Dropped Kina off at 4 pm Friday, then dropped Runa back off after gelato at 4 pm the following day. It takes a village.

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You always need to ride the Sea Serpent twice and the Wonder Wheel once. Everything else is up for grabs.

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Okay so I wrote Saturday in the header but it’s Friday and clearly I’m not the best person to consult for advice on daily planning. I am, however, very good in matters of getting to the heart of disagreements, whence today’s headline. She did end up going to both Long Island City and Ferox—a win for all.

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I do worry that I am so good at performing Burlingame that neither Kina nor I effectively know whether he is part of me or not.

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I never went to the same school for more than a couple of years, and so it’s strange to watch how much the kids (and our esteemed publisher) follow the class assignment announcements. I thought she’d take today’s news harder, but the group chat has provided a good amount of catharsis, which saved me and Laurea from the brunt of her rage. Our little social creature is all grown up!

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I did not depict myself screaming in today’s illustrations from Spyscape, but if I am being honest, I got pretty intense in that stompy room.

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She then read six of the seven newly-withdrawn books in under three hours. Reading is a little spiky here.

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Big “ADIOS” energy in this edition.

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I realize only now that I am writing this that I forgot to draw Laurea simply LOSING HER MIND to the sounds of the cover band playing in the gazebo next to the beach—oblivious to the horde of big-ass crabs all around her.

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I cannot believe this is my child, denying herself the temptations of Maine in summertime. She has decided that she only likes gelato.

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Why waste time with a board when the “epic” waves of York, Maine are calling?

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It is shocking how quickly my child became that surfer.

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I believe that a willingness to walk directly into 60° waters—knowing that five minutes later you’ll be totally comfortable—is a major step towards a resilient adulthood. This is Maine thinking.

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It’s vacation when you make up a song to memorialize the random nothing that you are doing on the beach.

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For years we have been staying on a beach in Maine that is submerged up the road every day at high tide. This year we are staying on a normal beach in Maine and boy is it changing the game.

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Nothing worse than lobster hands.

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I’m not saying she’s some sort of climbing wunderkind, but I am in fact asking if we think it is a plausible coincidence that my amazing daughter’s team always wins the climbing olympics. SHOW ME THE DATA, JUDGES!

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Last night reminded us so much of the nights leading up to Kina first going to preschool, with all the attendant mystery and anxiety of independence. Some nights are tough that way, and I wish we could all get a little snuggle, so last night she did.

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Sometimes it’s just coconuts.

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I should probably find more time to write about this in the context of where the Daily Kina comes from, but my dad is at least partly responsible, having produced at least a few editions of the Churchill Downs Bugle—named after the street we lived on in Ohio for a few years, when I was about as old as Kina is now. Unlike the Daily Kina, the Bugle’s stories were written through (instead of greeked-out lines on a page), and it was produced on a manual typewriter, which is probably why his editions were fewer and farther between than mine. But the spirit and purpose of the two publications was the same: to memorialize the hilarious magic of small children. Among the many well-trodden beats of the Bugle was the crime desk, which often reported on the comings and goings of a “small burglar” who would sneak in while parents were distracted and steal snacks. Ken was a major source of that magic hilarity, whereas I, the sophisticated nine-year-old, was often depicted as the curious onlooker.

Publishers must always remain curious about where they come from, and the history of family papers runs deep here.

“Lux, Veritas, Noogie”