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.

Had the alarm set for 6:00, due to a high reading yesterday morning (Gestational Diabetes),  You were tossing and turning all night,  and had a fever,  so there were lots of cuddles throughput the night,  was worried about you, I hate it when you're poorly.  I had set the alarm and got up at 6:00, I ended up having my first blood sugar spike yesterday morning and it freaked me out a little  since it's the fasting one and the most important one as it's my baseline,  I had been noticing it rising for the past few days and it didn't make any sense to me but then we figured out what had changed and that was daddy being home all week and our rhythm changing,  I started staying up later and waking up later and I did a bit of research that once it gets light out our body clocks can release blood sugar to get us going so decided to see if that was true for me and it seems to be that way because I had my usual numbers again so that made me happy  although I will miss being able to sleep in, I had actually been feeling so well rested! Oh and I also cut out my evening snack and instead had 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar & a piece of cheese). I was also very happy to see that your fever was gone and even though you were a bit cold,  you were in a happy mood but your poor little lips are looking so painful,  they have been chapped and you've been picking them until they bleed and I don't know how to get you to stop! 

It's been such a lovely week,  each morning we've all been having breakfast together and I'm really so lucky to have you both because you and daddy have been making me breakfast all week and this morning you guys made me an omelette!  Even though delicious food is being made all you want to eat these days are cereal. 

Throughout our morning you couldn't stop singing about our solar system, now singing the solar system song & star song isn't enough,  we need to sing the dwarf planet song too! Luckily daddy has written down the lyrics so the two of you can sing it together, I love the little expressions of pure joy and excitement you get on your face whenever he sings it with you. 

We had a beautifully relaxing morning at home listening to music (at the moment you love this Swedish artist called kulturation and you call it "our music" and I especially love when you start to hum or try to sing along. You're also currently really into Tinariwen, Bombino, and Amadou & Mariam) while crocheting a little love monster for you, and the more progress I make the more excited you get!  You were busy playing with scraps of paper and the paper dolls you made yesterday with daddy. 

I'm 30 weeks and 6 days today and your baby brother Light is really making his presence known,  I love feeling him move within me,  he has so much energy!  As excited as I am,  as we all are about meeting him on the outside I can't help but feel a bit sentimental, a bit melancholy that the days of just the three of us or just the two of us are numbered.  I felt this really strongly at the beginning of this pregnancy and just wanted to focus all my attention on you and making sure we had the absolute best memories together. I even felt a little guilty about having another baby come into our life worrying that I wouldn't be able to give you what you need, that I would be spread too thin,  but then that feeling subsided and I realised that were just creating more love in our lives and that things are going to be even better,  I get to go through the experience of sharing another love and this time with you as well! One of the greatest things I've experienced in this life so far has been having the experience of a shared love, of loving someone else together with your daddy &  that someone else being you.  And now I get to go through that all over again but also with you and what a beautiful blessing that is!  You are already such a wonderful big sister, talking about your little brother Light with such love telling us how you just want to hold and cuddle him.  My heart feels so full today,  sometimes I don't know how I'm going to make it through the day without it exploding. 

These last couple of months seem to be flying by so fast & I can't believe that were just one week away from getting our love tree for our winter solstice celebration!  So today we made more hearts to decorate our tree with,  this is by far one of my favourite family traditions that we do each year.

 Afterwards it was time to finish making the coconut and almond energy balls or as you call them "meatballs", these treats are probably one of your all-time favourite snacks & it was exceptionally hard for you to not just eat the mixture. But for the first time you were able to roll them into perfect little balls rather than caterpillar shapes, you were so pleased with yourself! 

It wasn't raining so we decided to head to the woods to have lunch in our hammocks, eating hanging between trees makes everything taste so much better for some reason!  It ended up being a beautiful day out and I soaked up the beautiful energies of the forest, it always feels so good to me.  And we even had a deer run in front of us on our way to find a good spot to hang our hammocks, I never get tired of them,  I continue to get that same sense of wonder each time they cross our paths. You wanted to be with daddy in his hammock and I got mine to myself! I was enjoying watching the way the light was hitting the pines,  it was so beautiful & you were full of giggles,  you absolutely love hanging in the trees, & it took a long while before you would agree to get out but finally you did and we went for a little walk and you kept finding mushrooms attached to little sticks and excitedly wanting to show them to me while singing, "I got you a little present." 

When we got home we needed to finish our plaster hearts by attaching string,  you especially loved cutting the string, ever since you've gotten your own grown up scissors you can't stop cutting things into a million tiny pieces. Unfortunately as the day has gone by you seem to be getting worse and worse, you are definitely coming down with something,  you're getting a cough and beginning to be really snotty, I think were going to take it really easy the next few days. 

The rest of our evening was relaxed, we all had dinner together & I love the way your daddy watches you when you eat.  Every so often I'll look over at him and I see him just watching you in utter awe and it fills me up so much,  it's one of the most beautiful things I regularly get to see. 

After dinner  it was time to get ready for bed. You guys have this new bedtime routine that happens before stories which is playing with your prism to create a rainbow but today you had a play with it before bath just because you wanted to show me and you love trying to place yourself in it just so, so that it's on your face,  and telling me to take a photo, daddy has been sending me photos of this the last couple of nights.  Afterwards you hopped in the bath,  we gave each other hugs, cuddles and kisses and you always make sure I give some to daddy too.  With you there are a bunch of different kisses you need to give me; there's the alien kiss which is your mouth wide open covering mine,  then there's the burp kiss which is very similar but with an added burp,  then there's the suck kiss, the lick kiss and finally Nixie's kiss. Then i headed downstairs for a meditation but it was interrupted by you when you came darting downstairs in record speed wanting one last cuddle which is tremendously enjoyed. 

Please check out Lauren, the next incredibly talented artist in our Artefact Motherhood blog circle at:https://laurenwebsterphotography.com/2018/11/29/seasonal-satisfaction/and continue through all the artists until you get back to me!

to learn more about Artefact Motherhood please visit https://artifactmotherhood.com