june is killer

• Jane, without your electronics, you're experiencing boredom for the first time in years.  It's a beautiful thing to witness.  This morning you pulled a pile of books off our shelves that you haven't read yet.  It's an interesting mix.  You used to love reading so much, but haven't read much in the last year or so.  It's great to see you interested in it again.  Auntie Kim and I put together a reading list for you as well.  It's time for you to move into the land of adult books and widen your world and experience all the beautiful/heartbreaking/amazing things others have lived through.  I can't wait to introduce you to some of my favorites
• Lila, you wanted to dress in all purple today, so all purple it was.  You even had a purple purse.  You felt like a million bucks
• After school we played in the garage for a while.  Jane and Lila, you were singing a song from Be More Chill and dancing away in my photo studio (lol).  Katie, you walked home and when George saw you, he ran to meet you, then you immediately turned into a "monster" and chased him up the hill.  He was shrieking and laughing.  I can't tell you how much joy and pleasure it brings me to see you guys interacting and having fun with each other
• Ian, I can tell it's June from the way you look when you come home at night.  You're tired.  Totally spent.  You have already wrapped up your small groups, but now you've moved into assessing and testing all of your ESL students...and you have over 60 of them, so it's quite a big job.  Only three more weeks, and then we're officially on holidays
• Lila, you never stop creating.  Today you were coloring strips of tape with markers and turning them into ribbons.  You were covered in blue marker, but happier than a bird with a french fry
• Jane, you bought a game called Exploding Kittens.  You taught dad how to play it tonight.  He seemed confused.  Hahaha.  I'm going to learn to play it, and then we're going to battle it out every night.  Game on
• Jane and Katie, I don't often take photos of you on your beds because it's really hard to photograph for some reason.  You love your beds.  They're cozy and pretty and I think, most of all, they're the one place in our little tiny home that belong to you and only you.  We share everything and are pretty close to each other, but your beds are off limits to the babies
• Jane, you were writing in a journal tonight.  I can't tell you how happy that made me.  As I told you tonight as I was tucking you in, you have a little piece of magic inside you.  I saw it the moment you were born.  You may not realize it, because it's just "you," but anyone who's spend any amount of time with you knows what I'm talking about.  There's something extraordinary inside you.  It needs to come out.  The world needs it.  The world needs you.  You were given this gift and I hope you find the means to express it and honor it