motherhood and illustration

Anyone who knows me will probably know that this last year working was extremely difficult.  I loved working and being fulfilled in that way, but I missed H and wanted myself to be the one to teach him everything.  I tried to be that role when I was with him, but still felt like I was missing out.You moms out there who work are amazing.  It's tough to manage your family when you're not there.  And I only have one kid! People do this with lots of kids!  I'm so fortunate that I can stay home for a while and raise my kids.  I may go back to work sooner than later, but not knowing when right now is grrrreat.  Really I'd love to just be an illustrator and work from home.  I wish I would have thought of that while I was still in school. Phooey.

Like this by Rudolf Koivu, beautiful.
                                     
I love children's illustration! Maybe because I'm looking at children's books all the time with H and got my first illustration job that kind of fell in my lap. But I really enjoy it.  I'm trying to self-educate in terms of general illustration methods and ideas, but I'd really love to go back to school for that.  In the mean time, I'll have to put myself through the Rachel Chinn school of illustration.  It'll be fun =) I'll post some of my new stuff later.  I'm still updating my website, trying to get a feel for the best things to have on there and what I'm all about.  Sticking with something is hard for me because I like everything!


Since my last day of work last week, we've been to Thanksgiving point (a dinosaur museum and country farm), seven peaks water park, I've fixed some of my illustrations for "Bedtime story for Jeffrey," done some illustrating on my own, cleaned our house, and got to spend lots of time with my boys! So far I'm likin' this new job of mommy illustrator.

In the short time I've gotten to be home all day with Harrison, I've seen him do so much!  I'm trying to remember he is growing fast and not to miss any moments with him.  He'll be going on a mission before I know it!  So any computer, blogging, pinteresting, I save for while he's napping so I'm present when he's awake.  I made the mistake of not being truly present for just 5 minutes and he was into daddy's briefcase, pulling out a kershaw knife, gum, and all kinds of other things not approved for children. I'm embarrassed to say that, but I'm glad I learned the lesson to be PRESENT all the time before something worse happened.  The kershaw knife was by far the worst thing he could have found, but thankfully it's folded up and has a latch to release it, but still...not ok. I can't believe some of the things parents let their children do, or DO to their children.  Did you see the article about the baby found in a sewer pipe in china!?!?! I couldn't watch, it made me physically ill.  That someone could do that to an infant, do they have a soul?! Pray for the children out there! I wish I could bring them all to my house.

On a happier note, all the fun things we got to do this week made for great photo ops. You know the whole take pictures of my kid with a cow so he can see he met a cow when he was a baby.  Funny the things we do, but I love pictures.

This was right before he started crying. For some reason he seemed way more afraid of the fake cow than the real cows.

Yes that is a calf sucking on my fingers. Did you know their tongues are all rough? It feels like a cat tongue, weird.

Oh and he wasn't afraid at all of the big fake dinosaur, way less threatening than a soft baby goat.

He likes to crawl into small spaces. Oh this boy warms my heart.

Here's to making memories with children and having fun doing it.