Paint your pregnant belly for the holiday

When I saw this picture of Caley’s belly on her blog, I laughed and asked her to describe what she’d done.

She wrote:

After visiting the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago and having a stranger comment that I’d “better PAY for that pumpkin being smuggled under [my] shirt! Ha, ha!” I decided, Why not? I’ve seen TLC’s A Baby Story a gajillion times and they’re always doing things like belly casts or painting their bellies, and I didn’t do anything like that with my first pregnancy. I figured it’d make a cute picture, and be something fun to do with my toddler.

The safest paint to use is an FDA approved, water-based paint. Any paint labeled as “face paint” should work, and you can get them at Target or Walmart or such. Or you can go with some kind of “professional” paint, like this one. (However, I’m not an expert on paints, so don’t quote me on this. This site has some good tips; like it says, just because a paint says “non-toxic” does not mean it is safe for skin!) Or you could just purchase a kit.

My husband put the orange paint all over my belly with a sponge, and since we only bought the one color (I wasn’t going to buy a separate container of brown just for a little part like the stem), I gave him permission to do the stem and the lines with washable Crayola markers. My toddler, on the other hand, wanted absolutely nothing to do with our little project and busied himself by getting into things while both his parents were occupied. So much for bonding over Family Craft Time, right?

I washed the paint off shortly after taking a picture, but faint Crayola lines remained for a day or so, just to remind me of how pumpkin-esque my belly really is.

Thank you, Caley! And congratulations on becoming a foursome!

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Whitney

RookieMoms.com co-founder Whitney lives with her husband, son, and daughter in the San Francisco Bay Area where she writes about parenting, crafts, and activities that moms can do with babies in tow. She and Heather also publish 510Families.com, a site for East Bay parents.