Jenna

My daughter is a very big personality inside a little bitty body. I sometimes look at her and wonder how lucky I got, and sometimes I wonder what God saw in me that made him think I could handle her! I am challenged by this child daily. She has such a wild spirit, and is so unlike me that I sometimes do not know what to do. She just turned 5 years old and is ready to take on the world. She does not like anyone to help her do anything. She is fiercely independent but still wants me close by. She has emotions that run wild. Sometimes she will react in a way that is so unexpected that I am clueless. There are times that I can barely hold it together but I truly love this wild child more than I can imagine. I am a very introverted, shy and reserved person. As I child I rarely spoke unless spoken to. I was not very physical and I definately did not do anything risky. Jenna will do anything. She would do anything by herself. She gets downright mad when she is too short to ride on a carnival ride. She loves everything fast and scary. Loves rollercoasters, go carts, you name it she will try it. One thing she also loves is water. She has no fear of water whatsoever. She has had swimming lessons a number of times but still cannot really float or swim at all. She, however, has no problem jumping into water over her head and hoping someone will rescue her. This scares me to death. I fear that she will do this when someone is not around. We have told her countless times that she must be with an adult at all times. She must never just jump in a pool, even if we are there, unless she tells us she is jumping in. I don't know what to do about this problem. If we are in the boat, she has a life jacket on and has never jumped in alone. In pools she jumps in all over but we are always in the water. It only takes one time for her to choose to do something she shouldn't and with her personality it makes me scared that she could do this. We have also worked on her with her swimming and floating but she is far from knowing how to swim at all. I just pray we will always keep her safe from herself because she is my little firecracker. I have heard of 2 child drowings lately and so it makes me think about my little girl and how I don't know what I would do without her. Keep your babies close to you and hold them tight!