by Dawn Dibartolo

Created on: June 18, 2008

Ok, let me just say this: emotional, attention-hungry beings that they are, girls require a lot of your time, creativity, patience, and mental stamina (in order to constantly out-smart them). Boys, in comparison, are a breeze! "Sugar and spice and everything nice" Yes, there's that, but there's also hormones and bras and periods and hair dye and perms andoh my, the list is endless!

Don't get me wrong, I love my daughter with all my heartshe was my first child. Her birth was the catalyst for my becoming me. I have always told her that she taught me how to love. Before her, I was alone and confused, lost in a world I felt cared nothing for me. At 19 years old, I was a child having a child. My daughter propelled me beyond "self" into a world outside my own pain; and I love her unconditionally. But Jesus help me, that girl is and always has been some work!

It all started when I was pregnant. I gained sixty-four pounds with my daughter. SIXTY-FOUR pounds of baby weight is not fun! And she was so tiny and wrinkly when she was bornI was amazed, and instantly in love.

When she was a newborn, she cried and cried non-stop, until I myself, having exhausted every method in the book on how to make her stop crying, was in tears. Once I became a crumbling, bumbling heap of tear-stained mess, she almost always, quieted down and fell asleep peacefully. When she was a toddler and she didn't get her way, she threw screaming fits for hours. Her little eyes would get all puffy, her nose turned a shade of Rudolph, and her breathing became that syncopated huffing catch in her chest. When she still didn't get her way, she napped.

As a young girl, she and her friends roamed the neighborhood, barking at each other like dogs, and giggling uncontrollablyat nothing. Granted, at the onset of her younger years, we did nails together, did hair and played dress up. I do miss those days. However, now she's a teenager. Sixteen, to be exact. God help me! My daughter has become this mass of hormonal energy that can smile and laugh with you as quick (and as often) as she can amass this ball or fiery rage and chuck it at you like a bomb. She is opinionated and strong-willed (just like her mother), and has the venomous tongue of a league of serpents. She is all-knowing, all-seeing, and omnipotent. She is Queen without a kingdomso she'll make everyone around her, her subjects. And she is the most beautiful being I have ever known, because she's my child and I love her.

I also have two boys. With them,

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