So it looks like December is already going to be a busy month, even before you put in holiday stuff.
I went to the dentist yesterday morning for a regular cleaning, and yep, I get to go back next month for a new filling. Well, mostly to replace an old filling, I think. It's starting to pull away and in order to avoid all that I had to go through with my one tooth, we're going to take care of it now. Well, on the 10th of December, anyway.
Yesterday afternoon, the urologist office called to schedule Chris's surgery. They had a cancellation on the 15th of December, so I could either do it then or wait until the end of January. I decided to have us do it then. Get it over with, along with the added bonus of not having to fill the deductible again right away. I also get to take him back in to their office on the 12th to make sure he's healthy and to get some last-minute instructions. After the surgery, we're supposed to take him back about 2 weeks later. I'm thinking with the holidays that might make it be in January sometime, but you never know.
Add in Alex's regular speech therapy sessions and a well-baby check-up for Daniel, and my calendar is filling up fast. I also still need to schedule his follow-up appointment from when he got the tubes in his ears, so that will probably be the first week of December.
Bryce and Ben both have off school and work for the two weeks around Christmas and New Year's, so I'm sure we'll have plenty to do then. And don't forget Alex's birthday on the 30th. Somewhere before then I'll have to squeeze in Christmas shopping too.
I'm just glad I don't have to figure out how to schedule work off with all this. It's certainly nice being a stay at home mom.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Speech Therapy and Urologist
Alex had his typical speech therapy appointment today. The thing that made today a little more unusual was that Chris had an appointment with a urologist in Meridian a little less than an hour after Alex's speech therapy usually gets out.
In order to not be rushing the whole time, I took all the kids with me to the appointments. I really was tempted to leave Chris and Daniel at Katie's for speech therapy, then drop off Alex and pick up Chris after, but I decided it would just be easier and less stressful time-wise to just bring them with me. And it would give Katie a whole week without having to watch my kids, so a definite bonus for her.
Chris and Daniel seemed to have a pretty good time in the waiting room during Alex's speech therapy. We had brought along a few toys from home, but they mostly ignored those and played with the toys that were already in the waiting room. When Alex was done, Trisha said he had done an awesome job and gave us some 'sh' papers to work on at home for the week.
We loaded back in the van and headed to Chris's appointment and ended up with about 15 or 20 minutes to kill, so I picked us up some lunch and let the boys start eating it before we went in for the appointment. Daniel fell asleep in the van though, so he got to wait to eat any of his until after the appointment.
We handed the receptionist the paperwork they had mailed us earlier, along with a copy of Chris's insurance card (we have separate cards for each person in our family even though we're all on the same plan), then sat down to wait in the waiting area. The boys thought it was pretty cool to be able to look over the balcony to the floor below. I thought it was pretty interesting to see the shackled prison inmate come in with his 2 armed guard escorts. Yes, he got to go back immediately.
When the receptionist had entered all our information, she led us back to another waiting area, but this one had a train set to play with, so the boys were pretty excited. And when the nurse came to get us, she let them take some of the trains back with them. Of course, the trains didn't stop Daniel from opening all the drawers and cupboards in the examination room. (As an aside here, I cleaned my downstairs bathroom this morning and was all happy that I hadn't gotten any bleach from my toilet bowl cleaner on my clothes like I've been doing lately. In the examination room, Daniel knocked over a squirt bottle that was under the sink and spilled its contents. I cleaned it up as well as I could, then noticed that yes, it was a bleach product, and yes, it had gotten on the arm of my sweater. Bummer.)
After a wait of 5 or so minutes (which can sometimes seem longer when you've got 3 very active boys playing in an examination room), the doctor came in and examined Chris. He does have what is called a hydraseal (I'm not sure on the spelling). She said adults can get them, but they worry about them in kids Chris's age because they can stay and get bigger and cause pain and other problems. So like I expected, Chris will need to have surgery to take care of it. The doctor is going to give the information to her scheduler who will call us and schedule his surgery. It will likely be after the first of the year, just because so many people try to get things like this in before the end of the year and so the schedule fills up quickly.
So lucky Ben will be the only one of my kids so far who has not had surgery of any kind. I hope he doesn't decide that he wants to try surgery too.
In order to not be rushing the whole time, I took all the kids with me to the appointments. I really was tempted to leave Chris and Daniel at Katie's for speech therapy, then drop off Alex and pick up Chris after, but I decided it would just be easier and less stressful time-wise to just bring them with me. And it would give Katie a whole week without having to watch my kids, so a definite bonus for her.
Chris and Daniel seemed to have a pretty good time in the waiting room during Alex's speech therapy. We had brought along a few toys from home, but they mostly ignored those and played with the toys that were already in the waiting room. When Alex was done, Trisha said he had done an awesome job and gave us some 'sh' papers to work on at home for the week.
We loaded back in the van and headed to Chris's appointment and ended up with about 15 or 20 minutes to kill, so I picked us up some lunch and let the boys start eating it before we went in for the appointment. Daniel fell asleep in the van though, so he got to wait to eat any of his until after the appointment.
We handed the receptionist the paperwork they had mailed us earlier, along with a copy of Chris's insurance card (we have separate cards for each person in our family even though we're all on the same plan), then sat down to wait in the waiting area. The boys thought it was pretty cool to be able to look over the balcony to the floor below. I thought it was pretty interesting to see the shackled prison inmate come in with his 2 armed guard escorts. Yes, he got to go back immediately.
When the receptionist had entered all our information, she led us back to another waiting area, but this one had a train set to play with, so the boys were pretty excited. And when the nurse came to get us, she let them take some of the trains back with them. Of course, the trains didn't stop Daniel from opening all the drawers and cupboards in the examination room. (As an aside here, I cleaned my downstairs bathroom this morning and was all happy that I hadn't gotten any bleach from my toilet bowl cleaner on my clothes like I've been doing lately. In the examination room, Daniel knocked over a squirt bottle that was under the sink and spilled its contents. I cleaned it up as well as I could, then noticed that yes, it was a bleach product, and yes, it had gotten on the arm of my sweater. Bummer.)
After a wait of 5 or so minutes (which can sometimes seem longer when you've got 3 very active boys playing in an examination room), the doctor came in and examined Chris. He does have what is called a hydraseal (I'm not sure on the spelling). She said adults can get them, but they worry about them in kids Chris's age because they can stay and get bigger and cause pain and other problems. So like I expected, Chris will need to have surgery to take care of it. The doctor is going to give the information to her scheduler who will call us and schedule his surgery. It will likely be after the first of the year, just because so many people try to get things like this in before the end of the year and so the schedule fills up quickly.
So lucky Ben will be the only one of my kids so far who has not had surgery of any kind. I hope he doesn't decide that he wants to try surgery too.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Parent/Teacher Conferences
Ben had parent/teacher conferences last night. Our appointment with his teacher was for 5:00, which was the very first appointment. Of course, we managed to be about 5 minutes late to it. It turned out okay though.
We weren't surprised by anything at the conference. Ben's a smart kid who is already at or beyond the spring level for his grade, especially in reading. Occasionally he has a hard time keeping his hands to himself and listening to all the rules, but he's been working hard at doing better.
His grades on his report card were all E's (exceeds grade level/expectations) and S's (satisfies grade level/expectations), so he's doing really well so far.
They were having a book fair at the school too. Ben seemed pretty excited to be able to check it out, so we went there after and got him 4 new books. He came home and read 3 of them straight through and is still working on the 4th, which was a bit longer with 9 chapters.
So good job, Ben!
We weren't surprised by anything at the conference. Ben's a smart kid who is already at or beyond the spring level for his grade, especially in reading. Occasionally he has a hard time keeping his hands to himself and listening to all the rules, but he's been working hard at doing better.
His grades on his report card were all E's (exceeds grade level/expectations) and S's (satisfies grade level/expectations), so he's doing really well so far.
They were having a book fair at the school too. Ben seemed pretty excited to be able to check it out, so we went there after and got him 4 new books. He came home and read 3 of them straight through and is still working on the 4th, which was a bit longer with 9 chapters.
So good job, Ben!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Daniel's tubes
Today was Daniel's big day. We got up early because we had to be at the hospital at 6:30, so that meant we had to leave at 6:00. Daniel didn't even seem to mind being woken up at such an early hour. He's a good kid. He even just sat in the van and jabbered the whole way to the hospital.
We got to the hospital (it's a very small, no emergency services hospital) and were greeted by a very friendly receptionist, then sat down to wait in the lobby. Daniel was a bit shy at first and just wanted to sit on my lap, but after a few minutes, he wanted to explore and would play with the other people in the waiting room. After a few minutes of waiting, they took us back to go over some paperwork, then sent us back out to wait for the nurse to come get us.
After waiting a bit longer, the nurse finally came and got us and took us to the pre-op room where she took Daniel's temperature and blood ox level and had me change him into his gown. She also went over a bunch more paperwork and then left us to wait in there. Daniel really wanted to get out of the tiny room and go explore, but he had to wait there. The anesthesiologist came in to explain how they were going to put him under for a few minutes, then snuck out. A couple of minutes after he left, a different nurse came in and took Daniel back to the operating room. Daniel was not happy that they took him from his mom. I got to go wait for him in the recovery room.
Here's Daniel in his gown:
Less than 10 minutes after they took him away, they brought a sleeping Daniel to me and put him in my arms. He didn't stay sleeping for long. He then spent the next 15 minutes crying. During that time, a nurse brought a cup of apple juice for him and the doctor came out to say that the surgery had gone well and to call him if we had any concerns or questions.
After the 15 minutes of crying, Daniel finally calmed down and drank the apple juice they brought and wanted more. The nurse brought him out another cup and a couple of graham crackers just as they were letting us go home. Daniel perked right up as soon as we went outside. He was happy to be going home.
Now that he's home, he's acting like everything is normal. So it's nice that the surgery went well and he's happy and hopefully won't be getting as many ear infections.
We got to the hospital (it's a very small, no emergency services hospital) and were greeted by a very friendly receptionist, then sat down to wait in the lobby. Daniel was a bit shy at first and just wanted to sit on my lap, but after a few minutes, he wanted to explore and would play with the other people in the waiting room. After a few minutes of waiting, they took us back to go over some paperwork, then sent us back out to wait for the nurse to come get us.
After waiting a bit longer, the nurse finally came and got us and took us to the pre-op room where she took Daniel's temperature and blood ox level and had me change him into his gown. She also went over a bunch more paperwork and then left us to wait in there. Daniel really wanted to get out of the tiny room and go explore, but he had to wait there. The anesthesiologist came in to explain how they were going to put him under for a few minutes, then snuck out. A couple of minutes after he left, a different nurse came in and took Daniel back to the operating room. Daniel was not happy that they took him from his mom. I got to go wait for him in the recovery room.
Here's Daniel in his gown:
Less than 10 minutes after they took him away, they brought a sleeping Daniel to me and put him in my arms. He didn't stay sleeping for long. He then spent the next 15 minutes crying. During that time, a nurse brought a cup of apple juice for him and the doctor came out to say that the surgery had gone well and to call him if we had any concerns or questions.
After the 15 minutes of crying, Daniel finally calmed down and drank the apple juice they brought and wanted more. The nurse brought him out another cup and a couple of graham crackers just as they were letting us go home. Daniel perked right up as soon as we went outside. He was happy to be going home.
Now that he's home, he's acting like everything is normal. So it's nice that the surgery went well and he's happy and hopefully won't be getting as many ear infections.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Halloween fun
So I'm finally getting around to posting about our Halloween. The boys were very excited that it was Halloween all day long and had the added treat of having their dad home for the day too.
We would have gone to do something fun during the day, but with Alex's speech therapy in the middle of the day, it made it hard to go do something. Alex was excited that he was able to get some candy at speech therapy though. And he actually talked most of the time and didn't have as long of a stretch as he usually does with refusing to try to say the sound Trisha wants him to say.
After a late lunch, we started carving the pumpkins. Ben was pretty excited to start cleaning out his pumpkin, until he decided it was too messy. So I got to clean out most of the pumpkins while Bryce would carve the faces according to the boys' directions. Of course, I didn't take a picture of the pumpkins, but the boys thought they were a lot of fun to make. Ben said that was his favorite part of the day.
After we finished with the pumpkins, we got out the costumes and let everyone get ready. After everyone was ready (some having to take their costumes off to use the bathroom), we headed out for trick-or-treating. Ben and Alex wanted to run on ahead to each house while Chris and Daniel were a bit slower. Daniel was funny when he noticed that he had candy in his bucket and wanted to stop right there to eat it. We didn't go out for very long, but the boys got plenty of candy.
Here are pictures of the boys in their costumes.
Ben as Batman:
Alex as Bumblebee:
Chris as a skeleton:
Daniel as a lion:
The boys all together and ready to go:
When we got back home, I made our traditional Halloween dinner of Mummy dogs and mac and cheese. The boys even pretended that the ketchup was blood to keep the whole theme going. They would get very excited every time the doorbell rang and wanted to help pass out candy.
After dinner, we watched some Goosebumps on Cartoon Network together for a bit, then sent the boys to bed. I was really surprised that they went to bed so easily after having such an exciting day.
We would have gone to do something fun during the day, but with Alex's speech therapy in the middle of the day, it made it hard to go do something. Alex was excited that he was able to get some candy at speech therapy though. And he actually talked most of the time and didn't have as long of a stretch as he usually does with refusing to try to say the sound Trisha wants him to say.
After a late lunch, we started carving the pumpkins. Ben was pretty excited to start cleaning out his pumpkin, until he decided it was too messy. So I got to clean out most of the pumpkins while Bryce would carve the faces according to the boys' directions. Of course, I didn't take a picture of the pumpkins, but the boys thought they were a lot of fun to make. Ben said that was his favorite part of the day.
After we finished with the pumpkins, we got out the costumes and let everyone get ready. After everyone was ready (some having to take their costumes off to use the bathroom), we headed out for trick-or-treating. Ben and Alex wanted to run on ahead to each house while Chris and Daniel were a bit slower. Daniel was funny when he noticed that he had candy in his bucket and wanted to stop right there to eat it. We didn't go out for very long, but the boys got plenty of candy.
Here are pictures of the boys in their costumes.
Ben as Batman:
Alex as Bumblebee:
Chris as a skeleton:
Daniel as a lion:
The boys all together and ready to go:
When we got back home, I made our traditional Halloween dinner of Mummy dogs and mac and cheese. The boys even pretended that the ketchup was blood to keep the whole theme going. They would get very excited every time the doorbell rang and wanted to help pass out candy.
After dinner, we watched some Goosebumps on Cartoon Network together for a bit, then sent the boys to bed. I was really surprised that they went to bed so easily after having such an exciting day.
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