Not What I Planned For Today

Just to warn you, this post is somewhat long and rambling. And probably far more detail than you need or wanted to know.

I had plans on how my day would go. I would get up, wake up Emma and Molly and get them ready for school. I would send them and Jimmy to school then finish getting ready and get Lys and Dylan ready to take Lys to preschool where she was Star of the Day today. I planned on getting stuff ready, picking Molly up from kindergarten then heading over to Lyssa's preschool with her Star of the Day sack and some treats for her class. Then I'd come home and make the kids lunch, get Dylan down for a nap and finish up some cleaning. Figured for a few days that's how today would go.

That was before Lyssa came up to me a little bit upset last night. A filling that she had just gotten at the very end of November fell out. Not wanting to repeat the abscess that Emma had with a chipped tooth, I told her that I would need to call the dentist in the morning. I also told her that it would be unlikely that they would get her in today, which I think made her feel a little better.

Well, not much of my morning went as planned. The girls got up pretty easily but took long enough finding shoes that I ended up driving them to school so they wouldn't be late. Only Molly decided she was scared to go in and stood in the front of the school. I sat in the car and watched her to make sure she went in. The minutes passed and she still stood there, staring at the car. I unrolled the window and told her to go in and that I couldn't take her in because I wasn't ready. I was still in my pajamas. She eventually won. I hopped out of the car and took her to her class, where I left her watching me leave.

By the time I got back home it was nearly time to take Lys to preschool. I rushed and got ready and drove her over. She was sad because she had hoped we would have time before going that she could help me make the rice krispy treats for her class. I told her I would make them when I got back. We were a few minutes late to preschool, which was fine because a lot of the other kids were arriving at the same time.

I got home and made the treats for her and sat down to chat online with my family like I do most mornings. After a while I remembered that I needed to call the dentist. There is where my plans changed the most.

They asked me how soon I could get her in. The dentist who put in the filling only works Mondays and Tuesdays and leaves at 12:30 on those days. So instead of waiting for Molly to get out of kindergarten and then going over to Lyssa's preschool, I ended up getting Molly out a few minutes early. I took the treats and the Star of the Day sack over and told a little about Lys and let her pass out the treats and then we left as quickly as we could for the dentist. And hit nearly every light red.

The dentist put in a new filling but noted that when her filling came out that a piece of tooth came out with it so it really needs a crown rather than a filling. Lyssa had gotten herself worked up about getting a new filling so wasn't holding still enough to get the crown. He said that the filling will likely fall out sometime, but until then this should work. They want me to call after the holidays and schedule a sedated appointment to get a crown put on the tooth. Getting there as late as we did, I was surprised when we were done just before 12:30.

Funny how something that took at most a half hour of my plans could add some stress to the day. But at least it's done. And at least I didn't get charged anything for today.

Snow Fort

After the ward Christmas party on Saturday, the girls went and played with some neighbors and Russ went out with Jimmy to build a snow fort. They didn't quite finish it because after working on it for 2 hours, Russ got tired. He told them they'd finish another day. Here are a couple of pictures of Russ and Jimmy working on it. As you can see in the pictures, there are some downfalls to not being able to get the lawn mower started to clean up the leaves from the tree.

Yes, Jimmy was throwing a snowball at Russ here.

When the girls got home they were excited to go help with it. I never did get a picture of how tall they went with it. Which I should have done. The tops of the walls have fallen over so it's no taller than it looks in these pictures. Maybe even a little shorter. Ah well.

Ward Christmas Party & Our Tree

Saturday was our ward's Christmas party. Russ took the kids over while I stayed home with Dylan. Which is what would have happened even if Dylan weren't sick then, which he was. Russ thought to bring along the camera for pictures with Santa. Since I wasn't actually there, I don't have a lot to say about what happened. This post is mostly for pictures.

I think Lyssa's expression in this picture is funny. I just do.
I put this and the next picture in because here Jimmy is doing the rabbit ear thing to Santa. In the next, Santa is doing it back to Jimmy.

A couple of weeks ago the kids begged and begged to put up the Christmas tree. We've had our little tree since Russ and I got married. It's getting to be quite the sad little tree. Branches are breaking and everything. But it works. Since Dylan would pull off most ornaments anyway, I bought a few packages of candy canes to cover the tree. The kids had lots of fun putting them on. It should be noted that there are only a few left on the tree. All of which are ones Dylan can't reach. Which is kind of funny since he wasn't the only one taking them off the tree.
As you can see in this picture, Dylan was trying to eat the candy canes before they were even on the tree.

Molly really, really wanted to put one up high on the tree. She didn't knock the tree over putting it on. No, she waited a few days and then knocked it over grabbing a candy cane off.

Dylan vs. Insurance

Late this summer I got a call from the pediatrician's office asking if we were interested in getting the synagis shot (if you're unfamiliar with what the synagis shot is, it's a vaccination to help prevent RSV for those who qualify for it, given every 30 days) for Dylan again this year. Assuming that his cardiologist would recommend it again this year and remembering that the information on the shot had said that it is recommended for kids with heart defects until they are 2, I said yes. About a month ago I got another call from them to verify the insurance information. The nurse who is over getting insurance approval and keeping track of which kids get the synagis shot told me that thus far the insurance had been claiming no record of him and would resubmit the information to the insurance to get approval. This is a vaccination that is quite expensive so one typically doesn't get it without that approval.

At Dylan's last appointment with his cardiologist, he asked if he was getting the synagis shot. I told him we were still waiting on approval. He said that if they are having a hard time getting him approved to have them let him know and he would be happy to write a letter to the insurance company to try to get it approved because it's something he thinks he should have.

After a bit of not hearing back about it, I decided to call the pediatrician's office and ask about it and let them know about what his cardiologist had said. The nurse told me she would call them and see if she could find anything out and call me right back. She called me back shortly and told me that she had just received a fax from them requesting more information about his heart. She said she thought it would be a good idea to have the letter from the cardiologist to send along with that information and had me call him and ask that he fax her the letter so she could send it with the information she had to send.

Last week she called me again. She said that the insurance company denied the request for him to receive the shot, sent it immediately to appeals and denied it again, even with the letter. Apparently they've changed the parameters for those who receive the shot just in time for this cold and flu season, and he no longer fits in their parameters. She did send me a copy of the denial letter she had received. The reasons the letter states for denial are that he was full-term and post cardiac surgery, he is in his second RSV season and non on any cardiac medicines. Says he has "no CLD or other risk factors" and does not meet the "medical necessity criteria."

Don't ask me what CLD stands for. I have no idea. All I know is that I'm a little bit annoyed that they've denied him because I know how easily he seems to catch everything that comes around. Which is why we are keeping him home as much as we can, especially from places with large groups of people. We will take him to a few things like Emma's baptism. Of course, I'm thinking the question of taking him to the ward Christmas party and a wedding tomorrow (which I thought was a bad idea) isn't up for debate any longer. Dylan looked flushed tonight and I felt his forehead and it was warm. Took his temperature and sure enough, he has a fever. I'm thinking it's my fault. I've forgotten a few times in this bitterly cold weather to have his sisters use hand sanitizer or wash their hands before touching him after school and preschool. But then no one else in our family has had fevers recently. Par for the course, he seems to be starting this one. I am so looking forward to spring and summer.

December Birthday

Almost seems silly to do a beginning of the month birthday post for just one person. But I'm going to do it anyway. I know, I could easily wait until his actual birthday to wish him a happy birthday. Only problem with waiting is that some might think I forgot to do the birthday post this month. Or they won't even notice at all.

Anyway, happy birthday this month to Alex! Hope you have a great one!