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We were secretly waiting for Kulinarya to re-open and when it did, we were there. I love the cozy new interiors, the contrast and the wall graphics were actually spoons and forks, love it. Now, we were ready to have a taste of Kulinarya.

This is really how it usually goes when we're waiting for our food. Less talk to endure the wait. But after a few spoonful of carbohydrates, that's when the conversation starts.

For the record, I don't want to give too much credit on how strange my daughter's brain works -- in a good way though. Here's the thing, I've never known anyone YET who could outwit her. And I'm not talking rocket science, just general knowledge for a 9 year old and plain old wit. In that category, Kiara would be up in the running for a smart ass girl.

When she would get all intimidated with someone -- especially someone older, even at the point when she would want to disagree she would deal with it like a lady should -- smile. But at the back of her mind there's one big heated debate going on.

Jason: Where did you get your brain fixed?

Kiara: My grandfather's a neurosurgeon, but thankfully my brain doesn't need any fixing. Why does your brain need any fixing?

Jason: See! That's what I'm talking about! You should train me to be all alert in any given situation.

Kiara: Why so?

Jason: When I'm in an argument, my brain just stops working and I go all quiet. And when it's done I go: "Damn, I should have said this..."

Kiara: *face is all lit up* Me? Trainer? OK, here's the thing, when it comes to facts and general information, you should act like a sponge. Absorb it for future purposes. But when it comes to an argument, you should be like a Ping-Pong player, throw it back and hope that the opponent can't catch up.

Jason: Unbelievable! Spoken like a 90 year old, not a 9 year old!

Janiz: What? Don't look at me.

Jason: This was all because of you! You made her like this! Is this your science project? An experiment maybe??

Janiz: Is that a bad thing now? I just exposed her to whatever I have and everything is all up to her.

Jason: Aristotle? Plato? Is that you?

Janiz: I like that, but no, we're not.

Kulinarya

Concourse Level, Rockwell Powerplant, Makati

I've been tweeting about it; how much I'm not into the whole Christmas thing this year. I just wish it could go away or that I can press skip in a remote and proceed to the next episode. I wanted so badly for that. Or I could sleep in through the whole holiday season and wake up when all the spirit of Christmas is gone. I wanted to extradite myself somewhere so I won't screw up someone else's Christmas. I'm not always like this, I used to get excited about Christmas. I guess not this year. But for the sake of my daughter, I'll try to pull this one off. Although just the thought of it makes me want to puke.

Kiara:I love Christmas mom. Everybody seems to be nice, the lights are "ahmazing", the city's all lit up.

Janiz: Yeah yeah. They're consuming too much electricity.

Kiara: *dagger stare* Mom! That's not the point.

Janiz: I know, sorry baby. I don't want to ruin your Christmas.

Kiara: So we'll do "Simbang Gabi" again this year?

Janiz: Yeah, that's the only thing I wanted to do this Christmas.

Kiara: Oh mom, why so down?

Janiz: I don't know. Christmas is not my thing this year.

Kiara:It's ok, at least you're still looking forward to the dawn masses. I guess that's what's important you know, not the gifts, not the lights.

Janiz: Did I tell you how brainiac and brilliant you are?

Kiara: Yeah, more than a million times.

I rarely eat in Italian restaurants when I'm with Kiara since her appetite runs low when we talk about pizza and pasta. But tonight will be an exception since we think we've tried out all possible restaurants in the area.

One good thing about just having Kiara for the night is that we get to talk about a lot of things. She just wont stop blabbering about school and her friends. She was telling me about the news reporting they're doing.

Kiara: I'm so excited about it mom! It was supposedly a usual news reporting, like the group would be standing in front of the whole class and deliver news. But of course our group had an executive producer so we did spice it up a little.

Janiz: Executive producer?? Who?? What do you mean?? I'm a little confused here. Isn't this just another school thing?

Kiara: Yeah it is.

Janiz: So who's this executive producer? And what's it for?

Kiara: (Straightens her back) You're now looking at THE executive producer. *cough*

Janiz: LOL So out of the many roles you take, you weren't contented and wanted to add another title huh?

Kiara: (Smiling and nodding at the same time.) Yup. I wanted our group to be a cut above the rest. Every group did the same thing over and over. So I came up with the idea of doing a reproduction of exactly what you see in the news.

Janiz: So, executive producer huh? You came up with that?

Kiara: It's appropriate for the role I take right?

Janiz: Yeah, and it's brilliant. *mwah*

Everyday is just a new experience with Kiara. Life they say is a road you take, but motherhood is like a side street I took that I wanted to be in for the rest of my journey.

After dinner we were glad that my brother joined us. He was not his usual self since his iPhone was stolen when he took the MRT with his friends. *sigh*

Cibo

Ground Floor, Powerplant Mall, Rockwell, Makati

My brother plans to pull an all-nighter. So it's coffee to go. But when I was trying to convince him to buy at the grocery instead. My daughter gave me that look and said,

Kiara: I wanna do the vendo thing.

Janiz: It's the same thing Kiar.

Kiara: No it's not. The coffee may be the same, but the experience is different.

Janiz: LOL except that you won't be having coffee young lady.

Kiara: I'll keep that in mind. I'll have hot choco instead.

I don't know what happiness this machine does to my kid. But it does make her ecstatic at some point, then when she got her hot choco, it seemed like the best hot choco she ever had. Talk about experience huh?