Hello!

To all my nonfollowers, I am back from la-la land. How long my visit will be, I'm not sure, but I thought I'd give this blogging thing a whirl again. I have missed writing, but just have not had the time.

I thought I might delve into the whole "pursuit of happiness" thing again, seeing that it is the name of my blog. I've been a little off-track lately, OK, more than lately, more like for months. You see, my sweet, lovable little girl has been going through the terrible two's. Not all that suprising, since, she is two and so far has managed to indulge in every "stage" imaginable in the infant to toddler age range. Apparently she wants to experience it all. I can say that it should be totally expected seeing that she is in daycare with children of exactly the same age range and no matter what the age, people seem to want to be with the "in" crowd. At two, the in-crowd appears to consist of overly defiant, headstrong little imps with the ability to now talk-back and verbalize their complete dissatisfaction with the way things should be done. At first it was just "NO", but now my extremely intelligent child has expanded to "I don't want to..", "you go away" and "Mommy, you go in time out.." This stage also seems to consist of running in the opposite direction at break-neck speed, kicking, biting and slapping. Thankfully, she is getting towards the end of this stage and appears to be able to save her bad behavior for home and is an angel at daycare. So apparently my child wants to be in with the wildabeasts but is only brave enough to show her wild behavior in the safety of her own home and occasionally in a restuarant or two.

I've been conflicted on how to deal with this behavior. Waivering back and forth between firm discipline to happy distraction. I've never been a monkeying-around kind of person, and for the most part, am about as uptight as they come. I want my child to be happy, as my quest for happiness is not just for my benefit, but for hers as well. Unfortunately, I've been in constant conflict with my natural tendencies and what I know is probably best for my child. Strict discipline maybe my natural tendency, but it is not what is right for my child and as I've quickly learned, doesn't work at all in getting the desired results, a well-behaved, happy little girl.

Overall, I guess you could say that I am getting through it and just like with every other phase my child has gone through, I've learned a lot about myself in the process. I've learned that every challenge is also an opportunity to do better and be better. Growing up is not a process that stops at the age of 18. Growing up appears to be something that we all need to be open to at any age. It is only through maturity that I am able to understand this. What I've also learned is that growing up and maturity don't have to equal straight-laced, uptight, all about being responsible type behavior. Sometimes it means, putting on a silly face and making funny sounds while jumping on one foot. It tends to appeal to my two year old, get the desired results of better behavior and makes us both laugh....here's to the pursuit of happiness