Niranjana, Melissa and Andy

We're coming up fast on our two-year anniversary of bringing Niranjana home from India.

Look for something sentimental from Andy.... Meanwhile, can I just say that post-placement paperwork is not my forte. Half-written reports, however, seem to be.

Sorry, Kamala. We're all doing well, really. And we will get it done!

Niranjana has lost playground soccer a few times this past month because she's been pushy on the field. But the boys are pushier, she complains. Her teacher, however, says that three different kids complained about Niranjana in one recess. Teacher wins, Niranjana loses soccer.

Throughout my life, my last name has been misspelled. All Perdues have come to expect it. The most common misspelling is "Purdue" (as in the university in Indiana). The worst I've experienced is "Purdew."

Anyone who spells my last name correctly on the first try typically is from the East Coast and is used to Perdue Chicken and its owner, Frank Perdue - who once admitted to seeking help from the Mafia.

Melissa, too, has enjoyed many variations on "O'Neil" including O'Neal and O'Neill.

Somewhere in a Little House book is this warning from some grumpy old person who didn't like hearing Laura whistle:

"Whistling girls and crowing hens, Always come to some bad end."

Despite that, I frequently whistle — usually a happy tune. And now Niranjana has figured out how to do it. But just this past week she pursed her lips, blew, and sound came out.

Nothing fancy yet, but it does take practice to master Handel's Hallelujah chorus.

It's turned into a busy summer and we've fallen behind on blogging. You can partially blame Facebook for that.

Niranjana finished first-year preschool and is entering "pre-kindergarten." I'm tiring of answering the question/comment "She's 5, so she's in kindergarten, right?" Anyone else out there in the same boat? But Niranjana's teachers say she is progressing as she should — no developmental delays, just still catching up to 3.5 years in an orphanage — and that we're doing the right thing by not pushing her into an academic area for which she's not ready.

Thursday was Niranjana's second YMCA soccer game, and she and her friend Leif scored all the goals for their team.

The games are a lot of fun to watch, and the kids are picking up the sport pretty quickly. At this level (4- and 5-year-olds), there are no goalies and the score is not kept.

Here is the video from two of Niranjana's three goals. Notice the little "airplane" move she makes after she scores? Yeah, she picked that up from watching Bend it Like Beckham.

On Memorial Day, Niranjana learned the simple joys of the Slip 'n Slide at her friend Leif's house. She really wanted one in our backyard, so she worked hard to meet several goals set up by Melissa.

About two weeks ago, Niranjana and I went to the store and purchased a Slip 'n Slide that had a blow-up shark and 3-D goggles (quite a contraption, actually). We got home and set it up, and Niranjana was having a blast, though she wasn't really sliding (or slipping) all the way through the shark's mouth.

Niranjana showed her stuff this evening at her first soccer game, as she scored the first goal for her team (The Blue Horsies). She was the second group into the game (the kids get rotate in every four minutes or so). Less than 30 seconds after they started playing, Niranjana dribbled the ball the length of the field for the goal.

Melissa caught it all on video:

Aunt V. had her baby this morning. Welcome to the compound, Annika!

On her birthday, she is a mere 7 lbs, 1 oz., 19 inches. Everyone's healthy and happy. I've never held such a little baby before — only 6 hours old!

The babies in Niranjana's tummy, however, won't be born until Lorna and Loraine come to visit from Manitoba. Sigh ....

• We were playing Kindermusik in the car on the way to school and I had track 4 on incessant repeat. She calls it the "happy song" — it's a jaunty fiddle tune.

“It sounds like a song you would dance to, like square dancing,” I said, forgetting that Niranjana doesn’t know what square dancing is yet.

She pondered the square dancing for about five seconds.

“What about triangle dancing?” she asked. “Or circle dancing?”

• We passed a Carl’s Jr. semi-truck that had a massive photo of a juicy hamburger on the side.