How To Stop Baby Godzilla

My daughter Makenna has quite the little attitude and temper when she doesn't get her own way. Instead of using her words, lately she immediately goes into Baby Godzilla mode. Kicking or pushing over anything in her way while she screams and yells. Last week, she destroyed a whole Thomas the Train City we built while Matthew and I looked on. All because she wanted a train Matthew already had. Matthew looked over at me and said, "Ka is crazy!" lol Yes, yes she is Buddy. 

Danielle found this craft on Pinterest a while ago and sent it to me. 

It's been called a Hush Bottle, Timeout Bottle and Timeout Timer, but I think we will call ours a Sparkle Bottle since Makenna is into all things sparkle and princess. What it is, is a sensory bottle that is supposed to help relax and calm. We can use a little relax and calm in our daily routine, so we decided to make it. 

   

I would say this is more of a grown-up craft. I started doing it alone, until Makenna woke up and wanted to help. She helped pour some glue in and quickly moved on to something else thank God. 

Here is what you need (sorry for the horrible lighting)

Per Sparkle Bottle:

• Half a bottle of Clear Tacky Clue
• Tube of glitter glue
• Small tube of extra fine glitter
• Water bottle (I used a large Smart Water bottle)
• Hot Water
• Some sort or funnel or large pouring mixing cup
• Goo Be Gone or anything to help take off the sticky lable

Steps to make a Sparkle Bottle:

• Drink all the water in your bottles so you can use them for a craft and then realize that you need water in the bottle anyway. 
• Fill bottle with HOT but not boiling water. If your faucet water gets really hot then just use that, if you use original water heat up in a cooking pot on the stove till hot but again not boiling! You don't want to melt the bottle or burn yourself. 
• However you get your full bottle of hot water, pour it in a pot or large enough measuring cup and add entire bottle of glitter glue.
• Stir glitter glue until no more clumps. (if it's not de-clumping, heat up water a tiny bit and stir some more)

• Add in the little tube of extra fine glitter and stir until all mixed in
• If mixture is in a pot, pour it into the mix cup or use a funnel to pour it into your water bottle. (it's probably easier to use a funnel so you can get all the glitter water out of pot/measuring cup easier) (CAUTION WATER BOTTLE WILL BE HOT FROM THE HOT WATER :) ) 
• Add about half a bottle of clear tacky glue.
• Put the lid on and shake until all the glue is melted in

• Shake bottle and time how long it takes for glitter to settle. For Makenna and Matthew I wanted about 4-5 mins. If you want more time, add more glue. (Wait for entire mixture to cool down before gaging how long it takes for mixture to settle. Because water is hot it will settle faster than when it cold.)
• EDIT: PLEASE GLUE CAPS SHUT ONCE PERFECTED. Use a permanent type of bonding glue. First thing Makenna and Matthew both did was try to take off the cap. Glitter water everywhere would not be calm and relaxing!  

Right after a good shaking

1 Minute

2 Minutes

3 Minutes (red/gold bottle settled a lot faster than the blue bottle)

4 Minutes

They look really cool when finished. A lot better than my craptastic pictures. I have yet to use them in the mist of a meltdown, but I will keep you all updated on how it works. I'm not sure how I'm going to mix it into Matthew's routine yet, maybe as a Thomas (the train) relax bottle. He is not the Baby Godzilla type at all. More of the 'put his head down and quietly pout in the corner type.' But being a boy he is constantly on the go, so this bottle might help him just have a few moments of quite time or work for those rare timeout moments for him.

It will probably take a few times to get them to actually use them accordingly, but I'm sure it won't be long before it becomes their routine. When Makenna becomes Baby Godzilla, I usually let her go until she calms down enough where I can get her to take a few deep breaths. Sometimes I ask her to take the deep breaths, but lately she starts doing it on her own after she realizes she's not getting her way. Now i'll just shake her bottle and hand it to her, tell her to take a deep breath, and come see me when she and her bottle settles down. Wish me luck!!!

Any advice on how to get a screaming child to calm down? What works for your kid(s)? What would you use you "Sparkle Bottle" as? Please feel free to share below!!

-K