Ms. Sassy McHormone

Josie is going through some kind of growth thing, both physically and emotionally. She is so different than she was last school year! While the changes may have started over the summer, I didn't really notice them until now.

First of all, we have returned to Drama Kingdom. Previously, we visited this terrible place about five years ago, and were stuck there for two years. Its rides included Spiral Coaster of Tears, Dizzying Teacups of Anti-Reason, and Bumper Car Bitchiness. We have returned to these, plus added a few more; Screechy-Go-Round, Hormonacoaster, It's a Sassy World, and for the show we have the It's Not Fair Follies.

Also, there is the added level of worry for me in that she has completely done a reverse in her Friends policy. She doesn't want to have anyone over. I have asked her about this repeatedly, and from what I can gather, she does have friends at school. She finally said that she didn't know what they would do if she had someone over. ?!?! Um, what?! Then she said that she would rather just play with the kids in the neighborhood, both of whom are younger than she is, at least the two girls she regularly sees. I worried about this, too, because when I was young and being mercilessly picked on by Everyone, I played a lot with younger kids who idolized me instead. I have no reason to believe that she's being picked on, and she says that everyone at her school is nice, but after what I went through, I'm nervous. She's pudgy, too, and a lot like I was, but minus the 'I Have A Crappy Homelife' aura, which probably makes a big difference, I guess. Anyway, today I learned from my friend Megan, who is the mom of one of the girls she plays with in the neighborhood, that when Josie has gone over there, a few times she's just played on her own over there, too. I wasn't sure what to make of this, but it actually made me feel a little better, since maybe this means that she'd rather just be on her own - not at home bored, but not having to be with other kids, either. I don't know.

Megan said that she thinks Josie's just at the beginning of a difficult age where she's in between being little and big. Since I didn't really have any friends until middle school, I guess I might have missed out on this kind of thing. She seems content, and is happy to see the kids at church when we go to choir, etc. It just seems strange to me that this girl who constantly has pestered me her entire life to have friends over suddenly wants to be Alone.

I could write a note to her teacher, just asking if things seem normal there, but I don't want to come off as a control freak parent. I've volunteered to go along on a field trip that is scheduled for the 24th, but don't know yet if I can go (usually if a lot of parents volunteer, names get picked out of a hat, but since this is a new school, I'll have to see what happens). If I can, that would let me see what's going on firsthand (as in: here we have The Girl in her natural environment - observe!). I know that things change with age, and I do think she's growing and having hormone surges (or at least she'd BETTER be, based on her current sassiness and crying-over-nothingness, because if this is The New Normal ALREADY I may be coming to live with one of you at some point soon!), but I don't know if this is normal. Do any of you remember going through something similar, or remember seeing your kids do it? I'm kind of weirded out.