21 months old

Abbey turned 21 months old on Mother's Day, so I thought that this update would be appropriate to tell what I have learned about being a mother in these 21 months:

- Nobody can ever prepare you for being a mother. Nobody can prepare you for the hard work, the way you feel every time you see your child's face, the way you feel when you can't see your child's face, the sacrifices you will make so that your child will have the very best life she can have.

- You will always hear people say that being a parent is the hardest job in the world. Until you are a parent, you don't realize it. Being a working mother makes it even harder. Trying to juggle work and family is the hardest thing in the entire world. I am sure that housewives have it hard, but I don't think they can honestly say it's harder than being a mom trying to juggle 40 hour weeks (and then 60 plus weeks during tax season), plus spending quality time with your child and keeping up with life in general on top of that.

- Becoming a mother makes you realize everything that your own mother did for you. I have not even started all the running around with events and recreation sports, and I am already so very thankful for all the sacrifices my mother made for me. All the trips to tennis matches, tennis lessons, softball tournaments, swim meets, camp (wait, I'm still not happy about that one!), girl scouts (also not happy about that either). I have learned that I very much took for granted all the wonderful home-cooked meals and the clean house that we came home to every single day. (Thanks mom for everything!)

- You learn quickly that every time you said pre-child, "MY child will NEVER do THAT", it was just a pre-cursor for the very things that your child WILL do. They WILL pitch a hissy fit in the middle of the store. They WILL bite the furniture and carpet pitching a fit. They WILL throw their food and refuse to eat. They WILL eat dog food and they WILL pick up random gross things on the floor and eat them. They WILL have snotty noses (yes, I really hoped I would have some miracle child that never had a snotty nose). They WILL rub their boogers on you, laugh and say "ew". You WILL be pooped on, peed on, spit up on. And you WILL be at your wits end at times. But, you WILL look over at that child a few seconds later and realize what a perfect blessing God gave you. Even with the hissy fits and drama. Your child is perfect. And your life is complete because of them.

Ok, here is my monthly post of All About Abigail Claire at 21 months old:

- Her new thing to say is "oh wow" when she sees things she likes

- She is slowly but surely learning her shapes and colors. She loves to say "purple, yellow and pink". I can't get her to say "red" for anything! She can point to the shapes when I name them.

- She loves puzzles now. It took a while for her to understand them, but now she loves them.

- She is still obsessed with the sofa. I wish she would get over it, so we could move the nicer sofa in the living room!

- She repeats A LOT of words now. Too many for me to post on here. Basically, she will repeat almost anything you tell her to repeat.

- She loves her slide. Absolutely loves it.

- She loves to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider and do the motions. She also loves "The Wheels on the Bus" and especially loves the part, where the doors "open and shut".

- She recognizes pretty much all of her ABC's. There are like 5 letters she doesn't know.

- Outside is her very favorite place to be.

- She loves Mickey Mouse "mouse", Elmo "melmo" and Big Bird "big birr"

- She is crazy hyper and I love it!

- She is VERY independent and STUBBORN and IMPATIENT. Independence is from me, stubborn is from both of us, and impatience is from her father.

- She is growing like a weed. She is almost too big for most 24 month stuff. Her hair is getting lighter every single day. She is truly a blonde. Almost a white-blonde in the sun!

- She is perfect!

- Pictures from Mother's Day to come!