things for the baby gym.

Now, the reason they need to be bouncy is so that they hang above baby’s cute little face so he can watch and bat at those toys, but once he actually succeeds in getting a hold of one he can have the ultimate in baby satisfaction by pulling it toward himself and stuffing it in his mouth. It just wouldn’t be fun any other way.

Materials:

a 2″ x 28″ strip of cute fabric (I had to piece mine, which is totally acceptable here.)
8″ piece of 1/4″ elastic
2 1/2″ piece of ribbon or trim
a snap

First, on each short end of your fabric press about a quarter of an inch of to the wrong side to finish the edges.

Then fold your strip in half lengthwise, right sides together and sew the raw edges with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Turn your tube right side out and press.

Now, with a safety pin on one end, thread your elastic through the tube feeling where the end is. When the end of the elastic without the safety pin is about 4 inches from the end of your tube of fabric, stop pulling and anchor your elastic there by sewing back and forth across the width of the tube, being sure to catch the elastic in the stitches.

After one end of the elastic is anchored inside the tube keep pulling the other end through, scrunching up the fabric.

Once you feel it about 5 1/2″ from the other end of your fabric tube anchor it in place by sewing back and forth across the width of your fabric.

Now make your piece of ribbon or trim into a loop and stick the ends about 1/4″ into the end of your fabric tube that has 4″ without elastic.

Sew it in there and also close up the other end too.

Put your snap on each end of the 5 1/2″ section that doesn’t have elastic.

Thread the snap end through the loop to attach the strap to a toy. This design should fit on any toy. I wish I could say I came up with this ingeniously simple idea myself, but nope. I got it from Jessica’s pacifier clips, and she got the idea from this Etsy seller.

Now you can attach your toy to your gym and make another springy-toy-dangler-thing!

Have fun, babies! These work great to hang toys from just about anywhere you can think of. We’ve got them attached to the car seat and the stroller too.

Tutorial:: Make a Simple Baby Gym (part I)

Here it is– a tutorial on how to make a simple baby gym. Feel free to make this just how I did, modify it, or whatever, but if you make one and show it to the internet, give me credit by linking back here.

Today I’ll show you the wooden part, then on Monday I’ll show you how to make cute springy-toy-dangler-things.

Materials: (you shouldn’t have any problem finding these at Home Depot, Lowe’s, or a craft store like Hobby Lobby)

5 wood dowels 1″ in diameter and 24″ long
2 wood oval rosettes 4″ x 6″ x 1″ (a circle at least 4″ in diameter should work too)

8 #8 x 1 1/2″ wood screws
2 #12 x 3 1/2″ wood screws

Tools:

saw to cut dowels to size if you don’t have them cut at the store
a protractor or quilting ruler to measure angles with
drill and bits
screwdriver (preferably with power)

First, mark all the spots you need to drill holes.

On your oval draw a line down the middle lengthwise. Measure 1″ down from the top along the line and make a mark. From this mark make a line angling out 30 degrees to the right. Now make a line angling 30 degrees to the left. On each of theses angled lines make marks 1 1/4″ and 2 1/4″ from the top. It should look like this:

On 4 of your dowels make marks 1/2″ and 1 1/2″ from the top. These will be you legs.

Mark the center of each end of the fifth dowel. This will be the cross bar.

Now you need to pre-drill your holes. On the ovals drill the top hole with a drill bit just slightly smaller than the diameter of your long #12 screws (~3/16″). On the other four marks use a skinny bit just smaller than your #8 screws (~2/32″). Drill the holes on the ovals all the way through.

Using the same small drill bit drill holes on the marks you made on the leg dowels being careful to only drill half way through.

On the cross bar use the bigger drill bit to drill into each end. On the front of each oval you can drill very shallowly with bigger drill bits to counter sink the screws so the heads will be flush with the wood.

Now, sand and finish all of your wood pieces any way you like. I just rubbed them with a natural paste wax. Unfinished wood really soaks it up, so it took several coats.

Screw your A-frame ends together. Start the 4 smaller screws on an oval until the tips are through on the back. Line up the two holes at the top of one of your leg dowels with two screw points and screw the screws the rest of the way. Lining them up can be a little tricky. It’s easiest if you line up your holes next to the screws and roll the dowel onto them. When screwing on you first leg it helps to put your other leg under the other side of the oval to keep it all at the same height.

Once you have both A-frames screwed together use the big screws to attach the crossbar to the legs.

I had to use my knees to hold the dowel steady when I did the first one.

It’s done! Almost…

Now you need a way to attach toys to it. Come back Monday for Part 2!

our daily bread

I love making things. I love the experience of seeing something from raw material to finished product. I love feeling connected to the things around me, and the things I eat. I’ve been making most of the bread we eat for years now. I remember dreaming of getting a Zojurushi bread machine and then one year I had enough birthday money to get one! One loaf at a time worked pretty well for a long time– as long as I remembered to put a loaf in in the morning, but as our family has grown making all of our bread just one loaf at a time was a constant project. For a while I was making batches of 2 or 3 loaves and kneading them by hand, but I just wasn’t good at that– and bonking my big pregnant belly against the counter just didn’t add to the fun. So, this year I got a Bosch mixer. Love it. Now I can make 4 loaves at a time, so bread making just has to happen once a week or so. Much more doable than every day. Now that I’ve had my mixer for a few months we’ve fine tuned our favorite recipe, so I thought I’d share it. You can always cut it in half or fourths if you have a smaller mixer or need to knead it by hand.

First, grind your flour, if you have a wheat grinder. Before I had one I used a combination of King Arthur Whole Wheat flour and White Wheat flour. Now I just grind whatever kind of wheat that is in my open bucket. I really love hard white wheat, but it was hard to come by for a while there. I think our local Home Storage Center has it in stock now, I just haven’t gotten myself out there.

Now you’re ready.

mix:

5 1/3 cup really warm tap water
1/2 cup honey
3 1/2 Tbl yeast

add:

1/2 cup oil (I love it with coconut oil, but my kids don’t, so I usually just use canola)
1/2 cup powdered milk
3-4 Tbl vital wheat gluten
2 Tbl sea salt or Real Salt
6 cups whole wheat flour

once that is all mixed up add:

6-7 more cups of flour.

Knead by machine for 8 minutes or so. (If you’re kneading by hand keep at it for a good 20-25 minutes.)While that is happening, grease your pans. This is the ONLY thing I ever use shortening for, but it works the best of anything I’ve tried.

Turn on your oven to 350 degrees. When the dough is all kneaded, divide it into four, shape it into oblong loaves, and plop it in your pans. Let rise, covered with a warm damp towel, until the loaves are the size you want. This usually takes about 30 minutes here, sometimes less.

Pop your loaves in the oven and bake for 25-28 minutes. 27 is the perfect amount of time for my oven. The timing takes some experimenting I think.

That’s it! Eat your bread, or let it cool and slice it up and put it in bags. I just use plastic bread bags from the store. Refrigerate or freeze the extra loaves.

You can find a couple of other bread-makin’-mama’s bread recipes here and here.

The baby is the lesson…

A couple of years ago, when Ian was a baby, I was talking to a friend from college who was far away, but sharing the same life of homeschooling little kids with a baby added into the mix. We were commiserating about how little it seemed we really could get done in a day and then she said something that has stuck with me. “I guess on those days, the baby is the lesson.”

The baby is the lesson.

That little phrase has been running through my mind a lot these past few weeks. A new little person takes a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of love. It’s given me a lot of opportunities to tell the other kids what they were like as babies, how I learned to read their cues and figure out what they needed, how I thought there never could be anything cuter and more precious than they were. And, more often than I ‘d like to admit those math lessons are replaced by, “Will you please jiggle this screamer while I change the poopiest-poopy diaper ever made by a human 2 year old?!”

At first, when I’d think of this phrase, I was looking for ways the baby was the lesson for the kids. And, naturally, there were lessons in seeing to another’s needs before your own, diaper changing, laundry washing, the miracle of a milk-making-mama-body, but this time I’m realizing there’s a lesson or two in it for me.

Seize the moment. If everyone is sleeping in, sleep in too. If the baby is peacefully napping and the bigger kids are happily playing, take a shower. When brand new eyes focus on the mesmerizing ceiling fan and get the little guy to start cooing, get right over there and coo along. When a fussy baby is hungry SIT DOWN, put your feet up, stare at his perfect little face while he nurses, and call another one or four over to snuggle along and read a chapter of a book.

Go with the flow. While it is important for me and the kids to have a routine rhythm to our days, it is okay if that rhythm slows down. Instead of keeping time, we just flow through it. That may mean that the morning song, prayer, stories, and scripture study don’t start until after lunch, and that’s just fine. We flow with it, embrace it, no stressing out allowed…

Think of reasons to say yes, rather than no. Someone wants to do a “science experience” by mixing some of everything from every kitchen cupboard together. The 2 year old wants the 4 year old to read his stories, rock him, and sing his song at nap time. They all want to jump on the trampoline in the snow. Why not?

I guess for all of us, especially the mama, the baby is the lesson.

Sign up to my mailing list to keep in-the-know on local events and online classes!

Category Archives: A Little of Everything

Tutorial:: Make a Simple Baby Gym (part II)

Tutorial:: Make a Simple Baby Gym (part I)

our daily bread

The baby is the lesson…