I need a vacation.

We're in Chicago visiting my sister.

The only thing more hellish than trying to corral your 15-month-old to your sister's non-childproof apartment full of small trinkets and breakable items, is trying to push him in a stroller through the narrow passages in a Crate and Barrel or a Pottery Barn without his arms reaching out and knocking something over.

It's been quite a day.

I would say that this stage of parenting, thus far, is the hardest. Yep. Even in the first few weeks when I was working full-time and bringing a newborn with me. Harder than that.

I fought back tears today thinking about how I will never make it through the terrible twos if I'm having this much trouble now. And the kicker is that Jack is a pretty good natured kid. I realize that I actually have it pretty easy. What would I do if I had a more challenging kid? A few weeks ago I made a comment about how incredibly easy he is. I feel like I'm eating those words. I know that he's testing his boundaries. And in some ways we've setting him up for failure, because there are different expectations depending on where he is (i.e. home, camp, grandparents' houses, etc.) and we need to do something to help him out there. He's such a stinker sometimes.

Today's woes, however, were compounded even more by our collective lack of sleep last night . . . we didn't get into Chicago until after midnight. Jack didn't sleep well in the car, and there's nothing like getting dropped off on a busy, downtown Chicago street and taking an elevator up 5 floors to wake your toddler up enough that he doesn't want to go back to sleep.

I think the single most frustrating part of this stage we're going through with Jack is diaper changing. I've always said that I wanted to put potty training off as long as possible. My rationale for this is that it's a lot easier to change a diaper at our earliest convenience than it is to find a bathroom NOW! But I've changed my mind on that. You see, 15-month-old toddlers who have been laid down to have their diaper changed develop a super-human strength that often requires at least two people to overcome. No matter how stern we are with him, he thinks it's a game. Ugh.

My sister was able to check a pass to the aquarium out from the library so we're going to head there tomorrow . . . hopefully he'll really enjoy that. Especially since one of the words he knows is "fish."

On a different note, I was looking forward to seeing Annie while I was here this weekend, but she went ahead and had her baby a little early . . . congratulations to Steve, Annie & Alex and welcome baby Elijah! Hopefully we'll get together when we're in town next!