Drawn from Real Life: How Vincent and the Night Came to Be —
a Q&A with Adele Enersen

I still vividly remember seeing one of Adele Enersen’s magical photos of her infant daughter Mila, fast asleep in the embrace of an octopus made of fabric. My first thought was, “OMG, this is incredible!” And my second was, “How on earth did she get her baby to stay asleep for that?” My daughter fought naps like nobody’s business.

It seems that Adele’s second child, Vincent, did, too — hence the new style of her third illustrated children’s book, a bedtime story called Vincent and the Night. Enersen and I chatted, mom-to-mom, about storytelling and sleep, elusive sleep.

Vincent is a new aesthetic for you.

Unlike Mila, my firstborn, who was a sleeping champion, Vincent didn’t sleep at all. I couldn’t continue with the fairy tale-like pictures. I had to figure out something else — he was always awake!

I started taking pictures of him against a white sofa and editing out the background a bit. And I decided to draw around him to show what I thought he was trying to do instead of sleeping.

That’s funny. I got the feeling that Vincent was a very different baby from Mila.

I totally deserved that, after having such a good sleeper.

I have the full experience now. When I had Mila I was always wondering what people were complaining about. This is so easy! Give me twenty of these! Now, after Vincent, I’m not considering a new baby. [laughs]

Tell me a little bit about your creative process.

I’m really proud of this book as a book — there is an actual storyline. The process was completely different than before. I had time to figure out the story, so it’s more entertaining and interesting than the others I’ve done before. In those, there were glimpses of other stories that had been told before. This is a new story.

Of course, there is a little bit of similarity to Harold and the Purple Crayon, that classic story. It’s my hat off to that book, in a way.

What about your original blog, Mila’s Daydreams, what inspired that?

Before Mila was born, I worked in advertising as a creative designer. When I was home with her, I was frustrated. I wanted to do something creative, and then I had this baby who was sleeping all the time. I went crazy with her!  And I guess I just continued to be crazy with Vincent, too.

In a way, I feel like you kickstarted this movement of new parents finding a creative outlet that involves their babies.

It has been nice to inspire other people. A lot of other mothers and parents, they’ve picked up the style and do their own pictures and even books. People ask, “Are you upset? They’re copycats!” But I’m not; I’m not at all. It’s always a different story when the baby is different. In Japan, they call it Nezo Art. It’s kind of awesome.

With my new book, the drawing, the illustration style [which is digital], it’s not the same as the style of When My Baby Dreams. I think it’s still a fresh style that people haven’t seen. I hope I can inspire again.

What’s interesting is how each style is so closely tied to the personality of each of your children.

That’s the inspiration, of course. My children, they are not just the subjects, they are the objects of this process.

They’re shaping it, too, you mean?

They are telling the story with me — it’s not only me. The genuine connection that we have together, it shows.

Now that Mila is older, what does she think of those books? Does she have a favorite scene?

She loves them! She recognizes the first two books and she knows that it’s baby Mila there. I don’t know if she has any favorites. She loves all books so much — she is reading a lot, like I used to read a lot when I was a kid.

And is Vincent old enough to have an opinion about his book?

I don’t know if he realizes it’s him — probably yes. He realizes that it’s Mila’s baby book and he’s waiting for his Vincent book.

Right. It’s only fair.

Of course.

Vincent and the Night is a bedtime story. Do your kids have a favorite bedtime story right now?

It’s always changing. I hope that Vincent is their next favorite book, but right now, they don’t really have any bedtime stories. We have books that they really love, like Dragons Love Tacos and I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen. And they love the Moomin stories, which are classic Scandinavian stories by Tove Jansson. And then Pippi Longstocking.

We try to read all the world’s classics, Scandinavian children’s literature and American literature, because we have our heritage but are now living here. My kids, they are in day care and preschool here and they are picking up English. Their English is almost as good as their Finnish now. Soon, Mila is going to be helping me write my next book.

Speaking of which — what’s next for you?

I’m toying with my new characters. This time, I’m not going to be pregnant!

Adele Enersen became an Internet sensation when her creative baby photo blog, Mila’s Daydreams, went viral. Previously, she has worked as a  copywriter and concept designer in advertising. Adele now lives in Los Angeles with her two children, Mila & Vincent, and film composer husband, Lasse.