Child who has visited Manila twice accurately clocks the national vibe
It says a lot about the Philippines that our 8-year-old daughter understands how polarizing a place it can be. The fact that she chose “magnificent” as a verb, though, tells you where she stands.
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p.s. A reminder that I am slowly working through a backlog here, so it is by design that you are getting this edition nine days late. We’ll get there. Patience.
Sure, it’s $10 for 12 minutes, but the defensive driving skills are worth it
Every time we go to Target, we end up stopping by this weird permanent light-up kid motorcycle test-drive track that anchors the end of the 6th floor of the Skyview Mall in Flushing. The same young goth is always working and is so incredibly over it. Kina, however, is overjoyed, every time.
Publisher has no love for sports, but she loves an excuse to break dress code
And just like that, we’re back to Kina dressing however she wants. In this case, though, it’s because every other kid in the school was wearing sports jerseys, and Kina doesn’t know enough about any sport to have a point of view about fandom. So, a nice black top.
Nonconformist concedes after several notes from administration
I cannot recall the last time she complied fully with the school dress code.
(Programming note: I’m gonna send two a day until we catch up. Think of it as a march through history. I’m actually contemplating ditching my Instagram entirely, which would make this the canonical Daily Kina, so I would not expect these long gaps to recur. Thank you, as always, for your subscription.)
They enjoy Chinese New Year festivities and marvel at tasty food
Hannah has lived in New York for a very long time, which made her first visit to Manhattan Chinatown with Kina on the Lunar New Year all the more special.
Sorry for the long delay. Kina infected our entire house with the worst flu of our entire lives. I’ll just give you the whole series at once, so as not to overwhelm your pity generators. Thank you for your subscription and your patience.
The Cooties Are Upon Us
Inevitably, the fever of the month visits its wrath upon our beloved publisher’s immune system
It started small. At this point we figured this would be a 24-hour affair. How wrong we would be!
Gas-obsessed friends take stock of recent belch history
There is a whole oral history that Kina and Amelia have—that each of them can recite—of all the burps they have shared in their friendship, but I have never successfully transcribed it. I promise to do so whenever I can.
Kid makes wish for new year, asks for eternity spent with parents
This is the first time Kina has really given voice to the wish and worry about how finite our time together might be—both in our home and in our existence. It plucked a string in me that I haven’t let go of since she said this. I also want an infinity life with her—and with Laurea—and it’s making me treat this moment that we do have more tenderly.
Confident publisher appreciates her own vibe, is unapologetically intense
I sort of forgot to write specifically about our visit to the Noguchi Museum, and so I kind of made the whole issue about it. Look how big she is! Look at that energy!
Recess options during cold snap are slim pickings; Wildkratts wins the day
The kids have not gone outside for recess all week, but Kina hates soccer more than boredom, so she’s been going to the auditorium and watching shows about wild animals.
I really had a good run there at the beginning of the trip, didn’t I? Anyway, here’s the rest—including today’s Daddy-flew-home-with-food-poisoning edition.
Visiting Crustacean Expert Dwells in the Tidal Pools with Dozens of Hermit Crab Friends
After examining local crab colony, she declares specimens “so cute!”
If there is one takeaway to be had from this trip, it’s that Kina will be majoring in marine biology.
Sardines, jellyfish run close second in race for Kina’s oceanic fave
When I was her age, I was starting to be fascinated by ocean life. I didn’t get to pet a ray, though, which is why she will become a famous marine biologist and I will have to keep working in journalism.
She cozies up with Lala to watch Frozen 2, remembers life as 5 year old
It’s starting to be the case that Kina will have memories that are sharp enough and distant enough to be nostalgic about. For a long time, the memories she had of herself from three years earlier were too faint to mean much; at the same time, the crisp memories were too recent to feel sweet. Now she can decide randomly on Christmas to sneak away with Lala into her bedroom to watch Frozen and remember what it was like to wear Elsa dresses and sing “Into the Unknown” all day. I miss those days, too, but it is pretty special to watch her memory come to life.
New pre-Californian tradition involves Kina doing somersaults independently among the modernist ghosts of Idlewild
One of the greatest luxuries of our current lifestyle is being able to stay in an airport hotel the night before a morning flight to California, and Kina thinks this is totally normal and wonderful.
Baked pasta eaten after extreme trampolining; 8 y/o insists on Kuromi theme
And so ends our esteemed publisher’s extended annual birthday, on a rope swing before a full tray of baked pasta and all the Kuromi decorations sold on earth.
“I feel a little taller,” says newly-awakened 8-year-old
I am breaking all the rules by skipping over the four issues I have forgotten to send, but it is Kina’s birthday, and the fiscal repercussions of not sending the publisher’s birthday edition on time are quite severe. I am so so so so so so proud of her. I expect you are, too.
