My Soon-to-Be 2-Year Old - Terrible or Tender?

I resist saying that kids within the age of 2 are terrible. However, there is some evidence to them being terrible, not at exactly at 2 but a 2 and a half.

In a book that I read, it says that "life can be so smooth and delightful with the 2-year old that is may be quite a jolt when he turns 2 and a half and all too often, it becomes tense, explosive and rigid. Two, in many boys and girls, is an age of rather straightfoward, sure, uncomplicated functioning. Two-and-a-half can be a time of difficulty in amny ways, and especially difficult when violent, demanding, explosive emotions take over, as they so often do." -- do some of you mothers with 2 1/2 year old kids agree with this?

If yes, then that statement makes me a feel a little more at ease for at least, the "terrible" things (read: tantrums, demands for sameness, etc.) won't happen until Zoe is 2 and a half. But of course, every single child is DIFFERENT and it may not happen at all. Whew! :-)