The Belly Cast

Ooh hoo hoo. Dave certainly looks proud of himself in the top picture. And look at me, covered in plaster! Dave and I took the time to create the belly cast this weekend, and here's the picture to prove it. We also destroyed the bathroom and a pair of sweat pants in the process, but it was worth it!

The next step is to let it dry, sand it, and paint it. I'm thinking this will be a good activity for me when my "nesting" urge kicks in prior to labor - rather than cleaning the house spotless, I think I'll finish the belly cast.

See our earlier post, Pregnant Belly as Art?, for further explanation as to how this art project entered our lives.

Our Hanukah Tshirts

Thanks to Paula and Azzy Reckess, this year's Hanukah gifts included two funny t-shirts acknowledging our incoming bundle of joy. I wore mine to an end-of-the-semester brunch at my professor's house yesterday, effectively announcing the pregnancy to a few classmates who hadn't caught on yet. Dave is promising to wear his t-shirt when we fly to Denver, to inform everyone flying Delta that he is the baby daddy.

ps - You can click on the photos to enlarge them, if necessary.

Pregnant Belly as Art?

Yesterday a package arrived for us in the mail which we were not expecting. We opened it to find: a Pregnant Belly Cast Kit. This is a do-it-yourself plaster kit that is described as "Proud Body Pregnancy Art." The idea is pretty simple: like a paper mache mask, this kit helps you cast your pregnant belly forevermore.

We thought this was an especially innovative, funny gift because it came from our friend Sue Smith, who many of you know was an instrumental person in getting Dave and Sarah to become "Dave and Sarah." Without her permission, I am replicating part of her note:

"You are never going to believe me, but a few weeks ago, completely out of the blue I thought to myself, I bet Sarah is pregnant...Anyway, I saw a painted belly cast a while back- didn't think much of it until today. I figured what better homage to Sarah's ta-tas than to make a pregnant monument to them!"

I thought this was especially funny because I have been thinking about how to post an homage to my growing breasts on this blog, and instead of a blog post, now I'm getting to cast them in plaster! So that years from now, people can say, "There's no way they were ever THAT big," when they see our cast.

Dave has asked if HE gets to be the sculptor here and apply the cast, and I think it's only fair because he got us into this mess in the first place.

The kit comes with about 100 different ideas for decorating your pregnancy cast, and if you're interested, go to http://www.doulashop.com and click on "Pregnancy Essentials." They have a pretty extensive art gallery, with some very cool ideas.

If you have any specific suggestions for how and when we should use our cast, post them in the comments section. And think about sharing the pregnancy cast with other pregnant people you know who might really enjoy a gift like this. Thanks, Sue! You're the best!