Kina is getting really sensitive about her parents growing older, and since I am generally regarded as The Eldest In The Family, she’s extra touchy about my age and gray (not white) hair. It has been sort of interesting to note how much more she is worried about my getting old than I am worried about my getting old, because I think I have much more to lose in the bargain here. Still, it’s touching to think about what I mean to her and why the idea of my not being here someday makes her nervous. I remember feeling that way about my own father when I was younger—maybe a little bit older than Kina—and wanting to make sure he was wearing his seatbelt and driving carefully. I still worry about him and my mom in the ways that Kina worries about me and Laurea, but I have a lot more life with them than Kina has with me. I can’t do a whole lot to assuage her concerns about mortality, but I have at least promised her that I will drive carefully.

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Grandma and Yeh-yeh are moving to New York, by the way. Maybe next time they can go on the bumper cars at Coney Island.

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Kina eventually purloined her mother and took her back to her own bed, citing excess snoring.

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I love that the primary takeaway here was “That’s why you should never do outdoor dining in the wilderness.”

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Nascent Goth questions brand collab with Catholicism.

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Nothing is still something, and something is full of dots and lines and curves in the blackness, if you look closely enough.

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We have since played countless games of 20 Questions, but always with Kina as the bearer of secret materials.

It’s always a mineral.

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I also sometimes wonder this, and I have reached the conclusion that if life is a dream, it’s still life.

Also: Though this issue is dated the first of June, is it currently my birthday. In roughly four and a half days, if everything goes as planned, you will see the actual birthday edition. Someday, later, I will finally catch up to the present day.

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It took her the better part of a school year, but Ms. Rockfeld eventually caught on. Kina still sees Mr. Ortiz at pick-up, so it’s all a wash in the end.

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Why make the last thing you do in a day a bath?

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I assume that every parent of a child older than six is hearing this little ditty.

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Kina is obsessed with fairness, but she doesn’t always see the big picture. I showed her how it was unfair that I couldn’t eat without a spoon, and it really sent her on a journey of the soul. We ended up okay, though. She’s big. It’s a thing.

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We were so high up in the rafters, I’m not even sure how they knew which team had the ball. Didn’t stop them from cheering, though.

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Nobody taught this kid to row boats. It is the strongest proof I have found for reincarnation—our little boatman.

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I have taught this child well.

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We have been awaiting this transition in her public friend time for many years. She is that tween.

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Memorial Day weekend came in hot.

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The critics are raving about Kina’s beautiful waterfall landscape on the front wall of the elementary school gym. Front and center.

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This primarily means that she gets to decide who snuggles who and when the snuggling happens.

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I went with Beans, Beans, Beans.

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In the traditional way: Come for the completely premature anticipation of Halloween, stay for the “Turnstiles are my favorite kind of door”

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We are only at May 19th?! She was still in her tour guide phase!

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I am not so learned in the dancing arts, but I was honestly taken aback at how graceful our own child was on stage. She did not get it from me.

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I am honestly shocked this was a field trip in 2025. The chaperones on this one really took their lives into their own hands.

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She just wants me to get to the point.

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Kina approves of Mommy’s recent interest in colorful rings.

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Kina brought this idea home from school, where a new classmate’s name is drawn daily from one of several enveloped tacked to the wall. Presumably, by the end of the school year, every student will have been the Celebrity of the Day. In our house, the rotation is much faster, and we have run out of new games to play.

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I’ve known some coworkers longer than Kina has been alive, and so it comes as no surprise that nostalgia is a new feeling for her. I feel nostalgic, too, for the smaller version of Kina. We can share that now.

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I let her wear it.

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A little throwback to Mother’s Day here as we catch up. The weather was better then.

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If I remember this night correctly, it turns out she also had a cold.

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Mommy was really rooting for the Filipino one.

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Okay, I’m way behind. Let’s get back to the personal experiences.

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And then you have to pack a backpack and say you’re doing something else. I swear it makes sense when she teaches it.

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Laurea is doing an amazing job at helping this little girl understand what it means to be in her body—and how to come prepared.

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I’m still going to worry, just more quietly.

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I am a white cheddar guy, but I also don’t believe the yellow tastes different. Fight me.

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Accept no substitute.

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Who puts a Chuckie doll in their window?

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It doesn’t get easier, you just get stronger. At math.

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p.s. I find myself playing catch-up again. Thank you for reading about last week.

I’m just not a stay-out-late guy. I’m sorry.

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I keep telling her this is a good problem to have.

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I only just now realized that the headline should have read “ON Long Island”. Big Bozo.

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Reader, the children were so proud to have collected the trash that they forgot to figure out what to do with the recently-emptied cooler full of cans afterwards.

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Eight is turning out to be an emotional year for the big girl.

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I really had to hustle to introduce her to A.G. Publishers gotta hang out.

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The headphones come in handy for independent smoothie production.

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I mean, it was a nice vacation. We should be able to enjoy the afterglow.

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I wish I could actually show you the absurdly confusing shirt Kina was talking about. It really is great.

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