There is a Buddhist saying, "You never step in the same river twice," which essentially means that all situations are fluid and that it is a mistake to approach life and people with a lot of preconcieved notions and expectations.

And boy is that ever true when you are dealing with a two and half year old.

Elizabeth officially entered what one might call "the terrible two's" when she was about 2.2 years old. And she seems to be picking up steam as she moves along. A lot of her "bordering on tyrannical" behavior seemed to coincide with potty training and of course out-growing the crib.

I went through the first year with Elizabeth under the grand illusion that she was just a mild mannered, sweet as pie and absolutely agreeable child. Well, she was that way for the most part--and then came the much talked about "terrible twos". I truly believed the terrible twos happened to other people and that my perfect (cough cough) mothering would subvert any such tendencies. Guess again, MaryBeth.

Yes, for the most part she is still the sweet faced lovely child that we have all come to know and love...but, she can also be whining, demanding, mischevious and stubborn. And, it is anyone's guess how Miss Elizabeth might decide to feel on a particular morning. Today she was her lovely self. Yesterday she put Sybil to shame.

A lot of this erratic behavior I do blame on sleep deprivation. She still has not caught up on her sleep that was lost those two weeks she "never slept". I have a feeling that she will go through life never maknig up for those weeks and I will probably blame any future bad behavior on those weeks. And, she is still a problem sleeper--we haven't yet done the intense sleep training that the doctor promised would yield results-but we are close to being desperate enough.

She is quite a character sometimes and she is definitely developing her little (or not so little) personality. We call her The Supreme Leader, if that gives you any idea.

But ultimately she is a darling kid and we thank our lucky stars every day that she came into our lives.

Here are a few random photos that were taken over the last month. I hope to have things stabilize soon and I can post more info and pictures. Have I said that before?









Here she is lounging at the pool at The pelican Hill Resort with Dada.







Here she is making one of her "goofball" faces. I am not sure where she picked this one up, but I do try to discourage it--which of course causes her to do it more.


Elizabeth tried on my white jacket one day and I decided she looked pretty darn good in it. Marty didn't realize it was mine and said, "don't you think that is a little big on her?" Hey, at least he noticed.


Elizabeth always has fun with Sandra and looks for her on the days she is not here. As you can see in this photo, Elizabeth has graduated to big girl underwear.





And here she is trying to head into the dog grooming shop. She loves watching all the dogs getting groomed. She insists we head in there whenever we are in that particular shopping center. She is also a dog lover--maybe too much so. She will run up to any and all dogs and immediately start hugging them. So far we have been lucky, but we need to teach her a little more of healthy fear before she runs into a nasty pit bull.