Home is where you start from: Squirrels falling from trees and dentists with a death-wish

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Squirrels falling from trees and dentists with a death-wish

Yesterday evening, I walked into the house around 5 p.m. after an afternoon of errands and lots of driving. I was looking forward to pouring myself an ice-cold diet coke and sitting down with a piece of raisin toast and Pride & Prejudice...(yes, I love comfort food too well, sadly).

Amie comes running in yelling,

"a squirrel fell out of the tree mom, and now it can't walk!!"

we ran outside, and yes- a squirrel did fall out of a mature oak tree and was dragging itself along on the sidewalk. So, very sad. We caught it and I got back into the van and drove it to a sort of near-by wildlife center. I am hoping they will release him back into the neighborhood. He'll miss his family and all. I have such a sorry, soft heart...

So, do squirrels fall out of trees on a regular basis? The whole thing was mystifying to me, I found a really informative squirrel site here- but full-grown squirrels falling out of trees is still a mystery.

Next-

I took Demi-sky to the dentist to get his first ever filling. We waited a long time to even make it out of the waiting room, and then the dentist came in, peered at his tooth, and left us sitting there for another long wait. I was wondering how to ask if we should come back another time, without it sounding snarky. We've always had good visits there, this was a first so I tried to be patient...

Well, the Dentist came back and started doing dentist stuff...and then suddenly I realized that he was drilling on my 8 year old son's tooth without numbing it first! I sat up, and stopped myself before I shouted out "what, are you crazy!!" (thinking it would terrify Demi to hear me shouting) and I stopped myself mid-jump up.... I don't think the dentist realized he was 1 1/2 feet away from being physically attacked. I paused for a tiny second to reason with myself that the dentist was a father, and he must have had good reason to be fixing a cavity in this crazy way. As the adrenaline rush lessened, I realized all the drama of actually giving Demi a shot would out-weigh the time actually spent drilling. It must have been a very shallow cavity, and it didn't even hurt.

I let him live,
this time.

Dentistry....danger, danger, danger...

posted at 1:30 PM
7 comments

7 Comments:

At 7:51 AM, Susanne said...: I'm surprised he even started drilling without discussing it with you first. I would have reacted in exactly the same way.
At 7:14 PM, Hen Jen said...: Susanne,

I figured maybe his people skills aren't top notch...usually we dealt with the older partner who recently retired.

I was mid-shout really, when I paused.

it would have all been so much better if he would have explained things first...he also told Demi he had "bugs" in his tooth he needed to get out, I thought that a really stupid thing to say to a little kid. When he left the room I corrected what he said to Demi.
At 7:29 AM, Anonymous said...: I'm also surprised that he didn't mention it to you before he started work. I bet next time he will. :)
At 3:18 PM, Anonymous said...: I would have done the same thing!
At 8:56 AM, Jenny said...: I've never heard of a squirrel falling out of a tree. Poor thing. I bet the other squirrels will never him live that one down. :o)
At 5:59 PM, Urban Mom said...: Poor squirrel -- maybe he took a dare that he shouldn't have?

As for the dentist visit -- good for you for not scaring your child. And what do you suppose all of the waiting was about? It's weird -- the strangest blog stories sometimes seem to be about dentist visits.

Hope your little one is doing well!
At 8:48 PM, Blessed Mommy said...: I would have done the same thing. Good job of stopping yourself. I don't know if I would have been able too.

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