The Hormone Meltdown

Zero though six were a breeze. Your son and daughter both made it through the terrible twos without the terrible. Through grade school, there were ups and downs, especially fifth grade when they began to develop free thinking. Then the freshman year in high school hit. Your son went through it first. He became lippy and independent; you could have done without some of both but all in all he came out OK. At age 22 he graduated cum laude from college.

One day you were having coffee and a scone with your 14 year-old daughter. It was the usual chit chat and warmth you shared with her regularly. And then it happened - POW! Estrogen hit her brain. You actually got to watch it happen right there in front of everyone as she exploded. It was like seeing your computer go through a meltdown. You searched the hard drive (her conscience) to make sure the data was still there. Download drivers: check. Anti-virus software: check. And so you spent weeks looking at her from a distance, wondering if you could reformat her.

A year later, she is playing in two orchestras and has changed from being a democrat to a socialist. She has ten friends who are also going through melt down and yet she is finding time to get a 3.87 in school. When it is that time of the month, you leave the house for a week.

You wake up one morning with a grin on your face realizing her internal software is fine. She is still the girl you raised. Everything about her is the same. It’s just magnified. Your little girl is becoming a woman. She will survive. You’re just not sure if you will.

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My Girls are Growing Up Fast

Ruth is growing up so fast now and I noticed that she’s gaining weight too. Her cheeks are so full now and sometimes I can’t help pinching it because I find so cute. She’s turning 13 next week on the 18th and officially she’ll be a teenager. I don’t know who’s more excited the daughter or the Mom? Well I just can’t help observing how she’s growing up looking so much like her Dad’s Mom and sibling. If you’ll have them on one line you’ll agree that they looked like the same. Anyway I also noticed that she’s getting out of her small size and I’m planning to ask her to shop clothes for her and buy some urban clothing for her use in going to mall, to school and some other occasions.

She has a good number of clothes already but I still think she’ll have more now so she could rid of her smaller clothes. My other daughter won’t have all her used clothes as she’s also gaining height so fast. She’ll be 12 in a few months and in few years time I’ll have two young ladies to take care of. I would surely miss their girlish carefree ways and acts. I’m lucky that I still have a kid who is so much younger than the girls whom I can enjoy a child’s charming ways and antics.

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