Niranjana, Melissa and Andy Perdue

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.

Over the weekend, the three of us stopped at Yoke's Fresh Market in West Richland for groceries. It's a great store for a number of reasons, including the deli. We ordered our sandwiches and selected some drinks. I chose something called Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness.

It contained wheat grass, spirulina, spinach, apples, kiwis, mangos, bananas and dragon fruit. It was a sort of soupy green texture. Melissa scrunched up her nose and looked at me like I was nuts. My brother-in-law, Kevin, would be proud, as he was my introduction to wheat grass juice many years ago.

Ten months ago today, we arrived home with Niranjana. Ten months later, she's excelling in many areas. Her vocabulary improves daily, and she is beginning to catch up in letter recognition, thanks to her new Montessori school.

All in all, Niranjana is progressing as well as we could have hoped after just 10 months. As it has for several months, we feel like a family.

Growing up, Niranjana will have every opportunity to be a newspaper reader. Her Daddy is a third-generation newspaperman, and her Mommy was a reporter. Both of us are authors. The morning newspaper is a central part of our morning - as it is in homes that care about current events and higher vocabularies.

Still, I'm rather surprised that The New York Times - that bastion of great American journalism - is soliciting Niranjana for a subscription. The direct-mail piece showed up this week.

As we wrote several days ago, Niranjana came home with a "tattoo" on her arm. Here's what happened when Melissa asked her what it said.

July 1 is a day wrapped inside a lot of emotion for me. From a chronological standpoint, here's why:

We knew our little girl would end up in the newspaper business eventually.

So when the Tri-City Herald's circulation director called around 7 a.m. today to say the press had broken down and she needed our help delivering papers, we all piled into the car to head downtown and get our marching orders.

We ended up delivering a 57-house route in north Richland, and Niranjana took care of the last two newspapers (with Daddy's help).

Last weekend, we traveled to the Oregon Coast for a long weekend. For a few months, Melissa and I have talked to Niranjana about going to the ocean, showing her photos in Sunset and watching a video that explores the Washington Coast.

A couple of years ago, Melissa and I joined Netflix. It was pretty slick because we could watch as many movies as we wanted for $10 per month. On average, we could consume perhaps eight movies per month.

Mostly, Melissa and I would agree on which movies to get, though I tended toward oddball documentaries and old Bogart movies, while she occasionally selected chick flicks.

On occasion, it would take us a couple of weeks to get around to some movies, especially if it was a selection that one of us wasn't interested in.

Nine months ago, we arrived home from India with Niranjana. India seems like a long time ago, much longer than nine months. In the past month, we've gone through a few changes and reached minor milestones.

Most importantly, Niranjana is in a new school. The change was not terribly traumatic, though she did miss her teacher a bit. Melissa swears Niranjana's vocabulary already is expanding. I'm less certain.