Monday, October 1, 2012

Eating & Drawing: Now with Baby.


"Here is sort of a thing. Damn it's been since April that I posted! That's terrible! Even given my usual summer garden-related blog slump, that is really bad." 

That's a draft I found when I logged into this blog yesterday, written last October. Ha, I thought that was bad, now it's July, & it's been well over a year since I've posted anything. Or drawn anything either, to be honest. 
And I'm not really sure where this is going to go-I'm writing this now from my iPhone while breast feeding a five week and four day old baby. 
Yup. I found out that I was pregnant ten days after I started writing that October blog post, & Eating & Drawing kind of flew out the window.  
My baby girl Iris Marjorie was born on June 14th at 2:27pm & she's sleeping in my lap right now. 
I was thinking that it would be nice to start this blog up again, as I am home taking care of the baby at the moment, & I spend a lot of time here in my breast feeding chair, with not much else besides my phone to entertain me & I'm getting rather sick of Facebook. 
Not sure how much drawing there will be or how coherent these posts will be, written in little snatches of free time here & there, but writing here is a little like talking to an adult so I'd like to give it a try. 
Should this become a mommy blog though? Wasn't this my art blog? Should I get a new blog, since my life isn't much about eating or drawing any more? Dare I put up posts with no visual content?
I think Iris & I will now go take a walk & think about it. 
And we are back. This was a big day for us-we drove to town to walk on the bike path & that went well so we went to cvs to pick up Iris' birth announcement cards. 
This is the fourth week that Iris & I have been home alone together (she will be six weeks old on Friday) & the first time that we have gone anywhere alone together besides doctor's appointments & our breast feeding support group. 
I'd imagined before Iris was born that we'd be spending the summer taking walks in the woods around home & working in the garden together, & that hasn't really happened. 
It's been very hot & unbelievably mosquito-y here this summer, & this has left us trapped in the house. For really the  first time in my life. 
I really like to walk, I really like to be outside, that is so so important to me, & in the last six weeks I have been inside more than I ever have in my life. 
It's weird. I love this girl so much. I would do anything for her in a way that I have never even felt close too with any other living thing. I am happy to do anything for her, but it is odd to suddenly feel like I can & do exist without what I used to consider my basic needs: art, fresh air, exercise. 
So, yeah, long story short, we did take the damn car ( I hate the car, I hate to drive, & driving with a tiny baby is just that much more terrifying to me) & go out today & that was good. 
And I wrote on this blog again & that was also good. 
I guess I will keep this up. See how it goes. Bear with me-there might not be much or any art for a while, & the only way I can really write is on my phone with one hand with the baby in my lap, so forgive sloppy spelling & grammar for now. 
Will there be any food? We will see, my post-partum feelings about cooking & food are complicated but that's another post. 
Hi y'all. Welcome to the new Eating & Drawing. 
I had a baby! Wild. Who would have thought that would ever happen, back in the Drinking & Drawing days. 
But here we are. And she us definitely the best thing I have ever done in my life. So stay tuned.