Year Two began on February 21, 2019 and ended on April 29, 2020. What a year it was to document. I did miss some weeks and sometimes I switched the days up but I still continued until I reached 52 weeks.  (You can see the project HERE.)

This was quite an intense season of my life and was filled with the most beautiful highs but also the most painful lows.  Having revisited this past project year there were times I cried remembering certain periods of our story especially how tough it was in the beginning of the project.  How Forrest was so unsettled and in so much pain. His bout of bronchiolitis. How he cried so much and how hard it was to deal with. How Nixie struggled. I mean I can't really imagine what it must have been like for her at almost 4 having had me to herself her whole life to very suddenly me not being able to be there for her in the same way and to see me with someone else. It must have been so heartbreaking for her. It still breaks my heart when I think about it. Remembering how hard it felt through the spring and summer with Kevin having early starts and late returns commuting to and from London which meant we could go days without seeing each other. But I am so happy I have all of these phases and seasons recorded.  

But mostly I’m reminded of all the love & joy that we as a family have experienced over the past year and a half, of that overwhelming feeling of falling so deeply in love with a new little soul & remembering the overflowing love i felt of seeing both my children together & the feeling that my life is complete.

Throughout this project I've witnessed Forrest learn to roll over, stand, crawl and walk. I am reminded of a brief window when he first arrived and I tandem nursed him and Nixie (who had already stopped nursing may I add!) but which really helped her with adjusting to life with a brother. I am brought back to the long nights of constantly getting up to feed Forrest to the moment when I could finally nurse him laying down. Remembering how there was a time when Lennie Heberts song real hot was the only song that could make Forrest stop crying. 

There’s been so many  little breakthroughs such as when Nixie learned to ride her bike, when she made her own sandwich, the first time I managed to get both of them to bed together, the moment when Forrest could be put down for his naps instead of laying on me. 

Remembering all the various phases we went through such as when Nixie needed to flush the toilet together, take out the bath tub plug together and turn off the bedside light before bed together. When we needed to do three high-fives,  three fist bumps and give each other three kisses anytime I needed to go somewhere without her. When her doll Nell needed to come with us everywhere. Her rainbow obsession, her sticker book obsession, then her Dino Dana obsession which turned into a huge dinosaur obsession, then her bird of prey fascination which turned into her current owl obsession. Her love for spirit riding free and her love for music and obsession with verucas salt, especially the song volcano girl, no doubt,  and the latest the ramones. We went through some tough phases too such as the phase of Nixie always running away from me, the terrifying 3 min when I thought I lost her at the natural history museum and the other few times I thought I lost her at the shop. But I also got to experience this phase ending! Forrest went through a phase of being obsessed with the keyboard, then the vacuum but at the same time being afraid of the sound it made along with the blender but also getting to see him overcome this fear. We also went through a period where where we were making daily forts which was a great phase to be reminded of. 

I got to experience so many firsts: Forrest's first solstice, his first proper belly laugh which happened while he was thrown up in the air, his first time in the sea. Nixie's first time flying a kite. Our first time to isle of wight. Our first time raising caterpillars. The first time Forrest came to me on his own. His first time camping, his first puddle,  his first messy paint session, his first tooth. The first time Nixie started forest school which was also the first time she had ever been away from us. Our first experience with hand foot and mouth disease. Forrest's first time eating moss and kissing and hugging the trees. The first time he started holding our hands and guiding us. 

I'm reminded of all the beautiful & peaceful moments of being together in the forest, of all the love-bubble moments filled with the best snuggles, and feeling the joy all over again of seeing the love grow between Nixie and Forrest.

And never could I have imagined that towards the end of the project we would be introduced to Coronavirus and experience our first lockdown….this has truly been an incredible project year.

This project is very important to me and having these in depth recollections of our days is something that I hold so dear and I hope my children will too especially when they are all grown up.  My main reason or inspiration for this project  is my own mother who has Alzheimer's Disease, she has made me realise how fragile our memories can be and has made me want to preserve as many memories as I can for my own family. 

When I wrapped this project up I felt such a relief and I wasn't sure if I wanted to start another one.  Funnily the first thing my husband said was,  now you need to start year three and when I told him I wasn't sure I wanted to both him and Nixie said to me pretty much in unison,  "You have to!  Do it!" It really does make my heart sing a bit knowing they like me doing this project and aren't sick of me pointing my camera at them.  But now that a month has passed and I have had a bit of a break from it, I realise that I do miss it and I do want to continue with it.  I'm my families memory keeper. But I'm doing it slightly different this time instead of every week, which proved to be too much for me,  I have decided to do it on every full moon instead and I've already done my first day which was just this past Friday, June 5 (will be sharing it soon!).

Just like I did at the end of year one,  here are some photos that mean something to me but didn't make it into my project.  Below are some of my favourite outtakes :

Week 1

Week 3

Week 4

Week 7

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Week 16

Week 17

Week 18

Week 19

Week 20

Week 21

Week 22

Week 23

Week 24

Week 25

Week 26

Week 27

Week 28

Week 30

Week 31

Week 33

Week 34

Week 35

Week 36

Week 37

Week 38

Week 39

Week 40

Week 41

Week 42

Week 46

Week 47

Week 48

Week 49

Week 50

Week 51

Week 52