Summer of 6

Niranjana turned 6-1/2 this summer and now is a kindergartner. Some days, she's still our little 2T-wearing toddler who wants to be carried around. Other days, she provides glimpses of what to expect when she's a teenager. But she's still cute 95 percent of the time.

She measured 3-feet-10.5-inches and 49 pounds at the doctor's office the other day. That means she's a size 6x. Sometimes I even buy a 7. My brain still is wrapping around this one. And she can reach the button that opens the garage door.

As she's in a year-round Montessori preschool, Niranjana essentially was in kindergarten all summer. There's more "free play" during the summer, but she still was copying a sentence every day, working on her math and her reading. We're especially happy with her reading and the balance between being read to by a parent and wanting to take the lead on reading a book. We go to the library occasionally, as she has her own card.

Her vocabulary is noticeably growing. The other day she used the word "recognize" properly in a sentence. She is an expert on dinosaurs, sharks, soccer, Disney princesses and Disney's Phineas & Ferb show ("I know what we're going to do today!").

We had a great YMCA summer soccer season on the "Dynamites" team with her friend Leif. Niranjana really likes soccer, so we're doing the more serious fall and spring soccer league, which splits up the girls and the boys. We'll be on a U-7 girls team with games every Saturday from Sept. 11 through Oct. 30. I'm not sure what we're getting into here.

Our girl behaves a lot better out in public, although I still prefer a solo run to the grocery store. We had our first really successful mother-daughter mall outing last weekend. We saw the movie "Ramona and Beezus" (loved it!), went to several stores to select back-to-school clothes, shared an Orange Julius, picked out a baby shower gift at the book store, and made it home with everyone happy.

That 5 percent of "not cute" usually is tied to lack of protein, lack of sleep or lack of attention. For example, when a friend comes over we are accused of paying too much attention to the friend, which results in rude behavior and its consequences. We have learned to preface the playdate with "you know we love you best, but we need to pay attention to our guest." Sometimes this works.

She's had some rough days at school this summer. Sometimes, Niranjana and two of the other kindergarten boys have had too much energy, which means they were wiggly during story time or even downright rude and mean to each other or another child. Niranjana has had a few notes home, lost water play, free play and/or movie day depending on the incident and we've had many talks about the Golden Rule, being a good listener, not talking back, controlling your body, two wrongs don't make a right, using your words, etc. Her behavior settled down after a particularly bad week — followed by a week off to go to Vacation Bible School with Dad — and we're hoping the transition to the "real" school year will inspire focus in our little learner. One of the books waiting on my nightstand is The Curse of the Good Girl, as I want to make sure our munchkin keeps her spunk and spirit while having good manners.

We've found a church home and Niranjana goes to Sunday School. Occasionally she even remembers the lesson. It's pretty cute when she leads grace at the dinner table. For example, "Dear Jesus, thank you for this food and please keep the mosquitos from drinking our blood. Aaaaymen."

In addition to our long-time neighbors who really are "family," we've become friends this summer with the other neighbors who have a 3-year-old girl and recently added a baby boy. We've also become closer with Leif's family, including going to church together. His mom especially continues to amaze me with her scientific career path, her creativity, and her inner strength during a year with many medical and family issues.

Work has been very busy for Andy and myself. Some days it is hard to tear myself away from my desk in time to pick up Niranjana, but once I'm holding her hand and walking out to the car, I tend to forget about the paperwork in my briefcase until all of a sudden it's morning and time to get moving again.

This has been quite the "Summer of 6."