Now he's home, the little diddy bit continues to grow at an alarming rate. To try and remember just how small he really was we decided it would be a nice idea to get one of those casting kits. You may have seen them, the ones where you end up with a life-sized replica of the child's feet and hands. We carefully deliberated over which kit we would get, mocking the signs to pay upwards of £80 to get it done professionally, and, once purchased, read through the long list of instructions. All looked fairly straight forward.

One of the main points in the booklet was that to successfully create the mould you required three adults: One to hold the baby, one to mix the solution and one to do the casting. No problem. We bundled ourselves into the car and headed around to Granny's house. When we arrived Grandad was also about which gave us a total of four adults, bonus, the process should be a doddle with that number of hands...

Mischief was duly stripped down to his vest and wrapped in a blanket. The instructions were read by Grandad. Everything was laid out in the kitchen in preparation for the task at hand. The process requires a paste to be mixed and then poured into a plastic bag into which the child's limb is placed for a minute before easing the mould off. What could be simpler? As suggested we had a trial run of getting the plastic bag over the (sleeping) child's hand, all fitted well. The only slight difficulty we could see was that the mixture has a setting time of 3 minutes from the moment you start to mix it, not long to get everything done but hence the number of people required. To help you see how long you had left the solution was colour coded - it starts out purple, moves to pink as it starts to set and it white once it's finished. The instructions suggest you get the child's limb into the mixture before it starts to turn white or you have no hope of getting a mould.

Ok, sorted, on your marks, get set, go! We measured out the water into a jug. We measured out the powder into a bowl. Granny baby oiled the chosen limb. Daddy held the bundle while he slept. Grandad began to mix the solution. And he mixed. And he mixed... "Quickly I cried" and he mixed "It's turning pink" I exclaimed, and he mixed "It's going white, it's going white" I panicked, and he fumbled around to get it into the bag. Over to the child I dashed. The hand was rammed into the bag. The child tried to take it back out again. Mixture went everywhere. Three of us tried to get the hand back in. Optimistically we held it into what was by now a somewhat hard and set solution. Once it was concluded that the setting time had completed the child was allowed to remove his hand once more. We all looked on disappointedly at a somewhat misshapen, definitely not viable mould. Hmm.

Ok, so the instructions did say that it would be harder to do a hand, perhaps we'd bitten off more than we could chew. Perhaps a foot would be easier? We also concluded that the mixture set in less than a minute, not the three minutes we were told we had!

Round two: the foot. This time mummy held the bundle. Granny was once more on baby oil duty (mischief liked this bit and was suitably chilled out). Daddy and Grandad were in charge of the bag and mixture. The water was measured out into the jug. The powder was measured out into the bowl. On your marks, get set, GO!!!

Grandad frantically mixed the powder and water, the mixture was rammed into the bag, "QUICK" I shouted as it started to turn pink. The foot was rammed into the bag. The foot was pulled out of the bag. The foot was pushed back into the bag. Mixture went everywhere, we now had my shirt to add to the list of casualties. A toe peeked through to the side of the bag. The mixture was frantically re-positioned. Everybody held their breath as we watched it go hard. Tick went the clock. After a suitable waiting period the foot was removed. Success! Kinda... We had a foot mould bar a slight hole in the side where the foot had moved to the side of the bag. Mummy and Granny went to clean up mischief. Grandad and Daddy were left to clean up the kitchen and think of better ways to achieve a mould.

Morale of the story? We can see why you have to pay so much to get this stuff done professionally!

[We did manage to get a fairly good plaster cast of the foot from the mould but will be trying a different method in the future... :-)]