Who Am I?

I am struggling to define myself as an artist. My earliest memories are of me drawing, yet somehow or the other I managed to side-track myself into everything but art, work at everything but painting. When I did paint it was only because an exhibition I wanted to take part in was looming, and I had no choice but to make good my acceptance. Then there'd be a long dry spell again. Not that I didn't enjoy it when I painted. I loved it. But it was always something I accommodated into whatever else I happened to be doing. So everytime I did paint, something different would come out, like a whole new beginning. While this was great for exploring a variety of approaches, I'm not sure what it all sums up to in the end.

Now I'm trying to find myself - pick up all those little threads and weave something personal out of it. It is very daunting, but exciting too.

While I was thinking this, I drew this picture. The scissors were lying in front of me, so I drew them. They are very badly drawn, but what the heck.

Baby Signing

I am trying the ASL baby signs again with the little BabyKitten - after too long a gap (months). But her progress has been amazing! These are the ones she has started to make:

milk
pee pee or poo poo (same sign of toilet)
mommy
daddy
baby
girl
doggie
water
food
ball
book
apple
cheese
more
please
shoes
spoon
butterfly
fish
bath

She understands these, but doesn't do them yet:

egg
cheerios
up
down
boy
kitty
birdie
home
happy
sad
car
flower
bee

Quite a few, when I list them out like that. Of course, I'm learning myself!

Kazuo Ishiguro

When I do read any book at all, I'll read at least two at once, but I've never read two Kazuo Ishiguros at the same time. Until now, that is.

A long time ago I'd read his Remains of the Day, which I remember as a dream-like story that was funny in a tragic way. Incidentally, I really enjoyed the movie as well, something very rare if I liked the book.

The two novels I'm reading right now are When We Were Orphans, and The Unconsoled. One is downstairs, and one up, so I'm kinda alternating between the two depending on where I happen to be. I read them in snatches. Not a good idea. WWWO's protagonist seems to be skidding towards disaster, oblivious to his distorted memory. The Unconsoled reads like a nightmarish Alice In Wonderland, and it's getting bizarrer and bizarrer and all it's tunnels and dead ends are making me claustrophobic.

Next time I'll remember not to double dose on Ishiguro, so that I can do him justice.

Breastfeeding Week - August 1 - 7

Our weekly carried a tiny piece about the benefits of breastfeeding in honor of Breastfeeding Week. It was too small and too focused on newborns. But it was there. I talked to the editor of a local chain of newspapers here about writing a column on Attachment Parenting and bresatfeeding but he wasn't thrilled with the idea. There's such a dire need for education in this area, though.

I have had new mommies tell me they switched to formula because 'breast milk is useless after the first few days', or weeks or months (rare) and veteran mommies look at me disapprovingly for 'still breastfeeding!?' and for refusing to give BubbleToes commercial baby cereal. Sometimes I feel the only support I will ever find is in virtual groups and communities on line. No one in my immediate vicinty seems to support a natural way of bringing up the baby, and many are antagonistic to it.

There's tons of good information about this on the internet, but very little of it is disseminated by people who have the power and opportunity to do so - doctors, people who run pre-natal classes, and grandparents.

DaddyBoy always tries to stop me from speaking about this. I may offend someone! OK - it's possible a few feathers may get ruffled. I think it's a risk worth taking if it means even a few people opened their hearts and minds to the difference it would make to their kids, and as a result, the whole society.

Elimination Communication

This quaint term and I got a'quaint'ed not too long ago, but I wish it had been sooner. Known more widely as EC, it means to be able to tune into your baby's need to eliminate, by understanding your baby's communication about it.

Easier said than done if you have forced (unwittingly, I know) the little critter to become accustomed to going in a disposable diaper!

Babies actually try to signal their need to go right from birth, either by squirming or grunting or some other way, but they TRY!!! I found this piece of information astounding, but it's true. However, since most parents automatically put their babies in diapers, the baby eventually learns it's useless to signal, and resigns itself to going in the diaper. This is the stage the ChunkyMonkey was at when I first discovered EC. Since then I have read up on it, bought books about it, bought a couple of potties and of course, tried to let her know she has the opportunity to not go in her diaper. I keep her diaper free a small part of the day, and in cloth diapers the rest of the day. She is still in disposables for the night, but I think that will end soon.

The funny (actually not so funny) part is that the naughty little Chipmunk will go everywhere but in the potty! I have been trying to teach her off and on for the past few months now, but I have not been as consistent as I should have been. I also wish I had more support. We had to go to a different town just to get cloth diapering essentials! I intend to keep at it though, even if it means constantly washing diapers and cleaning up baby messes. I am sure she will get it soon. She does enjoy looking at pictures of babies on potties, many of whom are sitting on the same type of BabyBjorn potty that she has. She even knows the ASL signal for 'potty' but has so far refused to use it when she needs to go.

I'll just have to be more consistent than I've been and keep at it! In any case, just reading about what disposables do to the environment, and of course the baby, makes me wonder how I could ever have taken them from granted. But there's a new store right here in town now so I'm hoping other new parents will make the informed choice I didn't at the right time.

Summer in the patio

Our little patio. My parents gifted us a gazebo and a wonderful patio set, so in good weather it's like a whole extra room.

I take the little ButterBaby out everyday these days, but she's not content with getting a tour of the place in my arms. She wants to explore by herself, so I let her. We have a whole bunch of ruined pants as a result, and her poor little feet have a couple of scratches, but it's so wonderful to see her enjoy crawling around and getting hands-on with things like pebbles and pine cones and leaves and flowers and other bugs!

Not sure how she can tolerate crawling on the hard flagstones, but there seems to be no stopping her!

A color for all seasons

This afternoon, as I paced our bedroom with the little BabyWorm dozing on my shoulder, I looked at the window and for a second I thought the colors from the tree outside had melted and were dripping down in green rivulets. Of course, it was nothing of the sort. Not sure why I got that sudden flash. Anyhow, this weird thought led to an observation: every curtain in our house is a shade of white. Not only that, each one is a white-on-white design, although they are all different and were bought at different times.

I realize now that I never even looked for colored material when I bought the curtains. I just zoomed in on the white fabrics every single time, without conscious thought. And I know if I were to buy more curtains they would be...white!

If I were to analyse this instinctive gravitation towards white (I am not limited to window coverings in this) I can say this: White is classy, cool, soothing, and such a wonderful backdrop for colors. All my china is white, and food looks fabulous on it. All our walls would have been white too if DaddyBoy didn't have a say. My bed sheets are always white. I love white rugs, white furniture, white lamps. I adore white clothes on the BabyBug.

My dream space, where I have this huge table in a sun-drenched room, is white on white on white.

And guess what? I'm wearing white as I type this.

All this, and I absoloutely love color, especially what i call 'juicy' colors. DaddyBoy makes fun of me for choosing things like toothpaste based on whether or not the color looks yummy.

Weird.

Strategic Writing

Hee hee, my business sense is so good, I completely forgot to write about our website for custom writing!

We even sent out our first newsletter!!

We are already talking with a potential client!!!

This post is turning into a Winnie the Pooh story!!!!

As Piglet, who, like me, is A Very Small Animal, would say, "Help!"

Things to do

I'm writing this down so I don't forget.

1} Get some small canvases - some yummy, deep, gallery-wrapped little baby canvases.

2) Also get some cute, funky scrapbook papers in juicy colors.

3) Do some cutting and pasting of said papers on said canvases.

4) Draw some groovy chairs on white paper.

5) Cut out and paste groovy chair drawings on top of everything else.

6) Top it all with gobfuls of gel medium.

7) Make a nice new series this way.

8) Put up said nice new series on Etsy.

That's it.

Oh, and sell them.

Blast from the past

Just a cool breeze actually!

OK, so I'm not getting many opportunities to paint these days, but I keep thinking of what I'd paint if I had the time. Among other things, I want to paint more interior scenes, like I did a long time ago. They were just whimsical little pieces - not at all anatomically correct, but so much fun!

Here's one of them; this was probably the first one I did back then. I don't have the original anymore, and this is just a scan of the original's photograph, so it's already twice removed, so to speak. On top of that I Photoshopped it just a little to correct the colors, so now it's a version of a version of a version, and therefore, uhh...really unique.

Yep.



I can't wait for the day the little MoonBug can sit and paint with me, if she turns out to like painting, that is.

I had yet another person tell me I 'should let her cry it out' when she cries. Will this ever stop???

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying her tremendously. I still can't get over the fact that this beautiful little creature is mine. What can I say, I just adore her!

My spices are here!

I found a bag hanging on our door today - four little jars from Victorian Epicure - the company I ordered from at the spice party.

Inside were Cuban, Thai, Satay and Taco dry spice blends...quite different from what I thought I'd ordered, so it was a nice surprise.

Can't wait to try the Satay blend - I remember the unbelievably colorful street markets of Singapore and Malaysia, and the scrumptious satay sauce...yum. It was such a wonderful trip, and although 10 years (what?) have passed, the sights and colors are still vibrant in my head. In one meal at one of the outdoor food courts I remember having about six varieties of fish, each cooked to perfection. I wish I had pictures of the street markets, though...all that profusion of color, light and texture.

Maybe I can go there again some day, but for now I have my spices!

I already tried the Cuban with some beef that I marinated with orange juice. The Taco spice I used on some tilapia with lemon juice and a tiny bit of cilantro, and the Thai went into some fried rice. I usually make all my spice blends from scratch so it was cool to just open the jar, shake out the spice, and be done!

And they were good, too!

And one more...

And here's how they look together!

A doodle a day

Well, not quite...but here's the third drawing I did...