I’m sorry, but it’s just so strange to watch a person become a person. Even at dinner.

dad

This is what we are allowed to know about Kina today. We should be grateful.

dad

Kina just… decided to take down these slips of paper we put up when she was seven that helped her navigate her mornings and evenings without my having to tell her what to do constantly (which would in any case usually lead to tears). She’s old enough now to handle everything on her own, but I do wish we left up the one that says “Kina and Daddy sing a funny song”. I’ll miss that one.

dad

Her lemon bars were really tasty, but she also likes to dance. This is the way of things.

dad

I couldn’t decide whether to lead with the pétanque hustler or “this food tastes like after you cough”, but when I said them both out loud, it was clear what out news angle was for the day. You’re welcome.

dad

To be fair, it is strange that they out a rough-hewn cube of stone right in the middle of the Industry City play area, and directly at Kina shin height.

dad

I am going to win this argument on a technicality.

dad

SO YEAH

dad

The spirit of the musubi was delicious.

dad

If all we have to protect us from explosive diarrhea in this new regime is Taco Bell, does that mean that children will look to Taco Bell for more substantive forms of leadership?

dad

I took a big swing on capturing this face today. I confess I am better at faces when they are circles, but I had to convey the side eye with real accuracy to remember it twenty years from now.

dad

I feel like this chapter of the Daily Kina is really about her growing sense of independence and a need to try her tween identity on for size. She negotiated hard for the boundaries that Laurea gave her for her “walk n’ talk” with her friend Raf—from the top of the park to between the softball fields. In all of that space, they could be as grown as they wanted to be, along with all the other twenty-three-year-old children enjoying the sun and learning about each other. And when they wanted to go home, we would be right back where they started, holding their bags, looking out over the grass, and watching them on their journey.

dad

Kina does not necessarily recommend the boring video thing at the Shed by Doug Aitken; my take is that it’s weirdly regressive and also Amazon-washing? The credits thank Lauren Sanchez! What is art?!

dad

It’s not that we have never slept a night without Kina in the next room, or that she can’t sleep over at her grandparents’ places, or that she can’t have a sleepover. It’s that this is the first sleepover at a friend’s house when she’s slept through the night. A small sample size of two, but a great sample last night. We have not eaten alone at our dinner table since Kina was born, I think. Wild.

dad

I mean, I don’t want to overstate the number of blueberries Kina and Sloane came home with. It is possible a few were consumed in the field.

dad

Come for the pupusa-making instructions, stay for the image of Kina’s entire body weight about to land on my thumb.

3.2 stars.

dad

My, how the tables have turned. We knew this day would come.

dad

Eka and Kina have graduated to their “friends seven years apart in age walking around Williamsburg alone and shopping” phase, which seems a far cry from their “friends seven years apart eating lunch with their parents” phase.

dad

This was a particularly powerful trip to the Bay Area for us—an emotional pivot point. As we moved through the week, we acquired memories and feelings that will take some effort to hold onto as we dive back into the city and our work, but there’s lots of coziness ahead for us, no matter where we are. It’s just that we are all here, and I love that.

dad

Laurea had me buy this book when I was in London, and it’s been her vacation reading, or was, until Kina decided she would perform it as a serial during bath time. Still trying to get Kina to take up the other family business, but seems it’ll have to wait a few years.

dad