Week 26 - The Rising Phoenix

And it is that time again for another entry for Artefact motherhood, a beautiful blog circle which is a collaboration of artists & mothers from around the world sharing stories of the joys and struggles of our journey. These are more than photographs with dates written on the back. These are the artefacts we are leaving behind for children and the generations to come. Please have a look through mine and then check out the next artist in our circle.

Our morning began as most our mornings do; you having your morning boob & cuddles as your way of slowly waking up but what was different was that today we didn't get out of bed until 7AM! You ran downstairs before me and I found you busy making ice cream for me and one of your pups. For the past few days you have been really into your soft animals, especially your dogs and for the past few weeks you've been endlessly making me & daddy ice creams. Your favourite flavours are salted caramel & chocolate but you always make me one with raspberry, you know me so well! Also for the last few days you have been really loving your wipe clean books, we have never pushed anything with you, instead allowing you to develop an interest in things in your own time and lately you've been wanting to learn your numbers & letters and today you spent so much time sitting down at your table going through your book & practicing your writing. I watch you during these moments and feel so incredibly amazed at how quickly you seem to be growing up & I love how even if at first something seems hard and you skip it, you will always go back to it and then excitedly want to show me. Also this morning you could not wait to go into the garden to pick some of our tomatos that you could see from our window, you still get as excited as you did the first time when you get to taste one! We had already done a lot this morning before we'd even eaten anything & normally when I ask you what you would like for breakfast you never give me an answer but today you did and you requested pancakes! You put all the ingredients into the bowl & mixed it all together (you're getting really good at cracking eggs now!) and you loved every moment of it. Daddy is still on sick leave and as soon as I began frying them you couldn't run upstairs fast enough to wake him and I could hear you say to him, "daddy! wake up!! mummy's making pancakes, would you like to join us?" in the sweetest way possible. Shortly after I heard both your foot steps stumble out of bed and make your way down the stairs. After breakfast you wanted to do some painting, specifically it was acrylic painting you wanted to do so I got everything ready and you became lost in your own little magical world for a little while. You are really drawn to reds, brown, yellows, oranges, and blacks at the moment and I love how you prefer to put the paint straight onto your painting and work from there. It's your way. After a while I began feeling a bit stir crazy and really needed to get out of the house, I was craving some fresh sea air & wanted to go for a little walk along the sea wall. The doctor had told daddy that he needed to try to walk around as much as possible but for the past two weeks he hasn't really been able to at all since he's been in a lot of pain and just feeling rough but you and I encouraged him to have a walk with us. We took it super slow and along the way we were surrounded by yellow flowers which you discovered had tons and tons of caterpillars on them, you had never seen so many caterpillars together and were absolutely amazed by them, we had to look at every yellow flower along the way to see how many caterpillars we could find (this took a while since there were lots of these plants!). We finally arrived by our beach & it was low tide, we hadn't been there during low tide in a while but all you wanted to do was swim and ran right in, you did get pretty upset with me when I told you we werent going swimming and I guess I should have known better and had our swimsuits on anyways but I didn't so we couldn't. As much as I wanted to let you, I couldn't really let you go on your own. We found a dead crab which for some reason you were absolutely terrified of at first but then just 3 minutes later you ran back to it to hold it and then decided to bury it so that "it would be safe". On our way back home I ended up carrying you for a little while and you made me feel enveloped in the most beautiful love, the way you were nuzzling into my neck and the way you were squeezing me tight with your little legs made me feel so in awe of your beautiful energy, you really have this incredible power of making me feel like i'm floating on air. When we got home we just relaxed on the couch, the walk ended up being a bit much for daddy and he was wiped out and fell asleep on the couch as soon as we got in. All day you haven't been able to stop kissing his belly which was where he had his surgery. You have been so incredibly gentle with him, you really like to place your forehead on his side while placing your other hand on his wound and taking deep breaths, you like to give him healing energies to make him feel better. After we had dinner I gave you a bath but you wanted daddy to be with us in the bathroom, this has been the longest it's ever gone without him giving you a bath, normally if he's home he's the one who gives you baths. I think it's been a little tough on you that he hasn't been able to lift you up but you're dealing with it so well and have been so understanding. For the past week you've wanted both of us in the room when you fall asleep and tonight you and daddy fell asleep within minutes of laying down. It's not very often that it happens that I'm the last one awake!