Niranjana, Melissa and Andy Perdue

Washingtonians are starting to get used to not talking on our cell phones while driving since a new law went into effect about six weeks ago. In India, I don't think such a law would apply, as this video shows:

It was 11 months ago today that Niranjana arrived home with us. Is this possibly the same little girl? As I reflect on the past 11 months, I find it difficult to fathom that it's been that long - and that recent - since we were in India.

I especially recall those first few weeks home. Niranjana wanted nothing to do with me. It was all Mommy, all the time. Now that's easy to understand. Then, not so much.

This little child of ours loves going to the park, particularly a small one near our neighborhood we dubbed "Windy Park" because it often seems especially breezy there.

Our first visit was less than a week after arriving home from Chennai, after Niranjana's first visit to the dentist. I don't think she'd been on a slide before, so she wasn't too keen on the experience.

Her interest in the swing grew quickly, and after Melissa went back to work - but before I did - Niranjana and I would head to the park for 45 nonstop minutes on the swing.

When I was growing up, my folks loved watching the Olympics. They watched every night, from opening ceremonies for two weeks. I thought they were boring. I probably complained because - shudder! - we had just one television (and that was back when having cable meant having 13 channels).

I'm grown up now. I love watching the Olympics. I like the "walk of nations" during the opening ceremonies. I like the swimming, gymnastics, track and field, rowing and a lot of other sports I don't see more than once every four years or so.

Niranjana has a habit of saying phrases that seem beyond her years - or at least beyond her time with us.

Take, for instance, this exchange between mother and child just a couple of minutes ago:

Not 30 minutes after the previous blog item, my daughter informed me she was hungry. Yes, it's 9:50 p.m.

For lunch she ate two hot dogs (no buns) and an 8 oz. yogurt. Dinner: Two entire pieces of pizza and a banana. And now she's asked for two hard-boiled eggs. Breakfast was a banana and graham crackers. And I know she had two healthy snacks at preschool.

Maybe I better exchange those shoes I just bought her for the next size up?

For the record, after being home for 10 months, Niranjana now officially is:

35.5 pounds — that's 5.5 pounds heavier (in her socks).

40 inches — that's 3.5 inches taller, although it feels like 4 inches! Niranjana says she's going to grow bigger and bigger, up to the sky.

I cleared out most of her 3T clothes the other day. Some 3T stuff still fits — and she's still discovering some of it, like a sparkly butterfly shirt — but we've been buying 4T for a while now.

I'm always on the lookout for developmentally appropriate toys that might actually be played with. So I noticed during the evening "free play" at preschool that Niranjana liked a marble maze toy. Sort of like Legos or Tinkertoys, except you build a marble run.

We went on the hunt for the "marble ball game" the other week. Couldn't find it at Fred Meyer, not at Target. A lesson in patience ensued.

We had two birthday parties Saturday. The first was at 11 a.m. at the Richland Fire Department's main station on GW Way and Swift. The second was a "bring your swimsuit for sprinklers" at 3 p.m. at a Richland home.

Leif's fire station party scored high for all the kids, but the surprise at Zoe's house overshadowed those big red trucks and friendly firefighters. It was a twisty water slide! http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2918314

Zoe's family had borrowed this from a friend. Given the price tag and the mixed reviews, I won't be investing in one of our own.

I've never been especially fond of or particularly diligent with my dental care. During my first 25 years, I skated by, doing the minimum amount of effort to keep my teeth from falling out. Since marrying Melissa some 13 years ago, those habits have improved, though I continue to pay for the indiscretions of my youth with a variety of fillings, crowns and quarterly deep cleanings.

Along comes Niranjana.