The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

Well, this week was eventful!  Monday was Presidents day and as a result my hubby didn’t have to go to work or school.  YAY!!!  We decided to celebrate by going back to Layton Surf and Swim (after calling first to make sure that the waves were working).  It was a lot of fun and Aiden enjoyed the waves a lot.  I think that they were relaxing and soothing for him.  His favorite though is crawling around in the shallow end and then climbing up the stairs.  Aiden also got his first taste of honey on Monday (we did get the go ahead from the pediatrician so don’t worry!).  He seemed to really like it. 

Tuesday was uneventful.  Wednesday my hubby went to Baskin Robbins to pick up the chocolate strawberry sundaes that we meant to get for Valentine’s day.  So happy Valentine’s day to me again.  🙂  They are sooo good, two scoops of chocolate ice cream (I get three) strawberries, strawberry syrup, whipped cream, and hot fudge.  Oh yum!  This day was also momentous because Aiden took 9 steps in a row.  This is the most he had taken and we declared that he had now begun walking.  (You can view videos of Aiden walking on our Adventure blog.)  I also noticed that Aiden had little red bumps showing up on his face, tummy, back, arms, and legs that I was concerned about but after talking to my mom and to Brandon, and recognizing that Aiden was not scratching them, did not have a fever, and did not even seem to be bothered by them, that he was probably ok and that we just needed to keep an eye on them.  My mom thinks that he might be allergic to honey, or raw strawberries.  It could also have been heat rash or some sort of delayed reaction to the MMR shot that he got on the 9th. 

Thursday Aiden took 20 or so steps in a row.  Watching your baby learn to walk is one of the most incredible and cute things in the whole entire world.  I love it.  Anyway, Brandon and I also decided to spend a little bit of money from our impending refund on some things that will make our trip to Florida a little bit easier.  Instead of a pack and play which is large and unwieldy (especially ours because it doesn’t have a carry case and they are sort of heavy) we decided to purchase a KidCo PeaPod Plus.  I found a really excellent deal on one and it will be here by the end of the February.  Here is the link for those of you who are curious http://www.kidco.com/main.taf?p=4,5  It will only weigh about 5 lbs. and folds up really compactly.  I also had heard about a cool product called a Tie Chair while watching Good Things Utah.  So I went to the sites and noticed that they are $50.00. Oi.  So I looked up several patterns for a “sling” chair or tie on high chair improvised the pattern a little bit to make it more like what I wanted and the following pictures are the finished result.  A lightweight washable “high chair” so that I don’t have to pack Aiden’s portable (and space taking) high chair to Florida.  We also helped my grandma do a little grocery shopping.

Friday Aiden was walking about as much as he was crawling.  He likes to use whatever method is most convenient at the time.  If he is standing up then he will turn around and walk to wherever he wants to go and if he is sitting then he will crawl.  He also crawls if he has fallen on his tush while walking.  He was also giving me a difficult time at nap time and when he had finally quieted down I began to hear a strange sound over the baby monitor.  When I went to investigate imagine my surprise to see Aiden pulling on one of the velcro tabs of his diaper, the other being already unfastened.  He is just too smart for his own good… 😉

Friday evening after Aiden was in bed I went to craft night for the ladies in my ward.  It was fun to chat with other woman and to work more on the tie on high chair that I was working on.  We talked about everything from pregnancy and child rearing, to Disney theme parks, birthdays, and Sunbeams.  I enjoyed myself a lot and I wish that they would have craft night more often.

Saturday we were originally going to go to parent tot swim with Brandon, then he and I were going to go and see Romeo and Juliet at Pioneer Theatre.  Well plans ended up needing to change a little bit but we still went to parent tot together and it went a lot better.  I am still feeling a little bit like maybe the class was uneccessary because Aiden is such a little fish but he is learning to kick a little bit and he is also learning some of the arm movements that you use when you swim.  In the evening I went to a stake Relief Society activity.  I had high hopes of finding the gals that I had crafted with and sitting by them so that I could get to know them better.  They weren’t there so I ended up sitting nearish some of the ladies in the ward but there were spanish speakers all around me and although I could understand a word here and there I sat there unable to chat with anyone.  On top of that the activity was commemorating a year long, “Read the Book” activity that I had not even known about or been a part of.  Needless to say I left after the first speaker.  (Besides that I was sitting next to a tiny baby and that was making me miss Aiden as well as the tiny baby he used to be, I also started thinking about how I had better call my visiting teaching girls and get primary stuff finished.)  Also on Saturday we stopped for lunch on the way back to me dad’s from Aiden’s swimming lesson and we got three kiddie cones at Arctic Circle.  I took most of the top off of Aiden’s so that it wouldn’t make a huge mess and then let him hold it and feed it to himself (he was having a bath when we got home anyway so I didn’t care.)  He loved it!

So Sunday, was just a usual Sunday.  We made a yummy crispy pesto chicken with garlic mashed potatoes for dinner and it was DELISH!  We made the pesto from scratch because I can’t have regular pesto due to it containing pine nuts.  (I learned this the hard way by eating what was the most delicious pesto pasta in Italy and then getting sick three times and feeling miserable all night.  Needless to say my room mate found out for me that there are pine nuts in pesto.)  Well that is that, until next week, thanks for reading…

Hey, I just wanted to share a few things that I have come across.  If you need baby or kid items for a good price then make sure you check out Kid to Kid (there are several locations in Utah) for gently used clothes (they even have maternity clothes), strollers, cribs, bassinets, car seats, toys, etc, before stopping in at Wal-mart or Target.  You can also check out Craigslist at http://saltlakecity.craigslist.org/bab/ for listings of inexpensive baby items.

Also, I heard these great tips on Good Things Utah yesterday and I wanted to share them.  They are some new uses for everyday household products, enjoy!

Toothpaste:

Great to clean and polish sterling silver, gently rub on your silver and then rinse with warm water, polish with a soft cloth… don’t scrub the polish on, just gently rub, if needed you can use a soft soft bristle tooth brush, but be very gentle, let the toothpaste do the work to remove tarnish.

Fill a nail hole in the wall – must be paste not gel, fill the hole and use your finger to level it even, when it’s dried you can paint over it. (remember dabbing paint with a Q-tip is easier and cleaner than trying to paint with a brush and get rid of brush strokes)

Temporary way to hang paper or art projects on a wall is to use toothpaste, use it like a glue, smudge some on the corners, press, hold.. when it dries it will hold the project up… and when you peel it down, you just wipe the toothpaste of with a damp cloth

Dental Floss:

If you don’t have a cheese slicer, no problem, wrap the ends of dental floss around your fingers and slice through the cheese… obviously you should opt to NOT use minty floss for this… it also works great with cheesecake

Do you have cookies that don’t want to come off the cookie sheet, no problem, same thing, slice the floss under the cookies and lift them off

Try dental floss instead of thread for heavy mending project, particularly tents, canvas bags, backpacks… waxed floss even works better since it will slide through the material easily… floss is stronger and will hold your mend well, after you tie the knot, drop a tiny dot of crazy glue to hold it in place and seal the knot

Mouthwash (it needs to be alcohol based, sugarless mouthwash):

Freshen up smelly gym socks in the washer, sometimes the wash cycle just doesn’t do the trick, add a cup of mouthwash to the wash cycle.

Disinfect your counters, spray on your counter and use like an antiseptic cleanser for your kitchen and bathroom counters, pour a ¼ cup in your toilet bowl to help disinfect and clean your toilet as well.

You can also use it as an astringent for cleansing your face, dab some on a cotton ball and gently wipe your face, you should feel a tingling sensation. Rinse with warm water followed by a splash of cold and you will feel clean and refreshed.

Denture Cleaner:

Clean your diamonds, drop the tablet in a glass of water just like required for dentures, but place your diamond jewels in, when you remove and rinse, your diamonds will sparkle (do not use on pearls)

Clean the flower scum from narrow necked vases, or hard water stains from glasses or coffee decanters, match the amount of water to right number of tablets, fill and drop in the tablets, after fizzing stops, rinse and all the stains and scum will be removed.

Clean your toothbrush, after all they are used to clean dentures, they work really well with your toothbrush too! For that matter, other items you may want to clean, binkies, retainers, mouth guards… etc.

You can also drop 4 tablets into your toilet bowl to get rid of stains and rings around your toilet.

Before I begin I thought that I ought to post a picture of Aiden’s birthday cake from his party last week so here it is…

Well, I think it is about time for spring to arrive don’t you?  I am tired of spending all day most days inside and so is my son.  He really enjoys being outdoors and I want to start grooming my dad’s backyard so that we can spend most of our spring days back there.  It needs a lot of work but I plan to start by clearing off the patio area, and raking all of the dead grass/plants/leaves into a big pile and hauling it away.  From there I will work first on the lower portion of the yard to get that area useable and I may or may not worry about the upper part of the yard.  We will see how much work everything else is first.  😉

This past week Aiden had his one year shots and the pediatrician said that everything looks fine.  She also gave us the go ahead to feed him honey.  I spent a lot of the week preparing stuff for nursery this week which went pretty well.  One of the boys kept flip flopping from wanting do what Aiden was doing, to trying to be in charge of him, to pushing him away, taking his book, and attempting to kick him.  I had to leave the room because I needed to cry, I didn’t like my son being picked on.  Other then that though our lesson was a success. 

Friday we took Aiden to have his 1 year photos taken.  They turned out very cute and we will show people when we get them. Saturday was a very busy day but things seemed to go pretty well.  In the morning Aiden and I went to parent and tot swimming lessons.  This was my first time at the South Davis Rec Center since it stopped being the “Bountiful Bubble”  I was impressed by what I saw.  It has two swimming areas (I only saw the one) as well as climbing walls, ice skating, and various work out things.  It was not at all recognizable as the place I used to go when I was young.  After swimming Aiden and I picked up Brandon and the three of us headed to my aunt’s.  She was having an open house and so we wanted to stop in briefly to make our traditional Valentine’s cookies. 

Our Digital Valentine From Us to You!

After that we took Aiden to my mom’s to be tended.  It was his nap time so I laid him down before we left.  While Aiden was at my mom’s Brandon and I went to see Home School Musical at Desert Star.  It was HILARIOUS.  It had everything from Twilight references to a character called Linoleum Dynomite (who incidentally did the whole dance from the movie.)  On top of that it very loosely followed the storyline of High School Musical.  The olio afterwards was the one where they sing songs from the 1950’s and such.  (My favorite olio all year.)  Anyway, this was a great way to spend Valentine’s Day. 

After the show we picked Aiden up from my mom’s and went to Golden Corral for dinner.  I ate way too much but it was delicious and I got to eat steak.  YUM!  We ended the evening by watching Fireproof from the redbox.  I really liked Fireproof because it is one of those movies that really gets you thinking.  I am so glad to have Brandon for eternity and that we have The Church of Jesus Christ and it’s teachings and commandments in our lives.  Those commandments that I live safeguard us from some of the things that cause marriages to fall apart for those without religion (for example, many addictions aren’t going to put strain on a marriage because we have the word of wisdom which teaches us to refrain from things such as alcohol and drugs).  It also enriches and strengthens the relationship that Brandon and I have.  I also must mention that my sweet hubby bought me a bouquet of flowers for Valentine’s.  (I always tell him not to buy roses because of the inflated cost at Valentine’s.)

Then of course I already wrote about church so I guess that is everything for today.  I did start working on our taxes this weekend and we look forward to receiving our tax refunds.  I will tell you what though, I have learned more then I ever wanted to learn about doing taxes after filing a 2007 federal amendment and working on the utah amendment to go with it.  It is all very complicated.

Wow, I spent the week in a constant fog of the million things I needed/wanted to accomplish before/for Aiden’s birthday party.  So, bare with me as I attempt to remember any of the things from earlier then saturday of this past week.  I suppose the thing most worth mentioning is that Aiden has been taking one step here and one step there throughout the week.  He also can stand from a sitting position and will stand on his own for a good 30-60 seconds until he realizes he is unassisted and sits down or reaches out to grab onto something.  Silly boy.

I honestly don’t remember what went on this week aside from the usual dishes, laundry, grocery shopping and television programs.  I did create a slideshow for Aiden’s birthday and we made copies to give out as a party favor.  It turned out really cute and it was a lot of fun to look through old photos as I put it together (old being from Aiden’s birth).  I have been emotional about his turning one.  I mean he is truly no longer a baby.  He has been operating like a toddler for 3-4 months now and I really miss those cuddly days when he was little.  His birthday party was at my grandma’s and we ate pigs in a blanket, cheese in a blanket, french fries, and pasta salad.  We drank grape juice.  Aiden’s cake was from Glaus bakery (of course I would not get cake anywhere else) and was pineapple rum cake (my mom’s favorite).  We got him his own little wedge of cake so as to prevent him from obliterating the cake for the guests and it was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and cherry filling (my favorite from Glaus).  He was very tentative as he ate it, until he decided to lean down and attempt the doggy eating out of it’s bowl method.  But then he resumed just picking the frosting off of the top.  We watched the slideshow that I made and then Aiden (or rather Brandon and I) opened Aiden’s gifts.  He got a lot of cute clothes, a few fun toys, and I made some wall hangings for his room.  He also got 5 parent and tot swim lessons at our local rec center which will start next Saturday (as well as cloth swim diapers to go with it).  I am excited for that, I would like to start having mommy and Aiden field trips once a week on Friday or Saturday so for the next 5 weeks swim lessons will be his field trip.  Yesterday evening Brandon and I watched Swing Vote while Aiden played and I enjoyed it.  It caused me to do more thinking about the two party system and the way politics works and I am a little frustrated by the whole thing.  Until I can accurately put into writing what my thoughts and feelings are on the whole thing I will wait to write about it. 

Today was our second week teaching the sunbeams in primary and we had 5 this week instead of 4.  It went ok, we had decided to have everyone sit around the table and stuck the two kids who stay seated in between the kids who don’t.  We have one young man who is just completely distracted and was trying to follow Aiden around all of class time despite our repeated attempts to have him sit down.  (Last week Aiden had fallen asleep and as a result was not much of a distraction.)  Next week we want to take stickers as an incentive and plan to fill out some “Caught being good” slips for two more of the kids in our class.  We were also thinking about trying to have them sit on the floor next week instead of chairs just to see if this would work better.  I don’t know.  I just can’t figure out how to keep Aiden from being such a distraction during class time.  Well, I guess that is all.  If we get Aiden’s nursery all finished being decorated this week then I will post pictures but don’t hold your breath!  😉  Until next week, thanks for reading…

Why hello everyone!  It never ceases to amaze how one day it is Monday and the next is Friday.  The weeks are just flying by.  In fact, when I right next Aiden will be one year old.  ONE!!!  Can you believe it?  I am having trouble believing it myself.  I mean I just brought him home from the hospital a few weeks ago, right?  LOL.  Now seriously, he has grown, developed, and learned a lot in a year and it has been an amazing thing to watch. 

So, this week… On Monday my visiting teachers came over.  It was fun to chat with them and to realize that every mother struggles with one thing or another.  We also watched 24. 

Tuesday was fun, we rented Igor from the red box.  Igor is definitely a movie that I want to own.  I didn’t really know what the story line was going to be like, I mostly figured it would be about the Igor and his invention and then him winning and becoming a famous Igor but it has a good lesson that can be learned and the story line is actually much more detailed and slightly different from what I anticipated.  It is a good family friendly show and I liked it.

Wednesday my grandma came and picked Aiden and I up and we went shopping with her.  She had to get some gifts for February birthdays and she also wanted to go to Seagull Book.  We had a lot of fun shopping with her.  In the evening we watched American Idol and of course, Lost.  I don’t know why American Idol is so intriguing to me.  I only got very interested in it last year when I was pregnant with Aiden because my mom is good friends with David Archuletta’s voice teacher and I wanted to support him and his teacher.  But now I am hooked.  😉  Wednesday I also gave Aiden his first bubble bath which he thoroughly enjoyed and I bought him a blue fuzzy bear at Seagull Book for $2.00, they had a lot of colors, blue, pink, white, and I think three shades of brown.  So if you need a Valentine’s Day gift for someone then run over to Seagull Book and buy one.  Anyway, he LOVES his new bear, he gives it hugs and bites out its fur.  (Yea, he has been biting the hair off of all his toys that are fuzzy.  Yuck!)

Thursday I waited and waited all day for the phone call declaring that my cousin’s baby had been born.  It finally came about 3:45.  Hooray for babies!  I also took Aiden on a walk because I was getting stir crazy. 

Friday, was a very full, very busy, but fun day.  In the morning we took Aiden to the Draper Temple open house.  This was a very wonderful experience because once a temple is dedicated only temple recommend holders can enter and temple recommends are only for those who are worthy that are age 12 and older.  Because of this it is a blessing to be able to attend temple open houses because all ages are admitted.  We will have the chance to attend another open house in June-August for the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple. 

After the open house we ate at Noodles & Co. and Aiden and I dropped Brandon off at work.  Then Aiden took a nap and he and went to visit my cousin, his wife and their new baby in the hospital.  🙂 She is very cute and it will be fun to have another little one around.  After we picked Brandon up from work we drove out to the Clearfield Aquatic Center to swim with my dad at his DEA free swim night.  The water was just a little too cold for my liking but Aiden had fun and I got to enjoy the hot tub a few times.  After all of that we were worn out and I went to bed pretty quickly. 

Yesterday I ran a few errands and then we spent the rest of the day at home.  In the evening we ate homemade taco salads, which were tasty and we watched Eagle Eye.  Eagle Eye was a CRAZY movie, very fast paced with a lot of action adventure.  Not usually my style of movie but it ended up being enjoyable. 

Today was our first time teaching the Sunbeams.  Our lesson only lasted 20 or so minutes and then we had 15 or so minutes to fill.  We sang songs, let the kids race, asked them their favorite colors, and asked if they had any questions for us.  One of them asked if we were going to build Aiden a boat so that he could ride on it.  I said that we probably won’t build a boat but that he will probably ride on a boat and that he likes swimming.  Silly kids.  Next week will go better because the lesson is longer and we will have crayons and a picture to color!  This evening we are having pulled pork for dinner and the recipe is surprisingly easy.  You stick pork roast in a crock pot for 6-7 hours with one 12 oz. can of rootbeer.  You shred the pork roast (and dump off any excess rootbeer, we didn’t really have any) then mix in 1 bottle (16-18 oz.) of bbq (any flavor) and voila pulled pork.  The recipes said to put the meat on a hamburger bun but we are having it on a sub sandwich hard roll.  We already tasted the meat and it is GOOD.  (We used mesquite smoked bbq sauce.)  We will also go to family night at my cousins house. 

This week I have also been working on various projects, a sailor outfit for Aiden (which just needs snaps and it will be done), wall hangings for Aiden, and I cut the feet of some hand me down pajama’s that we got and am sewing binding around the leg hole so that it doesn’t fray.  So there you go. 

Brandon has just kep busy with school, work, homework, and relieving me of baby duties at various times so that I can regain my sanity.  😉  He is a good dad and husband. 

Well until next week, thanks for reading…