Abby Off the Record — The scoop on life, writing & raising kids

The Faces of Down Syndrome

March 21, 2012

World Down Syndrome Day is celebrated on the 21st day of the third month of the year to symbolize a third copy of the 21st chromosome in Down syndrome. When you know someone, it makes it real. Before our neighbors moved in down the street with a little boy the same age as my youngest, […]

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My Apologies

March 19, 2012

In response to my last post, reader Sarah shared a link to this piece: “Apologies to the Parents I Judged Four Years Ago.” I think it’s right on the money. It also reminded me of a more tongue-in-cheek (but truthful) riff on the same idea that I wrote a couple years ago: My Apologies I […]

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The Angry Mom

March 16, 2012

I heard her voice before I saw her face. “Michaela! Get over here!” Again: “Michaela! NOW!” It was just after 10 a.m. on an icy winter morning. TJ Maxx had just opened, and there were only a handful of shoppers there. I had braved the slick, slushy roads to drive to an outlet mall 40 […]

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Top 4 Car Features Moms Care About

March 14, 2012

I am not a car person. I like cars. I drive one. But if you start rambling on about V-6 engines and throttles and transmissions, I will tune you out. I can’t even tell you the make and model of my husband’s car. I just know our kids call it the “spy car,” because it’s […]

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Nature Girl, Part 2

March 12, 2012

Saturday mornings are for lounging around in your PJs sipping coffee while the kids watch cartoons, right? That’s what I thought, until on a visit to my in-laws’, my SIL showed me differently. By 9am last Saturday – on a 25-degree day in Massachusetts – I found myself swathed in fleece, wool, and down, hiking […]

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Flashback Friday: The 5 Stages of a Family Roadtrip

March 9, 2012

This weekend we are headed north to celebrate my MIL’s 70th birthday. That’s about the only thing that could get me to agree to drive 14+ hours round-trip with 2 small children in 3 days. That, and the fact that the lovely folks at Koons Automotive have loaned us a brand-new Volvo XC90 for the […]

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Your Life Story in 6 Words

March 7, 2012

Oprah’s featured them in her magazine, Honest Tea is printing them on their bottle caps; the 6-word memoir is all the rage. Inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s 6-word short story (“For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.”), people are condensing their life stories into a few well-chosen words. I’ll tell you this: it’s harder than it looks. […]

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The Lorax, Thneeds, and Popcorn

March 5, 2012

“I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.” Dr. Seuss holds a special place in my heart. First, as a writer: not only was Theodor Seuss Geisel the editor of Dartmouth College’s humor magazine in 1925 (a title which, incidentally, he was stripped of when he was caught drinking gin in his room; this […]

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The Smart One, the Funny One: Why Do We Label Our Kids?

March 2, 2012

Were you given a label growing up? In your family were you the smart one, the funny one, the cute one? My parents were pretty careful about not doing this, whether intentionally or not, so the only thing I can remember being labeled as a child was “sensitive.” And it was true—from my stomach to […]

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Cake Crazy

February 29, 2012

When I was a kid, my mom was pretty creative when it came to birthdays. She made me a Smurf cake one year covered in blue coconut, and an Eiffel Tower cake one time, and I can vaguely remember a green T-rex cake for my brother’s birthday, complete with a red-licorice mouth. So I guess […]