Me talk pretty

The development of speech in a child is an amazing thing. Yesterday Devon saw the umbrella in the hall and ran and grabbed it. Although she didn't know the name for it, I saw that she clearly wanted me to open it. We went into the living room and I opened the umbrella, at which point she broke into a big smile and said, "Ain," (rain).

It's now July here, and it hasn't rained in San Francisco for months -- April was probably the last time it's rained here. And the last time I can think of that we used the umbrella, at least the time that I remember, was when she and I went to visit the new de Young museum back in the winter, perhaps February or so. The museum had opened fairly recently, and on the day that we went, it was raining most of the day. We spent some time in the galleries, including standing in line to go up to the observation tower; it has a very expansive view of the city and the park, which she loved, although she did not love the standing in line part of it much. When we left the museum it was raining, and I opened the umbrella. Then I put the umbrella down on the pavers in front of the museum (outside), and Devon would go and stand under the umbrella herself (she was just short enough at that point to be able to stand under it) like it was her own little tent in the storm. She just loved that, but since that time, I cannot remember the last time that we had to use the umbrella, aside from a random trip here or there in the later spring. I just can't imagine how she even remembered the word "rain," let alone spoke it. But somehow, some mention of it stuck with her and she associated it with the umbrella -- and the sky as well, since the morning she picked up the umbrella and also pointed to the window saying, "Ain, ain."

She's really starting to get the hang of language now, and it's just incredible how fast she incorporates words into her vocabulary. Even if it's incomprehensible to me, she's pegged it as a word (her enunciation, as you can imagine, isn't exactly stellar). Devon is very fond of stickers, and Trader Joe's often hands out stickers to kids (TJ's is a great place to shop with a child -- not only do cashiers have a stash of stickers in the till often but the stores have helium balloons; if you ask nicely, a manager will generally fill up a balloon for your child). She has started to call stickers "deedt-dee" (my nearest phonetic interpretation) -- even though this doesn't sound remotely like the word sticker -- and she keeps using "deedt-dee" in the context of "sticker." So even though she may not have the exact word right, it's clear to me that she intuitively understands the concept of language; and of course its ability to get her needs met. Walt and I just have to stay on our toes to make sure we track the special Devon vocabulary and can map it to the actual English equivalent object.

To switch gears back to the apartment, yesterday Walt and I went to Oakland to have brunch with my mom and Jon and also threw in some more house errands. Oakland has the only Home Depot EXPO in the area (the high-end HD), which was where we had to go to order the tile for our bathroom. You'd think, frankly, that 1" white hexagon tile would be fairly easy to come by, but apparently it's not exactly popular with the masses. My conclusion about home remodeling, at least in the Home Depot belt of California, is that if you're not installing the following, you are wildly out of step with the American majority. But then again, the American majority elected George Bush, and look at where that's gotten us...

1. Marble floors, preferably in a sand color in big square pieces (I'm going to give a little commentary on this, because after all, what is life without a little color? I absolutely hate this stuff in homes; marble floors belong in a hotel bathroom and that's it. There is neither beauty nor character in a wash of sameness.)

2. Granite countertops in the kitchen. (Again, there is almost no granite I've seen that I like -- it's generally too dark and almost always out of period with the house. I just hate that feeling of a dark kitchen, and granite almost always supports that.)

3. Bathtub fixture with a plastic rosette (Is there somewhere, anywhere, a tub that doesn't have one of those hideous plastic rosette dials to set the water temperature? God save me from the plastic rosette!)

And on and on... In general, I'm rebelling against the trend of taking a house that was built in a certain era with a certain character and value and stripping that away entirely. And not only stripping it away but also supplanting it with something from another era that's totally inappropriate. It's like pairing black dress socks with sandals -- you just shouldn't do it. Yeah, it may be convenient to do it, but you're destroying everything that's good and true about the socks and about the sandals.

At any rate, we trudged back to EXPO, where we had to wait in another huge line to pay for our goods. The high point of the visit is that they did take our 20% off coupon with no hassle, so I'm hoping the Daly City Home Depot is the exception to that rule. We also got fixtures for the bathroom, like a towel rack and a holder for toilet paper (which I had honestly entirely forgotten about purchasing), so at least all of that is complete. We did intend to purchase some plants at the regular HD across the street, but when we got there we realized that we're just not prepared yet. I know my dad, who is reading this, is very happy with that, since he felt we were rushing into plant purchasing decisions. Just because we finally have the sprinklers in doesn't mean that we have to buy plants immediately.

We also took a trip to a place in Richmond that Jon recommended called American Soil. We're looking at patio pavers, and this place had some really incredible stuff. We saw some beautiful tumbled marble pavers (which despite my rant about marble in the bathroom is totally different -- and nothing that would remind you of a gated community in Danville or a generic Hilton Hotel), that were exquisite as well as some lovely granite pavers. However reality hit home when we realized that something less spectacular, yet still very nice and serviceable, was one-fourth of the price at HD. So I guess we are back to our Faustian bargain even there.