Hand and Foot Prints - Unexpected Chaos!

It's a tradition, I suppose. You make the old hand and foot prints for your babies and treasure them until your kid's old enough to roll their eyes at how silly you are. Naturally, I couldn't resist, and I decided the best time was while the wife was out of the house. Who needs help with such a simple task as spreading ink on your 3-month old's appendages and slapping them down on a sheet of paper? Answer - this guy.

I was fooled into thinking I would get out unmarked when I finished the feet with relative ease. At the time, it didn't dawn on me that my daughter doesn't have much control over her feet and it's not as if she can ball her feet into fists. Then came the hands. By this time, I already have purplish-black baby feet prints on my bare legs (I thought ahead). Now, my daughter is fully awake and not impressed by the fact that she came to in only a diaper with weird stuff all over her hands. So, she balled them into fists, right after spreading the ink all over her face and chest. But, this is a no fail mission, and I wasn't about to let her win this fight.

Next step: I place her under my arm in a foot ball grasp, try to force her tiny fingers out straight, and then get my coveted prints. I succeeded. The cost was a total of four pieces of paper, covered front and back with Jackson Pollack slathers of ink, but I got my silly prints. That's just the first part of this small failure in parenthood.

So, there's a reason stores carry a kit for making these prints, and it's worth the extra couple dollars to splurge and save the trouble I soon found myself in. Note to reader: non-toxic is indeed important, but water based does not necessarily mean water soluble or easy to remove. Once the prints were secured in a folder with other random tidbits, it was off to the tub. After nearly 30 minutes of continuous scrubbing, my daughter's face and chest were clear of ink. Had to make sure the faded dark blue ink spots disappeared so that I wouldn't have to explain to child protective services that the marks were ink and not bruises. The hands and feet were a little more troublesome. The little one wasn't all that cooperative with being scrubbed, and ended the bath with small amounts of ink between her fingers and toes. Luckily it was non-toxic, because she of course had to suck on her fascinating purple fingers. Purple finger sucking equals purple bubble spitting. Great. Some things are meant to be done as a team, and you can rest assured that your kiddo's hands and feet will be around long enough for mom to get home.