You watch their chicken-scratches turn into letters, into words, into sentences, into stories. You listen as they repeat words you read from books, memorize them, then clumsily sound them out themselves- going from a pained emphasis on each letter until the realization of what they are speaking takes on meaning and ta-he-e becomes “the” and ba-aaa-laa-laa becomes ball. You see the clothes that once piled up at their ankles and folded down over their fingertips travel up their legs, their arms until they are too snug and tight to force down their growing limbs. I am a witness to it all, but still, every year the results of picture day sort of shock me when I see all that mysterious, sneaky growth that took place right there in front of me.
*All photos taken by Lifetouch Photography except for the two lighter backdrops of Keaton which were taken by Elizabeth Westerhaus Photography.
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