Niranjana, Melissa and Andy

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.

Niranjana's preschool class went to Dairy Queen for lunch today. They "earned" the money from a lemonade stand they did last week. Parent chaperones were not requested, which at one time would have completely freaked me out. Now, I'm OK with it (although I won't be putting her on the bus by herself any time soon).

This is what the 20 kids and five teachers did:

• Preordered their lunch from the menu.

• Boarded the Ben Franklin Transit bus at the stop near preschool.

• Rode the bus to Dairy Queen.

Psych!

We're on baby watch for some of our best friends. Aunt V. is due later this month with a girl, but things are moving along and I now have an extra child seat in my car in case I'm the one taking the big sister to preschool with Niranjana. I even have "I'm the Big Sister" and "I'm the Big Cousin" shirts ready to go for the girls.

Niranjana hasn't asked the obvious questions about Aunt V.'s delicate condition, however, Niranjana continues to claim that she has babies in HER tummy. Oh my! Here is tonight's dinner conversation.

If you work for the government, please don't read this. Just move on.

When we received Niranjana's green card back in late 2007, her name was listed as "No Name Given Niranjana." Thus, her last name was Niranjana and her first name, well, wasn't given.

We thought this was pretty funny. I could imagine some government drone typing in names all day, earning more than I do and not worrying one bit about accuracy.

Now we move on to the subject of her "Certificate of Live Birth" as recorded by the State of Washington. It came in the mail Saturday.

Tonight, we are having fish sticks for dinner. A recent must-watch movie has been Finding Nemo.

So I picked up a fish stick, put it in front of my face and said, "Hi, I'm Nemo!"

Niranjana picked up hers and replied, "Hi, I'm Dory!" - and took a big bite.

So much for sentimentality.

Summer has arrived. It's been in the 80s for several days. We've been through the sprinklers and in the neighbors' paddling pool. I've been eyeing backyard water toys in the newspaper ads and contemplating a slip-and-slide. Some of our close friends had the same idea and they invited us over to try it out.
Well, Niranjana tried it out. We watched. She was a natural, of course. And it watered the grass - bonus. So it's on the list.

During my battle with cancer, Melissa and I were straight with Niranjana. Melissa did a good job of explaining that "Daddy has germs in his body called cancer" and that she needed to make sure she washed her hands and didn't cough on me.

We weren't necessarily sure how much she understood - in fact, I didn't think she got most of it because except for a day or two after each chemo, I didn't seem all that ill. Even my hair falling out was more amusing than frightening to Niranjana.

Today, I was driving Niranjana home when she asked: "Daddy, do you have cancer?"