It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

Some of you may have heard me adopt this motto when referring to parenting a toddler. It is the most rewarding and most frustrating experience I have ever had. Sometimes these two extreme emotions can occur within a five minute span of each other. In my experience 18 months - 2 1/2 years is the toughest of them all. Many people have told me "just you wait". But I do not want to think that far in the future. Besides sometimes naivete is a real sanity saver.

Sidney is just entering this black hole and UGH. As Kendall would say "Here we go". One minute I think "wow what a perfect child". The next minute I am thinking "where did this holy terror come from"? We went through it with Kendall and survived. Now we are embarking upon this lovely period with little Sid. Today was one of those experiences. We decided to go to Applebee's for lunch. She wanted up, she wanted down, she wanted in, she wanted out, she wanted juice, she didn't want juice, she wanted chicken, she didn't want chicken. Get the picture. I was exhausted by the time the meal was over.

To Sidney's credit it was a bad move on our part to make the decision to go to lunch today. She is not feeling well at all. The girl has had pretty good luck in the sickness department. But yesterday she started getting sick. We drug her around shopping all morning and she was a champ. Yet we pushed our luck on lunch. Selfishly, we were squeezing in every last opportunity for fun as I am leaving town this afternoon.

I remember one distinct incident in Kendall's black hole stage when she decided that library story time was a great time to take all of her clothes off. Yikes! So here begins a year of unpredictable, crazy behavior. Just pray that I keep my sanity. To all my mom friend's who have little ones, I wish you the patience of a saint, the strength of a gladiator - and have no shame - because we have all had "those moments" when you want to crawl under the nearest clothing rack and hide!

Can you believe that this angelic little face could be anything but perfect? It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.