Family Living: Abbott Style

Can I please just say how much I LOVE Haley at the age of 2? I have never enjoyed being a mom so much.  This is a great age!  Sure we have our moments.  We have our meltdowns.  They are usually very public.  And most everyone else is watching your parenting under a microscope and harshly judging your every move (which I am so over and could care less, I'm an amazing mother.)  But all that aside, this is amazing.  This is what it is all about. In a way, your child's experiences become your experiences.  Their joys, your joys.  Like, taking your 2-year-old to the zoo for the first time: It is not like I really enjoy seeing lions, tigers, and bears---but I enjoy seeing her see lions, tigers, and bears.   Everyday, I see Haley learn and get excited about new things--which makes me excited about things in life that I either grew too old to get excited about or started to take for granted. It is simply amazing. But gosh, isn't is so flee...

And today, I slowly started breathing again.  Also regaining a certain part of my sanity. Relief. But first things first, you are here because you want the goods.   Back story  I didn't want to know the sex. Ian did.  But after our 13 week appointment, when I was diagnosed with placenta previa, things changed.  I needed some good news.  I needed a focal point other than the negative things I had been experiencing in the previous months.  For weeks I imagined the worse.  Preterm labor.  Loosing the baby.  Bed rest.  At first, I most feared a c-section, I eventually fully embraced that idea as long as the baby and myself made it safely to full term. Basically, the diagnoses felt like I was told I had a rug under my feet, and without notice it could be ripped out from under my feet and how bad the fall could be "all just depends".  For a control freak like myself, all these variables were not good.  I needed t...

I was flipping through my Redbook magazine, reading articles when I was overwhelmed with the desire to write. I haven't felt motivated to really write in a long time, so here I am. I could go on for days with all the happenings in our lives recently, but instead I am just going to try to keep everything as concise as possible. I am now a full time Stay-At-Home-Mom   The plan was always for me to be a SAHM.  Even before I got pregnant, or before we got married.  It was basically a non-issue altogether.  But we discussed it when we were dating, and that is just how we both envisioned our lives. And for the most part--over the past two years, I have been--ish. When I was 8 months pregnant with Haley, I decided to hold on to my part time gig for awhile longer.  Haley could tag along and it would give me something to do (oh how naive was I to think I actually NEEDED to add MORE to my plate)  So at one point I was working 10 + hours a weeks, and the ho...