EKG BABY: DIY DOLL AND MACHINE

Last year our pediatrician heard a murmur in my daughter's heart at her 18-month checkup. We were referred to a pediatric cardiologist who took a further listen and he felt that it was harmless but that we should make sure and get a follow-up with her regular pediatrician in a year to check that it had gone away on it's own. We had that follow-up last week, and the pediatrician still hears the murmur so, my daughter needs a pediatric EKG. She will need to be hooked up to the machine for several minutes while laying still and being quiet-no easy feat for a two-and-a-half-year-old toddler. I am trying not to allow myself to worry about this murmur; I don't like to give power to negativity and, until I learn otherwise, I plan to go forth believing that this is an innocent murmur and that my daughter is OK. In the meantime, I feel that being proactive and focusing on solutions and what I can do to improve a situation makes me feel empowered and helps me stay positive. I decided to make an EKG doll so that my daughter can become familiar with the procedure, to normalize it and take away any fear she may have, and prepare her for her EKG. Even if your child doesn't have any heart issues, this is still a really cool and cheap toy to make and with so many kids loving to play doctor and so many into Doc McStuffins, I think this would be cool for any kid. 

I always try to use what I have on-hand for any project, and I already had the yarn, doll, paint and spray adhesive, but here is a complete materials list:

*small cardboard box

*velcro circles

*yarn, thick string, ribbon or elastic

*hot glue gun, or industrial adhesive. 

*paint (I used spray paint)

*spray adhesive, glue, or mod podge

*doll

*awl or other object for poking holes in the box like a phillips head screwdriver

*box cutter or exacto knife

*scissors

*printer (or you could draw the EKG read) and paper

My daughter already had this plastic baby doll that we found on Amazon. Pretty much any doll will work as long as the shirt can come off. I found a small cardboard box at the craft store for about $3 and spray painted it off-white with a can I had in my garage. You can use any color but whites, creams and grays will seem the most realistic. 

The velcro circles come with "male" and "female" sides, so to speak. I used my hot glue gun to glue the rough ones to the doll's chest. (I found that the hot glue didn't do the best job. We have to be careful when removing the EKG "electrodes" from baby's chest because these circles seem like they want to come off, in retrospect, I would have used an industrial adhesive, but we make it work.) Also, if you have a cloth doll, these circles can be sewn on or hot glued. I then took three, 20-inch lengths of yarn (you could also use very thick string, cord, elastic, ribbon, etc), knotted the ends, and glued each of those to the back of the softer velcro circles. 

The next step was to make three small holes in the side of the box to thread the other ends of the yarn through. I used an awl, but a phillips-head screwdriver would also work. You want the wholes to be small enough that the yarn is a tight fit. I also used the awl to poke the yarn through my holes while pulling through on the other side. 

On the inside of the box, I tied the yarn in a few knots, and then added a bit of hot glue and pulled the yarn snug from the other side to adhere the knots to the inside wall.

Next I went online and did an image search for "EKG monitor" and "EKG read" and printed the images for the front of the machine, and for the read that would come out. You could also draw these things on paper as well; This is all for pretend so it doesn't have to be perfect. I used spray adhesive to apply my monitor image to the back of the box. The reason I didn't put it on the lid is because I wanted to be able to open the back of the "machine" to feed the paper into (you'll see what I mean in a bit.)

Right below the monitor display, I used a box cutter to cut a slot that runs most of the way across the front of my EKG machine. I went back with my scissors and just worked the slot back and forth, rocking the scissors around, to widen the slot a bit for my paper. 

Now I am able to feed my EKG read paper through the back, and it will come out of the front just like a real EKG machine does when it provides the print out of the heart waves. 

For storage and travel, the read paper and the electrodes can be tucked inside the box, and the lid can be placed on. 

Your toy EKG machine and doll are complete! I've been using this with my daughter and she loves it. We use her toy stethoscope to check the baby's heart and then I say, "I hear something unusual. Let's hook her up to the EKG machine to get a better look." We apply the electrodes to the baby's chest and help the baby to lie still quietly while the machine prints her heartbeat. Then we pull the paper out of the slot and review the results. Sometimes my daughter pretends to wear the electrodes, or put them on me, and we get a readout for our hearts as well. Really, you could make this without gluing velcro to a doll, or without a doll at all by just laying the electrodes connected to the machine onto any toy or person's chest and pretending. 

You could really make this with any box you have available. The size and color is totally up to your discretion, and you don't even have to include a doll if you don't want to-The machine itself is a great stand-alone toy on it's own. You could take a simple box, draw a display, draw a print out paper and cut a slot in the box for it to go through. Attach three strings to the box and some kind of circles on the ends (velcro, felt, fabric, bottle caps, whatever) and you'll have a cool doctor toy. There are lots of ways you could make something similar, and for little or no money. 

WHITE CHOCOLATE SNOWFLAKES

I am always on the look out for Holiday fun that is easy, inexpensive and can be enjoyed by kids of all ages, including my toddler. These white chocolate snowflakes couldn't be simpler, and they can also be made for parties with the all-popular Frozen theme! You can eat these by themselves like we did, or use that as decoration for cakes, cupcakes, gingerbread houses and cookies.

The only supplies you need for these goodies are:

One frosting bag with small round tip (or a sandwich bag with the corner cut)

A baking sheet

Wax paper

One bag of white chocolate chips

Decorative crystal sugar in the color of your choice

Fill a pot halfway with water and heat it at medium heat. Place a bowl on top of your pot and pour in your chocolate chips. 

Continue to stir these chips fairly regularly as the bowl warms up. In between stirring, you can line your baking sheet with wax paper, and prepare your frosting bag. If you do not have a frosting bag, you can simply cut off a very small piece of the corner of a sandwich bag like I did. However, only do this AFTER you've spooned the chocolate into it. I only did it beforehand for the purpose of taking a picture for demonstration. 

After about 8 minutes or so, my chocolate was smooth and melted through, so I spooned my chocolate into the bag. BE CAREFUL WITH THIS STEP. The chocolate can be pretty hot and especially if you're using a sandwich bag like I am, the plastic is thin and the chocolate can get pretty warm against your hands. If you're letting a child do the piping, I recommend testing it out yourself first, and letting the chocolate cool down inside the bag somewhat before handing it over.

With my sandwich bag about halfway full, I worked the chocolate towards the cut corner and then twisted the top of the bag. Now all you have to do is gently squeeze the bag as you draw chocolate snowflakes on the wax paper. 

Of course, your designated sprinkle expert will wait patiently while you pipe your snowflakes....

While the snowflakes are still somewhat warm and gooey, shake the sprinkles onto them. 

Now it's time to place the sheet in the refrigerator so the chocolate can harden again. We left ours in the fridge for over an hour while we did other things, but I'm pretty sure they became good and solid well before that. 

The last step is to carefully peel away the way paper from the back of the snowflakes, and then enjoy!

I can envision lots of creative variations on this craft by adding food coloring to the chocolate, changing the colors of the sprinkles, and piping out different shapes. Imagine green chocolate and green sprinkles for making little Christmas trees. In the summer you could use red, white and blue sugar and make little fireworks. This could really be a year-round treat. Yes, I know, this is quite the unhealthy treat, but it's just that-A treat. All things in moderation! 

MAKE YOUR OWN SMASH CAKE

Here is a simple way to make a small cake for whomever you'd like, but I find it particularly useful as a smash cake for toddlers and babies. This is super simple to do and very inexpensive but it yields very cute results. Ombre' is very trendy right now so that's the route I've taken for the frosting and because I'm a professional photographer, I use these for my smash cake portrait sessions. You can make this for less than $10 and it takes between an hour and 90 minutes to make depending on your frosting technique. This small cake is baked inside an aluminum can and usually ends up measuring about 5 inches in height.

Here's what you'll need:
1 box of cake mix (and the ingredients specified on the package)
Oil for greasing the can
Flour
1 empty aluminum can
2 containers of white frosting
1 color of your choice of food coloring

Preheat the oven to the temperature designated on your cake mix and prepare your mix as per the instructions on your box.

Take an empty aluminum can (I prefer the big wide ones like you find enchilada sauce in but any size will do.) Grease the inside of it with oil, wiping away the excess with a paper towel and then lightly flour the inside by sprinkling flour in the can and rotating it all around until the flour has coated the inside evenly, then tap out the excess.

Fill your can only half-way to two-thirds full, and place it on a baking sheet in the oven. I like to use the leftover batter in a cupcake pan and bake it at the same time as my cake so as not to be wasteful. Bake the cake for the amount of time specified on the box mix, but check it for readiness by sticking a skewer or knife into and making sure it comes out clean so that you know you've baked it completely.

Let the cake and can cool completely before turning it upside down and gently shaking it out on to your plate. If need be, you can gently run a knife around the inside edge to loosen it up. Once the cake is out, use a knife to level off the top.

The next step is optional, and that is to add a crumb coat layer to the outside before frosting. I did this with my first cake but skipped this step on subsequent cakes and found that it didn't make very much of a difference other than not being able to see a bit of the cake showing through when I used a tip for frosting. To crumb coat, simply crumble up the cake you shaved off the top and mix it with a few tablespoons of your frosting and use this to frost the entire outside of your cake, and then place it in the fridge to chill.

Now it's time to frost this thing! I split my frosting up into three bowls and added varying amounts of food coloring to each for a range of pink shades, being sure to reserve plenty of white for my white top layer. Using a frosting bag I made out of a plastic sandwich bag and frosting tip, I started with a very dark pink and piped two rows along the bottom. Then, I added some more white frosting to that bowl of darkest pink to make it a bit lighter and frosted two more rows. I did this until my pink frosting was getting light enough that it was close in shade to my next bowl of frosting, then I used that one, piped a couple rows, added more white frosting, and so on. I essentially kept mixing white frosting with my varying shades of pink so that I could pipe lighter, and lighter pink onto the cake until the pink was so pale near the top that I could pipe a white row and frost the white top. 

I ended up using around five shades of pink and also the white. Don't over think this-Just go with your gut and keep lightening the frosting until you get to the top, and if you find that you already reached the top without getting close enough to white, just frost the top with whatever shade you have; It doesn't have to have a white top necessarily-It will still be ombre'.

Another much more simple route you can go, is to mix 6 shades or so of frosting, and simply apply one layer at a time with a knife. Use your knife to smooth the frosting on, starting with your darkest shade, and use a lighter frosting each pass, frosting about 2 inches at a time, and overlapping the previous row by about an inch. Keep smoothing on lighter shade all the way around until you get to the top, and you'll end up with this:

After you're done, let the cake chill for a few more minutes, and then it's ready to enjoy! (By the way, I made the cake stand above by gluing together a small plate and candlestick holder from the dollar store. I used Gorilla Glue.) For more helpful tips, see the end of this post. 

HELPFUL TIPS AND HINTS:

*For extra savings, use cake mix and frosting from the dollar store.

*If you're using a frosting bag and tips to pipe frosting on, keep the frosting refrigerated between rows, and put the cake in the fridge for a bit between rows as well; This will help the shape of your piped frosting hold up instead of getting runny and gooey.

*Instead of using the excess batter for cupcakes, you could make two or more of these small cakes, that way if one breaks while you're taking it out, or you make any mistakes, you have a backup or two.

*If you'd like, you can also cut this cake into three pieces horizontally and add frosting in-between to make this a small layer cake with more flavor. But if you're using this purely for a smash cake for a baby or toddler, that's really not necessary.

*You don't have to do an ombre' frosting; You could totally keep it simple and frost this thing all in one color.

-No matter how you frost this, or what flavor cake you use, your kid will love it. It can be made very simply, quickly and at little cost and it is just the perfect size for kids and babies. 

-I like to frost my cake right on whatever cake I intend to serve it on, otherwise you end up with the arduous task of trying to transfer your cake onto another plate without dropping it or smudging your frosting. 

*I found instructions for how to turn a sandwich bag into a frosting bag as well as instructions for how to pipe frosting, by searching YouTube for tutorials. 

DISCOVERY BOTTLES PROVIDE NEARLY FREE FUN!

Discovery bottles seem to be all the rage lately! I have years of experience working with children and adults with varying degrees of special needs and developmental delays so I was familiar with the use of items like these to soothe a tantrum or relax someone. I recently learned that for babies, these bottles provide a beneficial sensory experience, and depending on what you put inside them, can teach observation skills, predictability, cause and effect, scientific concepts, thinking skills and more. The best part about these though, may be the fact that you can make them yourself at almost no cost, with things you have around your house already.

The first thing I did was gather literally anything and everything around my house that I could feasibly put into these bottles. I raided the pantry for lentils, beans, noodles, quinoa, couscous, rice, and grits. I went through my office and gathered paper clips, rubber bands, staples, and thumb tacks. In my sewing kit I had snaps, yarn, pins, buttons and more. My craft bin held pipe cleaners, ribbon, glitter, jewelry wire, and lots of beads. The rest of my kitchen provided tooth picks, tin foil, food coloring, oil, wooden skewers, plastic wrap and more. Anything that is non-perishable that can fit through the mouth of a bottle can be considered. 

I used bottles from drinks I consumed myself as well as having a friend save a few for me. Tear the labels off and wash them out thoroughly and make sure they are bone dry before you start this project. If you place dried goods such as rice or couscous inside a bottle that is even slightly damp you will end up with mildew and mold. If you are leaving the bottles to air dry, this can take several days-I was impatient and decided to use my blow dryer on a low setting. 

As I was looking over my supplies, I began to piece together some ideas for the theme of each bottle. The first one I made was the "beach" bottle. I used couscous for the "sand" and added a few faux pearl beads, a couple cowry shells that I use as hair embellishments, and a few pasta shells. Obviously, you could use real sand or rice for this as well. Feel free to throw in anything else that seems beach-related such as nautical buttons and such. Here's how mine looked inside:

I also knew that I wanted to make a bottle that mimicked the sound of a rain stick and would be soothing to look at. For this I crammed as many wooden skewers and rice noodles into the bottle as I could fit, and then added about a half of a cup of multi-colored couscous. Because the skewers were taller than the bottle, I cut the tips off and put them in around the edges.You could also use quinoa, sand or rice. The sound this makes as you turn it around and around is very relaxing:

The next bottle I wanted to put together was a liquid one. I dropped a random assortment of about 15 beads into the bottle and then added about a half of a cup of mineral oil, before adding some glitter and then finally filling it with water. I've read that adding glycerin to the bottle will keep the beads from clumping with the oil but, glycerin isn't something I keep around the house and, in my opinion the clumping effect made this bottle look kind of like a lava lamp, which I think is cool:

For my next bottle I wanted to make something that would serve as an obstacle course of sorts for beads, rice and couscous to work it's way through. I started off with a dollar store beaded necklace in the bottom and then added rubber bands and toothpicks. I would do a layer of jumbled rubber bands and then add several toothpicks, making a point of throwing them inside in every direction so they would become as entangled with each other and the rubber bands as possible. I alternated between rubber bands and toothpicks throughout the whole bottle and I would also randomly stick in pipe cleaners or jewelry wire here and there. (I curled the pipe cleaner around a pencil first to make them into little corkscrews.) The last thing I did was to add about a tablespoon each of couscous and pearl rice and about ten very small beads; It's really fun to watch them make their way through the bottle from one end to the other as you turn it:

At this point, I didn't have any other specific ideas in-mind for my remaining bottles, so I let my daughter play with the ones I already made, while I fiddled around with the empty bottles I had left, and handed them to her as I went along.

The last few bottles were pretty simple. For my final large bottle I decided to cram it full of a random assortment of a bit of every single thing that I had. So, literally everything that I listed in the beginning ended up in this bottle in some quantity or another. Sia spends lots of time looking through this one now. No matter how long you turn it in your hands, you're always bound to see something new between the grains, dried goods, unusual beads, sewing pins, yarn, tin foil, rubber bands and more:

For the final small bottles I had, I kept one very simple by just putting a bunch of beads of the same color, but varying sizes and textures inside, for a monochromatic look. When my daughter shakes this one, she loves the sound it makes. For another one I simply put a few curled pipe cleaners inside along with some ribbon, glitter and couscous. One contains just sports beads and some small noodles and beans. Lastly, I filled a bottle with water and glitter and just a few super-sparkly hair beads.

The final steps for me were to get the last sticky part of the label off of the bottles and of course, to seal the tops. I used a flat razor blade and very carefully scraped the label residue off of each bottle. I've heard of people using "Goo Gone" as well and I tried this but it didn't work well for me. To seal the tops I used clear super glue from Gorilla Glue but I'm pretty sure that any super glue or nail glue would work. Follow the directions on the bottle for drying time. Before handing them back to Sia I gave them all another wash on the outside with soap and water and dried them.

We keep them in a plastic tote basket that I got from a dollar store, so that we can easily carry them around the house, or take them with us on a road trip. Sia just loves them:

TIPS AND TRICKS:

*Keep safety in-mind. Obviously, my bottles are filled with some items that, were they ever to come out of the bottle, could harm a baby. Make sure your little one is supervised when playing with these, or, you can opt to only fill your bottles with items that are baby safe such as cotton balls, yarn, water, ect. Having said that, I tried my hardest to get the cap off of each of these after the glue had dried, and I had no luck. These bottles are also really strong and I am personally not worried about my daughter playing with these.

*Everyone has items around the house that can be used for this project. If it's small, and not perishable, add it to the list! Whether it be old barrettes, sequins, craft items, grains, noodles, beans, seeds, jewelry chains, rubber bands, old earrings, coins, string, yarn, tissue paper, tin foil, cotton balls, hair bands, soda can tabs, Ect.

*Get older siblings involved; Older kids will have a blast helping you put these together, and it encourages bonding when they can help make something for a younger sibling. They can also make some for themselves! The bottles I made here are tailored for a baby up to two years old or so. But older kids will also enjoy more sophisticated bottles such as ones with hidden letters of the alphabet inside courtesy of alphabet noodles or beads. 

*Google the phrase "DIY discovery bottles" and there are no limits to the amount of ideas you will find on so many variations of this project for every age and developmental level. 

*Consider making a set of these as a companion baby shower or birthday gift. Make it look a little more refined by being sure to use all of the same kind of bottle with the same color caps. Put the set in a small basket and glue on a label with the child's name and the phrase "Adventures in a Bottle." You could even buy a stamp of the first letter of the child's name so that you can put their initial on the cap of each bottle.