The shoe Nazi
Devon and I drove down to Fresno to visit my dad this weekend (and also to borrow his 6' level, truth be told -- and the fact that he actually owns a 6' level gives you some insight into my dad's, um, meticulous nature. This is a guy who runs around his house with smaller levels straightening out each picture in his home for instance...). I left early on Friday to try to beat the traffic, since Devon doesn't really do very well in the car for long now that she's running around. This turned out to be a total miscalculation on my part, since apparently even at 3:30 pm, 580 east through Pleasanton (a misnomer if ever there was!) is a parking lot. Ugh. Sitting around eating exhaust and listening to 18-wheelers shift down from 3rd to 2nd woke her up, so after that it was a very long, hot ride down to the Central Valley. The one bright spot was the drive-through (honestly) Starbucks in Los Banos, which provided me with a much-needed iced coffee and Devon with a cup of ice that kept her occupied and cool for at least 20 minutes.
One really fun thing for Devon this weekend was getting to play in my dad's yard. We have a little postage stamp yard in the current place, and the yard in the new place is currently a dirt lot with Stumpy Pete still in the middle (although Walt tells me he'll be meeting his Waterloo this week). She had a great time running around through the plants and playing the water. This weekend the high was a "mild" 99 degrees (compared to the outlandish 113 last Sunday), so it wasn't nearly as hot as it could have been, and it was an excellent venue for water play. We'd turn on the hose and then she'd water the plants, stomp in the puddles and shreik with laughter at getting wet and muddy. She also became very adept at turning the hose on and off, and soon this became even more fun that splashing in the water. She definitely has a good-sized control freak streak in her.
She has become more and more interested in shoes; her shoes, other people's shoes, you name it -- shoes are a fabulous accessory now. The flip side of this, however, is that she's gotten very dictatorial about shoes and often demands that you put shoes on (rather annoying if one is, say, enjoying walking around the house barefoot). A typical exchange goes like this:
Shoo! Mommy shoo! [Bringing a sample with her]
Yes, those are Mommy's shoes.
Shoo on. Mommy shoo.
Oh, I really don't want to put my shoes on.
[Insistent] Shoo, shoo! Shoo on!
[Sighing defeatedly] Ok. Can you please bring me my other shoe?
Shoo, Mommy shoo! [Bringing the second shoe]
[Putting on both shoes] Now my shoes are on.
Shoo. [Contentedly]
These rules, of course, do not apply to her, since she often ignores requests from me and Walt to put her own shoes on (and in fact had a meltdown in the supermarket in Fresno when I wanted her to put her shoes on before walking though the aisles). My father, as particular as he is, has a rather Japanese approach to shoes - one "inside" set and one for wearing outside in the yard only. Devon, of course, was not abiding by these distinctions and was regularly commanding my dad to wear his inside shoes in the yard or vice versa - and then when he didn't comply would cry and make a fuss. It was quite a battle of wills.
I was hoping for a great farmer's market haul in Fresno, since the market is generally the delightful combination of lower prices and fresher produce (closer to the source than SF). We went out about 9am on Saturday, and it was surprisingly picked over by then -- and worse, two of my favorite vendors weren't there. Blossom Hill, where I was planning on picking up a flat of stone fruit, stopped coming to the Fresno market (argh! I was speculating that they actually made more money driving to the Ferry Building market because even though the distance is significantly farther, the prices are correspondingly higher); and my (and Devon's) favorite raisin vendor was a no-show on Saturday. I still got a nice haul of some stone fruit, vegetables (including some excellent cippolini onions and some blazingly hot poblano peppers) and some great herb plants. The melons are also in full swing and I got four of them. There was an article in the Times a couple of years ago about the lusciousness of melons from the west side of the Central Valley, and I can vouch for that recommendation, so I stocked up.
I learned from my ride on the way down, so coming back I had a smoother trip. I realized that changing speeds significantly will wake Devon up if she is asleep; on the way back through Los Banos I again wanted to grab an iced coffee, but when I turned into the driveway of the complex where the Starbucks was, Devon woke up -- it was almost like she had a 6th sense that I was planning to get out for a few minutes. I quickly turned back into the road, and once I got my speed up I managed to get her back to sleep. We made it all the way to Altamont Pass with her asleep, a true delight. Then when she woke up, she saw all of the windmills on Altamont, which was totally thrilling -- she pointed and laughed all the way over the pass.
One really fun thing for Devon this weekend was getting to play in my dad's yard. We have a little postage stamp yard in the current place, and the yard in the new place is currently a dirt lot with Stumpy Pete still in the middle (although Walt tells me he'll be meeting his Waterloo this week). She had a great time running around through the plants and playing the water. This weekend the high was a "mild" 99 degrees (compared to the outlandish 113 last Sunday), so it wasn't nearly as hot as it could have been, and it was an excellent venue for water play. We'd turn on the hose and then she'd water the plants, stomp in the puddles and shreik with laughter at getting wet and muddy. She also became very adept at turning the hose on and off, and soon this became even more fun that splashing in the water. She definitely has a good-sized control freak streak in her.
She has become more and more interested in shoes; her shoes, other people's shoes, you name it -- shoes are a fabulous accessory now. The flip side of this, however, is that she's gotten very dictatorial about shoes and often demands that you put shoes on (rather annoying if one is, say, enjoying walking around the house barefoot). A typical exchange goes like this:
Shoo! Mommy shoo! [Bringing a sample with her]
Yes, those are Mommy's shoes.
Shoo on. Mommy shoo.
Oh, I really don't want to put my shoes on.
[Insistent] Shoo, shoo! Shoo on!
[Sighing defeatedly] Ok. Can you please bring me my other shoe?
Shoo, Mommy shoo! [Bringing the second shoe]
[Putting on both shoes] Now my shoes are on.
Shoo. [Contentedly]
These rules, of course, do not apply to her, since she often ignores requests from me and Walt to put her own shoes on (and in fact had a meltdown in the supermarket in Fresno when I wanted her to put her shoes on before walking though the aisles). My father, as particular as he is, has a rather Japanese approach to shoes - one "inside" set and one for wearing outside in the yard only. Devon, of course, was not abiding by these distinctions and was regularly commanding my dad to wear his inside shoes in the yard or vice versa - and then when he didn't comply would cry and make a fuss. It was quite a battle of wills.
I was hoping for a great farmer's market haul in Fresno, since the market is generally the delightful combination of lower prices and fresher produce (closer to the source than SF). We went out about 9am on Saturday, and it was surprisingly picked over by then -- and worse, two of my favorite vendors weren't there. Blossom Hill, where I was planning on picking up a flat of stone fruit, stopped coming to the Fresno market (argh! I was speculating that they actually made more money driving to the Ferry Building market because even though the distance is significantly farther, the prices are correspondingly higher); and my (and Devon's) favorite raisin vendor was a no-show on Saturday. I still got a nice haul of some stone fruit, vegetables (including some excellent cippolini onions and some blazingly hot poblano peppers) and some great herb plants. The melons are also in full swing and I got four of them. There was an article in the Times a couple of years ago about the lusciousness of melons from the west side of the Central Valley, and I can vouch for that recommendation, so I stocked up.
I learned from my ride on the way down, so coming back I had a smoother trip. I realized that changing speeds significantly will wake Devon up if she is asleep; on the way back through Los Banos I again wanted to grab an iced coffee, but when I turned into the driveway of the complex where the Starbucks was, Devon woke up -- it was almost like she had a 6th sense that I was planning to get out for a few minutes. I quickly turned back into the road, and once I got my speed up I managed to get her back to sleep. We made it all the way to Altamont Pass with her asleep, a true delight. Then when she woke up, she saw all of the windmills on Altamont, which was totally thrilling -- she pointed and laughed all the way over the pass.
posted by Devon Szalva at
8:24 PM
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