Somewhere between Toddler and Teen

Jessica. My sweet little girl. I love her so much. She has the sweetest disposition. Even when she is trying to get away with something, it is not mean, malicious or anything like that. She is just very active. She went to my dad's house with him on Friday, after he spent the day with us. Well, I was going to pick her up on Saturday, but they went to Dad's brothers house and they were just leaving to pick up their four granddaughters and bring them back. So, she wanted to stay to go to the "Beach Party" they were going to have on Sunday afternoon. Joe is the overseer at a church camp up in the mtns. about a mile from Dad's house. So, they have a HUGE pool, a kitchen with ALL KINDS of cookies, snacks, treats, etc. and chocolate milk, juice, punch, you name it. And they give this stuff to the kids freely. Jess loves going up there. So, she stayed Saturday night as well and called me in the evening to tell me how much she missed me. I told her I would see her probably on Sunday night. She didn't do too well at church on Sunday morning. Dad can't hear her very well, so when she would try to whisper something to him in church, he couldn't hear her. She ended up getting frustrated, crying, and they left church early. Bummer. Well, then they did the beach party thing. That went well. She didn't want to get out of the pool. She is learning how to swim, go under water holding her breath, opening her eyes under water, etc. Two hours in the pool, 70 degrees. She didn't want to get out. After a long tiring day, she was exhausted. We were going to pick her up, but there was a fire in the mountains around Gorman and Lebec. The fwy was closed for a while. So, we decided to pick her up on Monday morning. She called us about 7:30pm bawling her eyes out. She would not take "Morning" for an answer. So, we piled into the car and drove up there, not knowing if we could get through or not. It was okay. The road was open. We could see the flames from the fwy. They were very close in some spots. Well, we got there, picked her up and got back home around 10pm. She was SO happy to see us. I guess two days away from Mom is too much. She is, after all, only five years old!

So here I am thinking my baby is still a baby. She still needs her mommy.

Yesterday, I was on the phone with my friend, Lana. Her daughter Melanie asks to talk to Jess when we are done on the phone. Comes back ten minutes later, "Are you done yet?" So we give the phones to the girls and they talk. And talk. And talk. For like 20 minutes! Jess is walking around the house talking on the cordless phone! When Lana tells Melanie it is time to have lunch, she gives Jessica her phone number so she can call her back! She's five! Melanie is six. I am so not ready for this. I figured I had several years left before I had to share my telephone!

So, I am not sure exactly how old my daughter is. Yeah, I know she is five. I guess that is somewhere between toddler and teen. What am I in for?????