Infant Coordiantion Mirror

So here is the latest news. Theresa's car wont go in reverse! So we can't get it out of the garage! I mean we can get it out and all, but whats the use. We think the clutch is blown. So now were REALLY looking for a new (used) car. Does anyone know who we can sell ours to as is? we just dont want to put any more money into it at all. Theresa has been spending her time looking for a good deal on a 2002-2004 Honda CRV! We are lucky that we can manage with one car since theresa works from home for now.

Okay on to the latest project, the infant coordination mirror!


This little project was a bit tough. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, and almost made more. The first thing your supposed to do is position the bar and screw that into some studs in the walls. So, I had to go to lowes to buy a studfinder. After I got back, I began. I started to think...how high should I put the bar? the directions said "at desired height" but how tall are kids when they are starting to walk?

THERESA!!!

so theresa comes in and says that I should put it at about 23" so i did. This worked out perfect because, I didnt want the bottom of the bottom mirror to be too low becasue the baby's bed is 6 inches off the ground, and the whole point is having baby look up to see himself in the mirror, and i didnt want him staring at the bar when he looked up.


Here is picture of the bar installed.
oh and the stud finder was useless! maybe thats cuzz I bought the 9 dollar version, but still, it was a Stanley. anyway I eventually just drilled holes in the sheetrock until I hit a stud. And then I realized that when I put the hand rail board against the wall, that the wall wasn't straight. I also noticed this when I was installing the flor tile, that, the walls would bow and no matter how you placed the tile, there was no getting a perfect fit.


Don't ask me why I didnt pull up the flor tile before drilling right over it!
geez!


So that bar is heavy, and trying to get it level and hold it steady enough to screw one side in was no small feat!. I finally got it in, and then proceeded to add the mirrors. Now the mirrors are safety mirrors, so they are light, and much easier to install.


they come with little holes for were your supposed to screw them to the wall. they also have a film over them to keep them from getting scratched up in transit.

I put them on, but made one bad mistake



While screwing the top one on I went too hard and the mirror strarted to crack!
Que horrible! so I flipped it upside down so it wasn't so unsightly. Im hoping baby won't notice, I can just imagine his first words being "this nursery is ghetto!"

Now heres another thing, since the mirrors are plastic they bend and give. so things kinda look distorted when you look into it, so I went in and unscrewed all the screws about a quarter turn. This helped alot and now its a bit better cuzz it just kind of hangs from the top screws without any of the screws really pushing in on it.



Some "monti" parents are all about safety mirrors and others just dont care. The thing with the mirror that you might be wondering about, is that Montessori recommends a mirror next to the baby's bed for them to get an early realization of self.

Theresa told me that we would put the baby's bed in the corner next to the mirror initially, and then when he started trying to walk, we would scoot it out so that he can utilize the hand rail for walking or pirouettes, whichever comes first.

You can pick up a mirror like this from the folks at Little Red Robin