Putting away

I had a lovely day at home with Grace today. G was working and I revisted the time when Grace and I used to have whole chunks of the week just the two of us. Now, before I go all rosy and sentimental, it must be said that, just like back then, I was pretty pleased to have G home at the end of the day and to have a wee break from the intensity of a tired and hungry toddler. 

Wednesday is the major housework day here and of late, we've been doing it together. Obviously that's not going to work when I go back to work nearly full time in a couple of months. So it was good to re-visit how it feels to be the one at home. I am definitely going to need to work on being a bit more connected when I first come home. A challenge when your job has a high volume of intense interactions.

I've been thinking about this picture, and some like it, quite alot recently. It's from Baby Dear by Esther Wilkin, illustrated by Eloise Wilkin, a Little Golden Book, 1962. Eloise Wilkin has become one of my favourite Golden Book illustrators. I think she had quite a romantic old fashioned style and so far, in the books I've seen, gender roles are very traditional. Which is probably part of the attraction. Dare I say a fatal attraction?

I particularly like that she's captured the putting away of washing to illustrate. It all seems so calm and ordered. No speed folding. No cramming hastily folded clothes into inadequate hanging shelves with your two year old assistant just as intent on pulling more clothes out.  This child of course has a baby sister to cuddle, while her doll lies on the floor. A lot of this book is about the little girl mothering her doll as her mother looks after a new baby. Apart from the one scene where mummy and daddy arrive home with the new baby, it is just mummy, little girl and baby. Calm and ordered, but maybe also a little lonely?