Preserving memories and your belly, too
Lori Borgman | Monday, July 26, 2010
An expectant mother can now purchase a belly mold kit, make a casting of her
tummy during pregnancy, and turn it into wall art for a special keepsake.
Personally, if I wanted a reminder of what I looked like during pregnancy, I'd
hang a picture of a giant pear on the wall.
"There it is kids. This is what your momma did for you."
"Became a
giant fruit?"
"Exactly."
Of course,
the belly mold kit is nice for those with an arts and crafts bent. The belly
mold kit states that your mold will one day become a treasured family heirloom.
I have tried to picture our three kids sitting around the kitchen table arguing
over a belly mold from my third trimester of pregnancy. The winners would be the
ones who left the table empty handed.
Most mothers already have heirloom keepsakes to remind them of their pregnant
bellies. They're called stretch marks.
The instructions in the belly mold kit say that the first step in the process
is to have the expectant mother empty her bladder as the casting can take up to
45 minutes. No matter what you are doing in the last trimester of pregnancy,
that is always a good first step.
In an instructional video, a man is shown smiling and patiently cutting gauze
into long strips, wetting them and, still smiling, placing them across his
wife's belly and smiling some more. The man is doing this because the man is
scared. He is scared to say he'd rather be watching sports or even mowing the
lawn, because he knows his extremely pregnant wife can sometimes become volatile
and could potentially roll over him like a giant pear.
By the
time the belly mold in the demonstration is dry, the pregnant woman looks
overheated and green around the gills. The man lifts the mold from her greased
belly and the woman vanishes from camera, presumably running to once again
repeat Step 1.
At this stage, the belly mold can now be turned into a work of art suitable
for hanging through paint, embellishment, a glaze or decoupage.
One belly
mold was painted to look like a giant ladybug. It was the first time I ever saw
a ladybug that carried low.
Another belly mold had a snowscape of a log cabin nestled in the pines
painted on it. The question is no longer, "Do I look like a barn?" but "Do I
look like a log cabin?"
The real question is, what do you do with a belly mold once everyone has
grown tired of it and it is no longer considered a family heirloom?
You could put it on the patio and fill it with ice and cool beverages. You
could drill eye holes in it and let one of the kids wear it for a Halloween
costume. Or you could use it for a small laundry basket, a bed for the cat or
even a large snack bowl.
The possibilities are endless when the miracle of life meets the miracle of
plaster.
Chips anyone?
