When Puberty Attacks!

My daughter is stuck... stuck somewhere between being a little girl and being a young woman. She has the men in this house completely confused let me tell you. Her poor brother does not know when it is safe to talk to her-some moments he may get his usual happy-go-lucky sister, and in the next breath he may get the girl from the Exorcist movie spinning her head completely around and vomiting on him. Her dad does not know when it is safe to go into her room anymore and has decided that it is best if he just waits her out.

I on the other hand, know exactly what she is going through and I have decided to wage this battle head on. I probably get most of the attitude thrown at me, and now I know what my mom felt like when I did it to her. The eye rolling, the arms crossed, the heavy sighs... those of you with tween daughters know exactly what I am talking about.

My daughter would rather have her fingernails pulled out by an ancient tribe than do any of the activities that I think of for our family. This week is the Cherry Blossom festival in DC. The trees are peaking TODAY! I asked her if she wanted to go downtown and stroll along the Basin and take in the beauty of it. Her reply (which is her reply to everything these days) "Do I have to? Can I just stay home? It sounds really boring. You mean, we just walk around and look at flowers? Please tell me that you have not made a definite decision that we are going. PLEASE!"

I will admit that I depend on her a lot. She helps out constantly in the house and rarely complains when her little sister tags along behind her outside. Some days I look at her and my heart is torn between allowing her the space to fly and holding on to her so that she does not get hurt by the evils in this world.

Heck... I am still in that attitude phase. Do women every grow out of it? The moods that creep up on you like a mugger and just morph you into a crazy person at the drop of a dime? I experienced this last night... I had a full day of Dr. visits and house cleaning and a three-year-old that decided that she did not want to wear shoes at all-or underpants. My son gives me the "I KNOW" response to everything I say and my oldest was already in her "OH no you didn't" head twirling mood when I blew a gasket. I was alone-except for the dog, who seems to always get the brunt of my bad moods (and she still loves me-amazing) My husband came home from work with the sniffles and retreated to bed at 6:45. That was the last straw I am sure. So I finished the dishes and instructed all children to stay as far away from me and they would a nuclear test site and settled down to watch the Bachelor. (Which I will post on tomorrow because I have far too many opinions on THAT to go into right now).

So today I am going to become my daughters worst nightmare and take them to see the Cherry Blossoms. I am going to take my camera and make her pose 756 times with her brother and sister and I may just make her hold my hand from time to time. Oh the HORROR! I am going to waddle my pregnant self all over rubbing my belly and moaning from time to time just to embarrass her (because there is nothing more embarrassing for her right now than my bursting belly) and I am even going to pack a lunch and bring a blanket so she has to sit and have a picnic with us. I am not sure which daughter I will get... the one who calls me "Mommy" still, or the one who calls me "@#$%@$" behind my back. I have my money on the one who calls me "Mommy" but with a slight eye roll.