What's in a Name? Shoo Flea!

We're at the swings in Dolores Park last Saturday after Baby Boot Camp, and Deven's giggling with every push. Nearby, a dad with a ~ 3 year old girl and tiny infant in a stroller walks up, and starts pushing the girl. At one point he says to the girl "Watch out for Deven!" - and I realize he's talking to his daugher about the infant in the stroller. Soon thereafter he says "Maia, you can push yourself if you want."

Huh. What's so fascinating about this is not that he has an infant named Deven and daughter named Maia, but that if Deven had been a girl we'd have named him Maia, too!

I'm intrigued, so I ask him: Is the infant named Deven? Yes, he says. Is it a boy or girl? Boy. I tell him that the little guy swinging with me is Deven, as well. Yogesh walks up at that point, and the dad asks "Are you Indian?" to Yogesh - because the dad (Western/American) then says that his wife is Gujarati (Indian). Just like us, they wanted to name their children names that worked in both cultures.

We didn't bother the dad further, but maybe we should've. On the way home, I realized that we live in a very special place here in San Francisco, where being a bicultural family is so completely normal, that we randomly met a family whose children are named precisely what we'd name our children. I also realized that our choice of "Deven" for our little guy wasn't so unique after all. I decided this is OK - because great minds think alike.

Now, about our cat, Mr. Idea: He's sitting on top of the cabinets ABOVE the refrigerator. Why? We think it's because he's so bothered by Deven and the general hubub at home, that this is his new hiding place. He's up there all the time lately!
This would be fine, except that last week we noticed a couple of fleas on Deven. Yogesh didn't think this was such a big deal, until our friend Caroline (a friend who's currently in vet school @ UC-Davis) said that the fleas you see are < 5% of the fleas lurking in our home. Ick. After vacuuming like maniacs, putting nasty flea-powder down, and dousing the cat with over-the-counter stuff, we realized that Mr. Idea is still Patient Zero in our fleabag household. Luckily we know Caroline, and she sent the good stuff over: "Advantage" flea control. We promptly applied this to Mr. Idea. He seems better already, but we're watching the house carefully.