Afternoon Work

 

     Three weeks after Julienne's birth, I reported to work. Kitchen work. I can no longer remember now how it felt. After a Caesarian operation and the stitches were fresh as trussed meat, I had to put on my kitchen clogs and tie apron round my waist. Sure it all sounds history now. But as I went about those kitchen tables with bandages under my black slacks, I could still see how the room swayed and blurred from my tired eyes. I slept mostly from the three- week recovery period and yet there seemed not enough sleep. Good thing kitchen work was only about three days a week. The remaining four days I spent rolling around with the baby and sleeping. I had to stop writing my book for a month because I got headaches from the glare of the laptop monitor.

    A few months later, a little recovered and feeling so much better, I began working on my book again. In the afternoons I would push a small table beside our bed as the baby struggled to turn on her stomach to start crawling. I could never leave the bed, unless I wished to find the poor thing on the carpeted floor. I only got up to get some snacks, make some milk and stretch those strained limbs from being hunched over the computer for hours, or making sketches for the book. (Although the drawings I reserved for the next run. The first edition did not have illustrations, save for the cover.)  Then I play and talk with the baby. Sometimes we read Le Petit Prince. Julienne liked the part with the boabab trees.

"Oh, darling, behave. Mommy's at work."

    Julienne would look at me with that sweet gaze, giggle, then suck two fingers, turn on her side, and before I knew it, she has fallen asleep. Do babies ever get bored? Among all things in the world, I don't like analyzing how children feel for their parents. By doing so, I hope I am saved from the guilt of being a total bore to my child. 
    Read this from Twitter the other day: "The only problem with working at home is that you work all the time." 101% True!