Category Archives: gutotales

gutotales, Life, parenthood, sketchbook

A year of drawing Orin

One of the things of being a parent is that you have to spend time with your kids. Lucky for you if they are entertaining. As in years past, our tornado still takes forever to eat a meal so I use the time to draw. It’s great to have a living breathing human being at close quarters to draw from! Between mouthfuls, we chat.

Sometime in August I was making notes for my DesignUp talk, and thinking about “belonging” when Orin chimed in:

“You belong to your parents, but you live with us!”

“Do you know centipedes lived in the time of dinosaurs?”

“Do you know what a sundial is?”

I don’t know what he thinks of us…

Here they are watching the FIFA World Cup, and the brown boy thinks this is the best drawing of him that I’ve done since 2003. That drawing is actually hanging on my MIL’s fridge I think.

Here we were discussing our best movies/TV shows of 2022. The brown boy chose Better Call Saul, while mine was Dune, and the tornado chose Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

At least one of you drew me!

We’ve created a monster, I say…

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gutotales, Life, parenthood

Mind your language!

This is from an old sketchbook, of a few years ago when the little tornado was learning to talk. Like all new parents we were caught unawares about the new organism’s ability to absorb and regurgitate at opportune moments.

Soo: and then *** and then ***
Brown Boy: Baboo! Mind your language!
Soo: Oops. Do you think he heard it?
Brown Boy: Let’s ask him…
Brown Boy: Guto, what did Amma say right now?
Guto: Kissy kissy kissy!
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gutotales, Life, sketchbook

Propelled into motherhood

In the early days of being a mother I hardly had time or energy to draw. I went back to working full time when Orin was four months, and we had a nanny in the day time to look after him. Both the brown boy and I were lucky to have the choice to work flexible hours which is so important when you’re a new parent.

I started drawing again when Orin was about seven or eight months old and my drawing had of course suffered. Not only was my skill rusty but also lack of sleep had nearly killed my imagination – but I kept on drawing. The journals from those years were quite terrible, but I still needed to draw, to make sense of life unfolding. Here are a few scattered drawings from those years.

Happiness is early mornings
It’s nice to be the center of someone’s universe
Friday 29th April: Orin’s baby steps and a giant leap in our baby proof scheme.
It’s called peace

From the journal Brain cut wild, 2016

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gutotales, Life, parenthood, sketchbook

Life after

I went back to work when Orin was four months. Still breastfeeding, still feeding at night, and going to work during the day. So many working mothers go through the same thing, but it’s so exhausting! Every day of Orin’s first year I used to give myself a private award for staying human.

Life after -0

Though the brown boy was an completely engaged parent, and we had a day time nanny for Orin, there were times when I needed a little break.

Life after -1

“Hmmph,” says the anteater. “An afternoon of babysitting needs an afternoon of therapy.”

“There goes my potential babysitter,” I think.

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