Pre-teen turmoil

My daughter is eleven. She is beautiful, sweet, well-behaved, and smart. Very smart. She is in gifted classes at school - she is a math whiz, she plays piano, she plays softball, she practically has a photographic memory. Actually, she really blows me away with how awesome she is. Of course I realize I'm a little prejudiced about the topic, but still. Friends who have older daughters have told me, "just wait till she hits those teenage years, she will change, you just wait..." I didn't believe them. Not my sweet, loving girl. She wouldn't succomb to those back-talking, know-it-all teenage ways. I think I may be about to eat my words. Lately she has been an emotional wreck. She gets so irritated with me. I embarrass her with the music I listen to if her friends are in the car with us. I find her rolling her eyes or sticking her tongue out at me. She cries at the drop of a hat. The other night at dinner, I felt so bad for her. She's a very picky eater, if we're having something she doesn't like, she will pick at her food, taking tiny bites and inspecting each and every morsel. Hubby started imitating her, by putting little bites of food on his fork and making faces at her. She immediately burst into tears. Then her little brothers started laughing at her. Which made her cry more. I'm sure her hormones are a factor and I know it's a hard age for a girl. Especially a girl who has three brothers. We were at her piano lesson last week. She had a few minutes before her lesson started, so she was practicing her recital song on one of the extra pianos. (She's playing 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies' at her recital this year, and it's a tough song to learn). I happened to look over at her and she's fighting back tears because she is frustrated with the difficulty of the song. I pray for strength to help her through these upcoming years. I pray that she stays interested in school and academics and music. I pray that we stay close and have the kind of relationship where we can talk about anything. I pray that I can overlook the eye-rolling and remember what it's like to be that age. I know everything will be fine. She really is a great girl!



(Here's a picture of us from this weekend. We spent the day with a friend and her mother shopping and having lunch at The Cheesecake Factory)