... making sure you have a firm imprint in the past

So going back almost a couple months now, we got a very nice gift from U Cliff, A Marilyn, U Ken and A Tina of a really nice frame with room for a picture, and two moulds, one for a hand print and one for a foot print. Last night... Bethy decided we had better do it before she got too big, boy... were we in for it ;)

So it actually started really good. Opened the packages, and they come in little foil-like mylar things. They are actually a bit foamy spongy to start, so you are supposed to knead them for a minute or so to get the air bubbles out. Then they include a little wooden dowel that is supposed to be used like a rolling pin to smooth out the chunk of stuff so that you can do the imprint. After you do the imprints, then you let it set at room temp for 48 hours before it hardens and then you mount it... pretty easy huh?

So Bethy rolled out both chunks of the stuff.... nice little round patches ready for imprint. My Mother in law(MIN for future ease of typing) brought "the talent" over.

Foot. No problem... I know I mentioned that she likes to make little fists with her toes, but not this time... either that... or we caught the little pigs by surprise. I think it was a first try imprint of "oh.. hey... that's pretty good.... next"

So first we tried the left hand... I was holding the stuff in place, MIN still holding the talent, and Bethy went for the left hand.

yeah... not so much... the fists were in full effect here. Something about a pointer finger wanting to dig into the material. Instead of lather, rinse, repeat, we got into a pretty steady groove of imprint, ball, flatten. There were some close calls.... but for one reason or another, maybe a finger slightly off or not deep enough, yet another finger that she clenched and dug into the material, or in general, just not pushed down into the material hard enough. For the foot, we basically had the bulk of her weight to push down into the material. For the hand, not only did we not have her weight behind it, but she also had a tendency to bend her elbow a lot which didn't give us much leverage on the wrist into the material.

I figure we probably tried this somewhere in the range of 15-20 times with probably 3 or 4 very close calls. Yes.. there was a little bit of frustration. The talent was being incredibly cooperative with our efforts, but it just wasn't happening. After a while, we decided to give it a break. The talent was running out of patience and it was almost a feeding time.... about an hour after we first started.

So upstairs she went. The instructions actually recommend waiting until the talent is sleepy, but, chances are, if you are reading this, you are either family, or know how stubborn one or both of us are, and at the same time... not really high on the reading comprehension part either. Alas, we had to submit.

Upstairs, as the little girl was being fed, we ran into a new set of problems. Previously, MIN was holding Lauren, with me either holding the mold or trying to take the imprint. In this case, Bethy was holding Lauren, so I had to learn to flatten the stuff out. Let me say.. this was a bit of an amusing situation all the way around. From Lauren being so good, to Bethy and I taking turns trying to get the imprint, to being picky and agreeing that yes... although what we thought was good... we could get it a little better.

So... after about 1:30 of trying, roughly 30 times later, we finally had something that was acceptable. This attached photo is of them setting. I'm sure we'll put up a picture of them when they are fully set and mounted.

In general, I wouldn't necessarily think it worthwhile to spend a whole blog entry blabbing on about imprinting of these, but it was an interesting and amusing situation, and at the same time, I think we learned quite a bit about ourselves as well. There were several occasions where patience wore a little thin, emotions could have ran high, and frustrations could have taken over, but as we worked through this situation, albeit it was one without real time restrictions, Bethy and both clearly understood what we were shooting for, and worked together to get there... and I think that is something that, while we accepted it as something that was necessarily before, are learning to be able to integrate it into how we are doing things day in and day out. Discussions on how to handle situations with family, care and feeding of Lauren, and things that are going to impact the well being and upbringing.

I never really professed that I understood or knew what to expect, or believed that I was fully prepared, or as prepared as I would have liked to be to have Lauren, but have believed that Bethy and I were at a point with our careers, our communication skills, our understanding of what we believed was acceptable behavior and a positive environment which could accommodate a shift in focus to a new family addition. And even as we have spent the last 13+ years getting to know and grow with each other, the addition of Lauren is making me realize more and more that while our primary focus might have shifted from making each other the best person possible, that we are still growing as individuals together, just with a different focus. We are learning more and more about ourselves through having more patience, and more focus on how we are contributing best to Lauren growing up.
Besides all the wonderful things that are going on with our little Lauren, this is a joy of parenting that I didn't quite expect.

A little warning would be nice huh?!?!