Let it be known that we are the house that lets you throw confetti at the end of the sleepover.

dad

They really thought midnights would come and there would be so much mischief, but at the end of the night it was just pizza and exhaustion—but fun exhaustion. More sleepover news in the Sunday edition.

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Kina just observes the goofball-scold spectrum, but considers herself above all this.

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I don’t know what “mischievous” means here, and I suspect Kina doesn’t either.

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If they are soft, they are pajamas.

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“Ways of life” in the sense of “existential phenomenology”, I think? Kina is fine with your ways of life.

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I mean, it literally gave me nightmares.

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My blood child wants you to know that she painted all the clothes in this piece herself—and she did quite a good job, if I do say so. I’m particularly fond of my tie-dye t-shirt at top right, which she achieved through my sophisticated “accidentally paint too much and blot off” technique. Like father, like daughter.

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How can this child get any longer??

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I just want you all to admire my yellow shirt and red rose pin that caught the eye of a fellow school parent all the way in the East Village on the night of our first handshake while Laurea and I were on a date.

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As a lifelong reader, this sudden transition makes me particularly proud, even if it sometimes delays her bath.

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Nurses have some pretty gnarly techniques these days. Respect.

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THREE EQUAL GROUPS OF FIVE IS DIVISION.

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It took eight years, but we are finally waking up earlier than Kina.

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We are all so proud.

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Kina has been to many mountains more amazing than your own.

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There is apparently a rich tradition among third graders of saying you’re going to the bathroom and sneaking down to see Mr. Ortiz instead.

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It’s a pretty shocking thing, I imagine, returning from two weeks in the Philippines with your mother and dropping directly into the third day of school. Kina was fine on Monday, but I think she woke up on Tuesday realizing that she was going to be spending a lot less time with Mommy. This all led to a bit of a morning breakdown; we told her that I’d be taking her to school, and things got clingy. I eventually got her out the door, but she needed a little cry to come to terms with the many realities of September.

I was glad to be there for her, even if I’m not Mommy. I have my own signature moves, and they come in handy.

dad

Okay, now that we’re mostly back on track…

This is the fourth first-day-of-school post in the history of the Daily Kina—technically the third day of school for New York City, but her first, since she was at the time tossing out flowers at a wedding halfway around the world. Kina came back from the Philippines about 7% more responsible than the day she left, and you could see that responsibility and independence with brilliant clarity as we took her to school yesterday. She waltzed into the gate without much of a fuss, barely looking back at us as she marched towards another year of education. The fact that this morning was more of an event for us than for her feels like a turning point for this publication.

I’m not ready to consider what that turning means.

Oh no! I am so far behind! Gonna give you a huge anthology post to catch up. tl;dr: When the post begins, it’s over a week ago, and Kina and her mother have returned to Manila from the islands. By the end, she’s a third-grader.

Sep 2: Publisher Thanks Mommy for Planning Trip, Declares It “Best Two Weeks of My Life”

At this point, Kina’s barely halfway and already it’s the best two weeks of her life.