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.
Just like I have countless drawings from 2003-2005 of the brown boy sleeping, now I have those of Orin’s endless meals as he grows…
Sometimes we fight over the music playlist and fall into each other’s joke traps.
At other times we have some deep conversations.
“No one has fun without anyone, Amma”
“You need to draw the details, Amma”, he says. So I do –
“Why do you always draw when I draw, Orin?” “Because it’s like you and me cuddling, Amma!”
If only going to school was such a breeze…
But, really, over the years we have gone through this –
and now this –
Does it ever get any easier?
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.
From the journal Brain cut wild, 2016
When we first started living together, years and years ago, I didn’t see much of the brown boy. He had a crazy work schedule and whenever we were at home together he would be asleep. So I had loads and loads of drawings of him sleeping from that first year.
