Born to Be Stubborn

Walt and I have been remarking on how stubborn Devon is in general. Last night when we were getting her ready for bed, she wanted to play (and we wanted her to go to bed) and she ended up hitting me in the head. Walt asked her to apologize and say sorry, but she wouldn't do it. She was willing to give me a hug and a kiss, but she wouldn't say the actual apology. It went so far that we ended up cutting milk and stories short (the pre-bed routine) because we said if she didn't apologize, she'd have to go right to bed. She had a flat-out tantrum after that but still didn't apologize.

This morning the same thing happened -- she accidentally hit me (better than the previous example, where she did it with intent) but then wouldn't apologize no matter how we asked. I remember quite a long time ago when we dropped her off at Elaine's one day, she came in and almost immediately pushed another boy, Dustin, down. This was about a year ago shortly after she had learned to walk, and Dustin was only just barely beginning to walk. Elaine asked her to apologize and Devon burst into tears (the usual action when we ask her to do the same), and Elaine said it was because she was embarrassed. I can understand her being embarrassed in a group setting, but it's strange when it's just the three of us. I hope she absorbs some humility, since these actions don't bode well for the future.

We're going through a real heat spell right now in SF. Last weekend it was raining -- and in fact it's been raining quite late in the year for her -- but today it was about 85, blazing by our standards. It was so hot that we had dinner out on the patio tonight (one of only 3 days in the year when it's possible to do this in SF). Aaron and Christine were planning to come by after work, and Sami dropped by as well, since she was doing an impromptu "good weather" bike ride in our neighborhood.

It was great to have them all there, since Walt and I both got back late from work and were utterly unprepared when everyone showed up. It didn't help that we were making a high-preparation meal -- pasta with fava beans, which need to be shucked, parboiled and peeled again before they can be used. It worked to our advantage, though, since we had three people willing to do the work on the 5 lbs of favas that Walt had brought.

Devon loved having everyone over and was especially excited because Aaron brought his dog, Bella. I have to admit upfront that I am definitely not a pets in the house person, and in fact I'm really not much of a pet person at all. Bella is a really big black lab, and while I'm no neat freak by any means, I just hate the idea of a dog spreading hair and dander everywhere. As I said, this place isn't clean to begin with, so that's the last thing we need. Devon loves Bella, though, and spent the entire time running around trying to "hug" her. I think Bella has just decided to accept this fate; she used to spend all of her time running away from Devon, but now she's resigned to the unwanted attention.

Devon was also just excited to have other people over -- she brought out her toys to show everyone and got each adult to play with her for at least a little while. Getting her to bed was a bit more problematic, since she was all wired up from the people and of course didn't want to leave the action. She was like the opera diva who had to have 10 encores as she said goodbye.

A quick note -- my dad sent some great pictures from Sea Ranch, which I'm uploading into that post.