I hate picking out baby names. This terrifies me because it such a big commitment. This poor kid is going to be stuck with the name I choose forever.

We are getting super close to having this baby so I figure that it is time to perfect my short list. With the past kiddos, I have made a short list and then can never commit or make a final decision. After the baby comes, Jeremy helps me by making the final choice. Thus he picked both Emma and Isaac.

I thought it would be fun to have a little poll and you all can vote for your favorite name. Now, I’ll tell you that we like more traditional names. We like them to be gender specific and I like everyone to know how to spell them. Pretty boring, eh? We also do not know the gender so vote for your favorite boy and girl name. Well, with that said…

It’s actually quintuplets, measuring in at one inch each. I am only 1 or 2 weeks from being due but lets not get to hopeful… our addition is much less exciting than a new little baby.

This is how it came to be…

Whenever I’m out for the night and Jer has the kids, they will occasionally entertain themselves by going to the pet store. Emma and Isaac love it and run around looking at all the different kinds of animals there.

I’ve been completely satisfied with only having a pooch at our house and I thought Jer was too but somehow, he and Emma got the idea of getting fish. I agreed pretty easily thinking we’d just get a few of the cheap 15 cent feeder fish, blung it into a bowl, and see how long they lived.

I admit we were a little ignorant on the requirements for owning fish. We soon learned that there are 2 philosophies on having fish:

The first being what I had initially thought: put a fish in a bowl, sprinkle fish food and waa laa… you have a fish.

The second train of thought requires much more effort than that: healthy happy fish need 1 gallon of water per one inch of fish. The water must be de-chlorinated, filtered and cleaned regularly. A tank of water must sit at room temp for 24 hours before adding any fish.  A new tank must be cultured with only 3 fish to establish a healthy bacterial environment and then others can be added after a few weeks. Fish need to be fed twice a day and some need companions. It’s an extensive process.

All this was learned when we were trying to buy our little bowl of cheap tiny fish. The pet store workers would not let us purchase fish without the proper tank and preparation. They were obviously advocates of fish and believers of the second philosophy. Talk about fish rights. Unbelievable! Do we really want to get ourselves into this?

Once you make a commitment to a little kid, ya just got to keep it. Emma was so excited and pumped up about this new pet that we couldn’t back down. Before we knew it our 15 cent fish ended up costing us around 80 dollars. Crazy, I know, but I guess it’s an investment. We’ll never have to buy a 10 gallon tank and a castle fish home again.

We have ended up with 5 tiny fish. 3 Neon Tetras and 2 Red Cherry Barbs. We did have one initial fatality (his name was sunshine and he was a yellow tailed guppy) but so far everyone in the house has enjoyed the little fish. Jer and the kids spend a few minutes before bed time watching them swim about and eat their dinner. It has turned into this little relaxing ritual. Emma has been quite responsible with her fish and is excited to show and tell to anyone willing. I just hope the excitement lasts long enough to make this new addition worth it.

Isaac wanted to be included in the picture taking. He was so proud that he had opened his mouth for the picture. Go figure.

Happy St Patties Day! I’ve mentioned before that I’m not much of a holiday girl. Nothing gets dyed green at my house. I didn’t even wear green. Come on though, don’t be to hard on me… my maternity wardrobe is limited.

My daughter, on the other hand, loves all the hype of a holiday and talks nonstop about it a week previous. She came home from school today, stripped off her blue and white uniform and decked her whole little self in green… many clashing shades.  I didn’t want to burst her bubble so off she went to play in that.  Now I’m  wondering why didn’t I take a picture? It would have made a cute scrapbook page.

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Today was absolutely lovely. The kids are feeling better and it was 60 something so we took the opportunity to spend most of the day out of doors. I think we hit 3 playgrounds in total. In the afternoon, we went on a nice little bike ride/walk with the dog. My friend asked me if I was trying to start labor by going on a walk. Uhhh, no. I know it wouldn’t work but the thought did cross my mind as I ridiculously waddled about the neighborhood.

I hate to admit it but Isaac out rides Emma by miles. I had to drag her most of the way and she complained about being hot and thirsty. Yes, it actually felt a bit warm. She’s such a girl though and it’s hard not to lose patience with her. Perhaps I should have a little bit more compassion for her… she has been watching cartoons all winter.

I managed to get some sunshine on my face and make my dull freckles pop out a bit more.  Don’t you feel healthier with a little bit of sun? Ahh! So nice! Bring on the spring, baby!

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Isaac had some more testing done today. It was to see if he qualified for a special preschool provided by the school district. The lady doing the test was great and Isaac actually cooperated. Yea! Turns out that he is a little too brilliant for the preschool but is a perfect applicant for an articulation class that they offer. He scored a wopping 1% for his age in articulation. The class is simillar to a preschool in their activities and such but they work strickly on making and learning sounds. It’s once a week for an hour and he can start as soon as he turns 3. It sounds perfect for Isaac so we are happy about it.

Since my last post Isaac has remained pretty sick. He has been coughing like a barking seal and has had a pretty consistent fever. He has been so lethargic. He’s been napping a ton throughout the day, wants nothing but cuddling with mom when he’s awake, and wakes up a bunch throughout the night with coughing fits. His coughing fits have been so bad that he often will start gagging and throw up. I feel so sorry for the little guy.

Emma has recently joined Isaac in his coughing fits. I feel like I’m conducting a coughing choir. Their hacking is so awful I’m sure that anyone to hear them would not waste a moment in turning and running away. Emma only had a fever for a day and is pretty much back to normal. Her spirits are high and she is acting quite healthy besides her hack. The questions is… do I send her to school?

On Saturday we started to worry about Isaac. We thought that 4 days of fever was too much. We took him to the urgent care just to make sure he didn’t have pneumonia or something like that. While in the waiting room, the nurse heard him coughing and rushed him into the back. When they tested his oxygen levels they were really low. They immediately suggested to start oxygen treatment and an ambulance ride to the children’s hospital. Jer wasn’t that worried about him and knew he could drive him instead. My mommy alert wasn’t on either.

Upon arrival at the children’s hospital, Isaac’s oxygen levels had already risen to a safe number. They kept him for a while for observation, had a million doctors poke and prod and pretty much concluded that he only had an ear infection. Isaac has never once complained about his ears.

Today I have been hopeful that he is making improvement. He did get up to play for a minute with his daddy and even managed to make some trouble. Jer mentioned how nice it was that Isaac was acting more “normal.” I’m pretty much tired of little sick kiddos and hope this week will be much better.

…besides I need a healthy house and some rest for when this baby comes.

On Monday I took Isaac up to Primary Childrens Hospital for his Cranial Facial appointment. If you are just tuning in, the appointment was encouraged by Isaac’s speech therapist. She wanted to see if Isaac had any soft palette problems that would be hindering his progress in therapy (because he is not making much.) We had our doubts but were curious enough to go through with it.

After spending 3 hours in the waiting room and seeing 3 specialist for about 5 min each, we walked away a bit confused. 2 out of the 3 specialist thought they saw a possible bifid uvula in Isaac’s mouth.

You know the little dangly thing in the back of your throat? The one that the cartoon characters hang on to while they are being swallowed. Ya, it is suppose to be a U shape and a bifid uvula looks more like a W. The muscles haven’t closed properly. If it is there, it would indicate a cleft palette and other soft palette problems.

But it must be understood that Isaac was complete uncooperative. He would not talk, he would not open his month. He resisted every effort to get inside his mouth. He puckered up his lips, clenched his teeth and buried his little body into my arms. I was expecting a childrens hospital to be much more creative and exposed to this type of situation. But no, the doctors rooms were sterile, toyless and the docs had no idea how to get Isaac to warm up to them. They merely asked him how old his was and what was on his shirt. Isaac is much smarter than this. They then resorted to jamming and gagging him with a tongue depressor to get a look inside. Needless to say their looks were limited.

The first doc was a plastic surgeon. The most limited look perhaps but was almost certain he saw a bifid uvula. I was pretty surprised and thought “Gee, maybe this explains everything.” He suggested further studies to be sure.

The second doc was an ear, nose, throat guy. (Turns out he was the surgeon that had performed Isaac’s aspirated peanut surgery summer of 2007.) He said he got a pretty good look and said there was no bifid uvula. He only suggested a 6 month follow up to see if Isaac was progressing in his language at all.

The 3rd specialist was a speech therapist. She was the friendliest and Isaac actually opened his mouth for her on his own. Her view was still limited because of his tongue but she thought she saw a possible split. She suggested pushing forward with speech therapy. Even if he has a split, he is able to make some closure with his throat so nothing more would be done than that at this point.

There is something called a nasaloscopy where they stick a camera down the kids nose and have them talk. Then they can actually see if the throat is closing properly. It was obvious to everyone that Isaac would not cooperate with this procedure.

So now I just wait for a report. The team gets together and discusses their findings and make a plan for Isaac. I’m interested to learn what they decide because I was quite disappointed in the appointments themselves. I just wanted to say… “Take another look! Give me an answer!”

Isaac’s speech therapist was equally disappointed. I didn’t mention that she had come with me to the appointments. Once Isaac turns 3, in a month, she will no longer be working with him so I think she is anxious to get something concluded. She would really like further studies but I’m feeling more like… wait and see how he matures. It would certainly be easier to tell if something was actually wrong at age 5. But then there is the idea about early intervention and catch it early kind of stuff…. sigh!

So now Isaac has come down with a bad cough and a fever. I’ve enjoyed my little cuddle bug. It’s obvious he doesn’t feel good. He just went and tucked himself in for a nap which is extremely rare for my wild guy.

I sure love you Isaac! …if you are talking or not.

I was looking through Jer’s iphone photos and realized he had a lot of photos that I don’t have, some that I had never even seen. He obviously has his phone on him more than I have my camera on me. The scrapbooker/blogger in me can’t just let those photos go undocumented. I have to do something with them… so I thought I share some of my favorites.

This one is most recent and a pretty good belly shot. Ahh, my sweet little guy! We were visiting the Great Grandmas last week (thus the awesome floral couch) and we were two tuckered out bodies. Isaac’s world sure is going to change when that large mass finally comes out of my tummy.

This is the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving point. You’d think that Isaac would love this stuff but he spent most of his time trying to run away and even succeeded once. He doesn’t even like the gigantic sand and water box they have to play in. He’d rather die than stick his hands into that mess. Strange. Every person on the planet loves that stuff; even the grown ups get down and dirty.

This is boys night out at the Jazz game. I don’t know much about it other than it takes popcorn and treats to get Isaac to stay put in his seat. I do like the photo though because having Isaac wrap his arm around your neck is one of the best things in the world. Ahhh… my boys look pretty cute, eh? Go Jazz!

If it is a boring Saturday afternoon and you ask Emma what she wants to do, she’ll say “Go to the bird park!” She loves animals. What a darling girl.  I think this loves comes from her father who is always pointing out the hawks as we drive down the freeway. This is at Tracy Aviary in Salt lake. This next photo is the kids feeding the pelicans there. It was pretty cool. My kids were not afraid in the least bit to touch the slimy fish while there were other little tykes that needed a bit of encouragement.

There are a lot of things you can find at Costco… even Isaac.

Rupunzle, Rupunzle, let down your long hair!! This looks like any princesses dream. This was at Cornbelly’s at Thanksgiving Point in the fall. This is one of the photos I’d never seen nor was I there at the moment. I was busy keeping Isaac off of the tractors.

Well, that’s all for now. I need to decide if I’m going to go back and scrapbook the 100+ photos Jer has on his phone. I thought I was done with 2008. Do any of you bother saving phone photos? Some of them are just too cute to let slip into undocumentation.