She scorns the rude spider and cheers for the mosquito
I didn’t know what to expect from Storyville Mosquito when my brother invited us to see it, but I can assure you it is not what I would have expected, had I expected anything at all. It’s a beautiful puppet show, a sort of opera, a one-take film, and a chance to see Kid Koala play.
Thanks to Ken for the tickies; it was a real gas. Boo to the spider. Mosquito! Mosquito!
Child questions the nature of our shared reality while eating candy
This newspaper is proof that, if you listen closely enough, you will find that any given seven year old is likely pitching Inception to you in the living room after dinner.
It is clear to all listening that it is a show for first graders
Runa and Kina seem to know an awful lot about this show that they have clearly not watched in an extremely long time.
I misspelled “Gabby’s” in the headline, which is why the show name is in blue.
I have learned recently just how habitually I say “Yo!” in response to questions and how frequently I use the pet name “Bud” with both Kina and Laurea, and how both of them hate that so very very much. I am sorry to both of you; I seriously do not realize I am doing it.
The individual to be turned into chili here is the child, who eventually renegotiates terms on account of allegedly being undercooked
What I love most about this headline is that it is unclear who the chili is meant to be. Unclear antecedents are the best part of any headline—fight me. Anyhow, there is something vaguely appealing to me about getting snuggled for two hours and then turning into a fantastic pot of chili. It is, of course, equally appealing to stir Kina’s face for hours on end while she opines about life as a bowl of chili, but I didn’t get the snuggles, so moot point.
Oh hey it’s a Parade!
What I wish you could have seen in the production of today’s Parade is how Kina used it as a means of teaching Laurea how to draw roses. Also, the lily is fantastic.
Stands for ten seconds with arms outstretched once music ends, soaks up adulation; this follows one hour of Taylor Swift
Yes, there may have been thirty other children performing Taylor Swift songs, knock-knock jokes, and dribbling basketballs, but the applause was all for Kina.
kid has heard enough about Mommy’s breathless first experiences in America, the land of milk and bathtubs
I mean, if you had drunk evaporated milk your entire life and only ever taken showers, you’d talk endlessly about your first fresh milk and hot bath for the rest of your life, too.
Students prepare monument to worm’s short, exciting life
RIP Pinky, we hardly knew ye. I mean, literally, I first heard of you yesterday, when Kina said, “We made a grave for Pinky at recess,” which caught me by surprise—as it would anybody, I think.
Maybe Pinky will come back as an animal, as one does. Until then, Kina and her friends will be watering the apple seed they planted for you.
enjoys 2.5 hours of puppetry, surreptitiously touches elephant
Kina has been waiting to go to the theater with the most avid theater goer that either she and I know for many years now, and she finally hit the jackpot with a trip to The Lion King with my brother Ken. She spent the whole prior day protecting her braids in preparation for the show, and a mani-pedi with Laurea and a walk through Times Square made for just about the perfect day.
She has been singing a random song from The Lion King ever since. I have no idea what it is, because I have never watched anything related to this Disney enterprise, and that is why I’m glad Ken loves theater. Thanks, Uncle Ken!
Kina tells stylist Christina about Mommy’s inspirational spa habits
As today’s headlines might suggest, Laurea spent a good part of the day at the spa, and the only things Kina knows about spas are that Mommy loves the hot saunas and encourages strangers to jump into the cold plunge, screaming at them to “get in there!” People apparently enjoy this. Kina and I are skeptical.
Mythical figures come under scrutiny; Mommy on fence re aliens
Kina’s erstwhile fascination with the Tooth Fairy was a bit of a surprise. You’d think that kids would quickly pick up on the whole “supernatural being who is said to arrive overnight” pattern, but teeth come out late in a kid’s life, and there aren’t many myths to go around.
The Fairy has visited four times, and four times did she place underneath Kina’s pillow a lengthy and prosaic note, containing probably more money than a tooth is worth. I took great pleasure in writing each of these notes, sneaking in after the clock struck ten to replace her fallen incisor with the Fairy’s gift.
Kina seemed to relish the myth of the Tooth Fairy, and so it came as some surprise last night when Kina (who has not recently lost a tooth, but has discovered a newly-wiggly cuspid) asked—finally—if the Tooth Fairy was real.
She celebrates his eventual awakening with sweet whispers, juicy dumplings, obstacle course, and dance party
It feels like Oatie is always asleep when we get dim sum as a family, but yesterday we just sat and sat and sat and ate and ate and ate until he woke up and got his fill of dumplings and buns. Good thing he ate, too, since we then decamped to a nearby playground for family obstacle course and dance party time. It was the perfect New Year breakfast with the kids.
Later, as you can see, I perfected my popcorn technique by using an alarming quantity of ghee and tossing it with everything I love dearly (salt, sugar, and MSG). I am proud of both the real popcorn I made and this drawing of a popcorn kernel.
Ollie and Lulu visit once again for jaunt through gigantic indoor playground, followed by dinner of tasty pasta + mozz sticks
I’ve been a day behind with these emails for almost a week, so you’re getting two today—the first of which is about Kina’s beloved child friends from Philly, who always love coming to New York because they get to see Kina and invariably jump on trampolines.
Kina and Futura roam the streets of Chinatown in search of roving troupes of lion dancers, are rewarded for persistence and generosity, eat pork buns
The middle Saturday of every Lunar New Year in Manhattan’s Chinatown is “Super Saturday”, when all the local king fu schools bring out their lion troupes and walk the streets to collect red envelopes from local businesses and—if they are lucky—Kina and her small friends. We saw lions of all different colors and sizes (kids too!) and even one troupe that climbed up to the second story of a building on Baxter Street to fetch a cabbage and some money from a pole stretched over the road. Kina and Futura got to pet that dragon on the nose after they gave it two bucks in a red envelope. Great value. Happy new year!
Conks out on couch with fever while Daddy works next to her. She then watches Castle in the Sky, drinks juice, feels better.
I mean, there wasn't exactly a lot of snow to begin with, and she seemed happy enough to sleep. Ten hour fever and we were out of the woods. Happy (retroactive) Valentine's Day!
Daddy and Kina work together to produce twenty cards for her classmates; in hindsight, she regrets the custom notes
I told her twenty custom messages would be a lot, but I am also the guy who busted out the hot glue gun and metallic ink for the stamped letters, so I’m not quite sure who’s walking the walk here.
It’s basically a basketball field in the shape of a bowl, but red and also a little bit green,” says kid as she describes biggest sporting event in U.S.
It is bowl time. Get the foam fingers and bowl-ball bats out of the closet.
attention-starved scientists shocked to discover that structure works
I don’t know why I was so surprised that letting Kina put her own to-do list together every night would make chores work. It’s just foreign to me. Glad she’s figuring this out now.
“It’s just first grade and second grade mixed together,” notes second-grader trying out third grade math
I think it is a little ironic that Kina’s internal arithmetic model for third grade just yields a slightly-diluted second grade. What she would like you to take away, though, is that she is very advanced in many ways. And she is.
after a long week, family takes an easy Sunday of play and relaxation; Kina reflects fondly on our relationship
I guess it was a long week, no? Kina had a lot of strife and turmoil to deal with, and I think we all deserved a good Sunday together. I took her to her original baby swings at Rodney Playground, we all had a fancy lunch and washed it down with cupcakes, watched a movie at home (well, Kina did while we slept), and we ate picadillo and had some fun conversations. All told, it was sort of our gift to Kina after a short series of moments that were not, strictly speaking, fun for her.
In exchange, later in the evening, she vanished into her bedroom and produced two ornamental shells. On mine, she wrote “I love you, Daddy” and painted hearts in every heart-shaped divot. On Laurea’s, she wrote “LISTEN TO CHILL OUT”. Both were perfectly crafted to remind us how wonderfully special this kid is.
It’s an honor to have her as a boss, a roommate, and a kid. Unlike pasta, she is absolutely perfect.
Laurea’s astronaut ambitions stifled by child who is perfectly satisfied by Earth; “I don’t want you to get lost out there,” she says
One of Laurea’s most endearing qualities is her certainty that, someday, she will go to space. I have had many years to become accustomed to this plan, but Kina only learned about it yesterday, and let me tell you, she does not find this endearing.
Space is a very large destination, full of nothingness and devoid of cell-phone towers, so it’s a little tricky to pin down where basically anything up there is at any given time, if you are seven.
This difficulty in geolocation (when one has basically left the geo), coupled with a slight resurgence in separation anxiety, has led Kina to her recent ruling that no mommies shall go to space, no how. It’s just too hard to find your way home, and home is the most important thing to Kina right now.
Digit gets dinged on door in the hallway at school; Mommy is summoned; X-ray shows tiny fracture in tip of finger; she eats dumplings
Not a stellar day yesterday, but we are all okay. Kina was being helpful and holding the door open for some classmates, and then the door was closing and then it was closed, and a parent was running over to her.
Laurea texted me at work in the middle of a meeting to say she was taking Kina to the urgent care, which all went well for them but not as well for the daddy stuck at work and wondering how the kid’s finger was. But the finger is fundamentally fine, if a bit purple, and it is splinted and Kina is comfortable enough to have since attended a birthday party, a tasty brunch, and three hours at the New York Hall of Science. All good.
kid forced to wear school uniform for photographic proof of her scholarship; Kina is allowed to hold the sign
A slightly lighter topic today, though no less fraught for our publisher, who knows full well the importance of a school photo and the power of a well-selected outfit—a selection she was denied in the face of green/beige homogeneity. We must all suffer indignities from time to time.
