The Caliente installment

cavity, Coldplay, Caliente, cats, California, cleaning…

We started off our extended weekend visit to the parents’ house with a quick stop at the dentist’s office to get Davis’s cavity filled. I’m not sure if it was as horrible as you are all imagining it would be, but it was still pretty bad. The only good part about it was that it was fast! The dentist drilled out that tiny hole, cleaned it, and patched it up in under five minutes. He didn’t numb D’s mouth because apparently a shot would have hurt more than the quick drilling they had to do. Davis did scream the whole time (I can’t blame him…strange man with a mask and goggles, shining a bright light in his face, holding a drill…), but fortunately the whole thing was just so fast. By the time we got in the car and were leaving it seemed that D had forgotten everything that happened. I hope this doesn’t make him afraid of the dentist for the rest of his life (no, not everybody is afraid of the dentist)!

The trip to Caliente was underway right after the dentist and met immediately with our Coldplay X&Y CD (a personal favorite of mine), which seems to be the only CD that will lull little D to sleep. Seriously. I think he is even going to ask for the concert DVD for Christmas. The only reason this is noteworthy is that when we make a long trip like this, we usually end up listening to the CD like four times in hopes of sedating D…and 99.9% of the time it works like a charm. Thank you Chris Martin!

The Caliente estate was crawling with felines of all sizes…and Davis couldn’t have been happier about it. My parents took in a homeless cat a while back that proceeded to multiply and replenish their backyard. They actually gave half of the litter away but still have a couple of rambunctious kittens left. Davis loved them all. He mostly observed, but did have some hands on time grabbing tails and fur.

Paul & Jeff drove to Laguna Beach for a few days since they were so close anyway (6 hours ha ha). Paul wanted to go check out a skimboard competition and meet some of his business contacts and riders too. I think all in all it was productive for him to go. They both came back with some battle wounds from their own skimboarding (non-competition!) adventure and full bellies from eating In ‘N’ Out for every meal. The only reported downside to the trip was the traffic.

So the main reason we went to visit my parents was so I could help my mom downsize her collected junk (I know it’s not all junk mom). I call it junk because I am insensitive and quite the opposite of my packrat mom. But she has a lot of stuff and its presence is squashing her, so I volunteered to help her clean out and organize her stuff. I think we made a small dent, and I am very proud of her for all of those D.I. bags!

The real main reason we went to Caliente was so D could play at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. He had a great time crawling around, climbing on all the furniture, waving the flag in Grandpa’s art room, and pushing ping-pong balls all around the kitchen floor – all activities that (not surprisingly) are way more fun at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.