Hormones

I stare at my nine year old daughter.  Counting to myself, I only make it to three before the tears come streaming down her face.  She begins to hyperventilate from the tragedy of the situation.  It is a full minute before she is able to calm down enough to speak.  I roll my eyes; all this over two teaspoons of decongestant.  Medicine that she came and requested because she can't breathe when she lays down on her bed.  This is the third time that she has had a major meltdown today.  She is fighting a war with hormones, and they are winning.  I knew this day was coming, but I didn't know it would come so soon.  I must admit this is all new territory for me.  I was also plagued by adolescent hormones but the symptoms were manifest a little differently in me.  I was just plain ornery, none of this uncontrollable weeping just because her brother looked in her general direction, or breathed on her new dress.  Or there was the time that I walked in the room to find her a complete wreck, simply because she didn't want to be left in the TV room alone.  I am not making this stuff up.  It might not be so bad except I am very possibly the least sympathetic person alive.  I have probably cried fewer times in my life than my daughter has in the past week.  All I can do is pray that her little body doesn't give out to dehydration before she becomes a teenager and the real fun begins.