The girls recently gained access to a set of bunk beds and shockingly chose to spend time on the bunks over spending time reciting the words to a t.v. show they have watched thirteen thousand times.

Actual bunking has not been a priority for the girls, rather fort building has become an all consuming, summer adventure.

“Mom, can we sleep in the fort tonight?”

Saying no would probably make me the worst mother of the year (second year running) given their fort is in fact a bed disguised as a fort.

The girls are bonding, they’re learning to compromise, how to creatively build something as a team, how to share a small space, how to identify a problem (sheet that just won’t hold) and how to fix the problem (tear said sheet and stomp on it violently).

Our eight year old is a perfectionist tucking each blanket around posts trying to maximize curtain potential. She’s learning the sheets and clamps will simply fall as they may.

I heard a call in the middle of the first night of the girls sleeping in Fort-bed at 3:44am, but the yelping did not involve the sounds of heaving or the word vomit so rather than pounding down the hall in a full sprint, I opted instead for a middle-of-the-night, light jog.

Ellie was complaining that her sister had stolen all of the covers and stolen she had.

Hanna the caterpillar was wrapped generously in a cocoon of blankets with a sleepy grin on her face while Ellie lay in frozen inch-worm pose shoved up against the wall shivering under her fort-gown.

I whispered to Hanna that I was going to unwind this intricate series of covers so as to share some with her sister. She paused, now 3:45am and said, I might have all the covers but Ellie was SCREAMING LIKE A WILD LASAGNA!!!!!”

She really can be a wet noodle when she’s cold.