11-month Accomplishments

"Milestones" is too serious of a word for this update of what Niranjana is up to at our 11-month mark. Now 4-1/2 years old, she's a "first-year preschooler" at a Montessori school, although her teachers expect that by next summer she'll be pretty well caught up to the second-year preschoolers — and might be ready to be a kindergartner in the same classroom in September 2009. We're not pushing her.

She really likes this new school and the teachers say she's adjusted well to the quantity of "works" available ("Teaching Montessori in the Home: The Pre-School Years," by Elizabeth G. Hainstock). Niranjana has learned about dinosaurs and castles, is starting to play I Spy with letters, and the teachers say she stubbornly tries the same puzzles over and over until she gets them right. The Tumblebus comes once a week, as does Sharing Day (show and tell) and Water Play Day (sprinklers) in the summer. Sometimes she's line-leader, which is quite exciting. We pack a lunch every day, which she unpacks into the classroom refrigerator and puts her lion lunch box away. And we take our turn providing the classroom's morning snack, which sometimes she helps choose.

Her spoken vocabulary has expanded considerably. Recent additions are "actually" and "amazing" — in context, no less. "Aunt Rain is amazing" and "Actually, I want an egg." We suspect we'd be surprised to hear her alphabet and counting exercises at school, as we don't see a lot of interest in studying at home and have learned to be subtle in our attempts as being pushy merely results in her silence (not unlike her father). She does like to pretend to read books and, "like teacher," shows the cover and pictures to an imaginary audience.

We might have turned a corner in the mornings, knock on wood. For four days in a row she has gotten up quickly and dressed herself. This bodes well for my goal of being out of the house by 8 a.m., putting me at work by 8:30 a.m. We're minutes away!

Niranjana is a night owl. She doesn't want to go to sleep before us, as she clearly doesn't want to miss anything. It's 9 p.m. now and she and Dad are playing "marble ball" (so worth the $20!). We'll catch some Olympics before bed, in hopes the women's soccer team is playing, as soccer is the current favorite. We've watched "Bend it like Beckham" several times. Yes, it's PG-13, but really there are only a few bad words — we're willing to take the b-word in exchange for the positive role model of Jesminder. Goal!!! Some of the older, aggressive boys at school won't let her play soccer with them, so we suggested she organize her younger and gentler peers to play a separate game (rumored to be working, but not sure how "organized" it really is as she doesn't really know the rules).

Her hair has gotten long and typically is worn a bit wild. The other day she asked for a "Princess Jasmine Ponytail" in her hair, which went to school yesterday and today. This is a three-tiered pony tail, which also works well with the layers in her hair. I think she figured out it's easier to play soccer with her hair back.

Food is less of an issue than it used to be, in part because I've loosened up my expectations. Hebrew National reduced fat hot dogs are a mainstay, as are hard-boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, graham crackers, yogurt in a variety of forms, ice cream with fruit on it, canned mandarin oranges (she can down two cans in one night), edamame, various noodle products, chicken tikka masala and naan, some Chinese food, and she's finally learned to like pizza. Fruit snacks are the favorite, however, and yes they are for breakfast. Sigh.....

I'm sure there's more I could add, but this covers the basics of our daily life. Simply put, Niranjana is a happy and active child — and we are happier and more active adults with her in our lives. We ran into one of my Leadership Tri-Cities classmates in the Costco parking lot today. My LTC Class IX was the first "public" place where I shared our plans to adopt, back in June 2004. So it was with joy that I heard her declare to Roland, "That's my mom!"