So Much for That Time Capsule

Last night during one of our periodic "let's move the furniture around and see if we can't make this place a little more tolerable" moments we came across an old baby handprint kit someone gave us as a gift.  Being the poor parents we are, we didn't get around to using it until last January, when Cheeky was already well past "baby" and more closely resembled a perpetual motion machine.  But we at least did manage to strap her down and get a handprint before she started contributing to her 401k.

Oodgie opened it and let out a startled-goat noise.  "Oh my god, that's disgusting!"

Our precious child's fossil-record was moldy.

How this happened I have no idea.  We stored it in a dry place, and it's not like it's made of bread.  It's cement!  Why would the tin look like a freakin' petri-dish?

I scrubbed it with a brush and poured bleach in it, hoping the gray fuzz and black stains would disappear, but after 10 minutes the handprint still looked bruised and scabbed. 

"Should we throw it out?" asked Oodgie, who throws away more than a rookie QB at the scouting combine. 

"How can we?  It's not like we can go back and get her one year-old handprint again."

Now, it's not like we were going to prominently display a tin of concrete anywhere, regardless of any imprints inside.  Nor are we particularly obsessed with cutesy mementos of Cheeky's early days.  ("Look, honey, it's Cheeky's first soiled diaper! Her meconium was so adorable!")  But we did go through the effort of getting the prints.

What do you think?  Is it worth keeping a bowl of fungus so we can show Cheeky how tiny her hand once was?

Comments

[Peter]

Put it back where you found it. Pretend it didn't happen. Imagine what it will look like in ten or fifteen years, it may be the cure to some disease. You can't toss it.

[Darren]

You could put it back where it was and cover it with McDonald's french fries so more mold won't grow.

[p-man]

Take a mold of the print and recast it? Or toss it. I don't know.

I'm hung up on the fact I never did the baby concrete thing. I feel like a bad dad at the moment, I have to go.

[Kemp]

"In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"

Sorry, it's what popped into my head the moment I read 'perpetual motion machine.'

To answer your real question; toss it. Otherwise you become like us and store stuff you KNOW will never be used/seen/needed ever again. When we move, the amount of crap we throw away will alter the earth's axis...

[Arwen]

I am so glad the meconium link wasn't a picture of meconium.

[WCG]

I still have little clay "whatevers" that you made over 30 years ago. Save it. some day it will remind you of those "good old days" when you knew where she was and what she was doing, and she was safe.

[L.A. Daddy]

Trip and break it. Accidentally. Works every time....

Or, spray it with hydrogen peroxide. If it bubbles up, it's mold. If it doesn't, it's not. If it is mold, spray it with a bleach solution. If it's not mold, paint it with primer to seal it up and then paint it a color of your choosing.

[AdventureDad]

Easy answer, no. Take a close up photo of it instead. That's unlikely to go bad regardless of when you look at it with Cheeky

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[WestCoastBrother2]

I like the idea of Hydrogen peroxide then painting over it. Just make sure you use mold resistant paint.

Marc

[mrs t]

My gut says get rid of it. I sentimentally saved the umbilical cord stump that took forever to fall off my first daughter's belly- and then threw it away after realizing how incredibly disgusting it was.
I think you could probably just spray paint the handprint, though, and then you'd have the memento and not the mold.

[Oh, The Joys]

I can't say save it or don't save it, but it's so funny that it molded.

Sorry. Maybe it's only funny to me.