The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

We just returned from Arizona.  The weather was nice and we enjoyed visiting with Brandon’s family.  While we were there we had a few adventures.  For instance, on New Year’s Day I was in the restroom (I made many visits to the restroom thanks to being preggo) and when I came out I was asked do you know what Aiden just did?  Obviously I did not so they relayed the story, apparently Aiden crawled up to the dog’s water dish on all fours and plunked his face in for a drink…Nice…

Then yesterday they made pancakes for breakfast.  Aiden ate them so well that we decided to give them to him again because we were on our own for lunch.  Well, I thought I had seen Brandon’s dad stick the entire syrup dispenser in the microwave to warm it, despite it having metal parts and needless to say it started on fire.  Luckily I had only set the microwave for 30 secs. and we caught it quickly so that the microwave and house stayed intact.  We were also able to clean up the charred ash off of the microwave easily.  Being tender hearted and pregnant though I felt like such a dummy about the whole thing and just wanted to crawl under a rock.

Later that day we took Aiden to the pet store while we were on our way to Walmart.  We walked back to see the dogs and then walked around towards the fish.  As we headed down the aisle to the wall of fish Aiden said, LOOOOOK!  Fish!  LOOK, FISH!  Look!  Then when we got closer he said, “Fishes take a da bath.”  LOL.  He was SO excited it made me giggle.

This morning on the plane you could still see the moon outside of the window and Aiden excitedly told us, “I can see the moon.”  A little while later he was sipping from his apple juice and told Brandon, “Now bunny drink it too.”  It is so fun to see him so excited about his world.

So, we are in Arizona visiting Brandon’s family and this morning when I was pretending to sleep in his hopes to encourage Aiden to fall back to sleep Aiden was repeating over and over, “Mommy, turn the fan on.”  After persisting for about five minutes he then said, “Mommy, turn the fan on, mommy turn the light on too.”  What the?  What nearly two year old can accurately string 11 words together in a sentence?  I have a feeling this one will be an orator.  🙂

First of all, the other day while I was cuddling Aiden in his room he pointed in the direction of his radio and said, “Children up there.”  Now I for one was slightly confused, first of all, when did he learn the word children, and second of all, there were nothing even remotely resembling children in that general direction.  While relating this story to my mom she mentioned that maybe he was “seeing” his brothers and sisters through a veil into Heaven that hasn’t completely closed yet.  On that same topic, he also said, ” Daddy up there.”  The other day and I of course started worrying about Brandon and had he been seriously hurt while subbing (I was thinking school shooting, because that seems to have been in the news a lot in these more recent years).  After texting Brandon and receiving an all is well, I just shrugged it off.  But again when I mentioned it to my mom she said that perhaps Aiden was talking about his Heavenly Father rather then his earthly father.

Lastly, once in awhile Aiden while playing here at home, Aiden will say, “Go home?”  I always just tell him that we are home.  When I told my mom this strange occurance she said that I used to do that too and that being so new from Heaven we probably remember our “other” home and how wonderful it was and that we maybe miss it a little bit.  How special to have those Heavenly memories lingering in a young child’s mind for a little while and how unfortunate when those beautiful memories finally fade and all we have left are the things we learn about Heaven, the nature of our Heavenly Parents and Brother Jesus, and the spirit that tries to help us to recognize these things as 100% true.  Please don’t get me wrong though, these few things are precious to have in a tumultuous world such as this, but oh what I wouldn’t give for a brief glimpse into Heaven every once in awhile.

Now for a brief story about Lucas (I know crazy, he isn’t even born yet.) the other day I was attempting to listen for Lucas’ heartbeat through a stethoscope (you are supposed to be able to around 6 months preggo) and when I was pushing down on my stomach with it he pushed against it with precision and force.  It made me giggle how apparent it was that he did not appreciate me invading his space.

Lastly, my mom told that I should write down some of the mischief that Aiden get’s into so that he can read it years from now and say to me, “I didn’t really do that did I.”  So here goes, on the 18th of December we had one of those days where Aiden was getting into everything.  First he got into the box of tissues that we keep near the couch and pulled out about 10 of them.  After I cleaned that up I found him a little while later with a manila envelope full of papers that are my dad’s.  Shortly after that I came into the room to discover that he had gotten one of his snowboots from our “keep out of Aiden’s reach” location and had put it on and was tromping around the living room in it.  *sigh*  In the afternoon during his nap he managed to reach a roll of tape that I had been keeping on top of his dresser and pulled out 2-3 feet of it and had it all tangled and then threw it on the floor.  All in one day, when it rains it pours I guess.

Also, some of the new things we have gotten Aiden to say are, “paddywhack (you know like knick knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone), cockledoodledoo, and yesterday when I spilled some crackers I said, “Oh my goodness.” and Aiden chimed back, “Oh goodness.”  LOL.  Well, I hope that you have enjoyed my stories.  Have a good Christmas Eve everyone and an even more wonderful Christmas Day.

Hey just a couple of Aiden things.  First of all we were watching Sesame Street yesterday and they were talking about the word crunchy and what it means.  Then last night Aiden bit into a french fry at dinner time and said, “Crunchy.”  The fries were in fact crunchy and it surprised me that he had actually learned the word from Sesame Street and used it correctly.

Second of all today Aiden was playing in his room.  He was pretending to mix something with a container and whisk and after having me help mix and then talking about making the cake a few times he said, “Put it in the freezer.” and went and put his container on a shelf of his changing table.  He picks up on things so fast.

Then a little bit later we ran a quick trip to our storage unit and I let Aiden take his baby Armadillo with him.  (We have a plush armadillo that has a velcro stomach that opens to reveal a baby armadillo.)  So when Brandon was putting Aiden in the car he said, “Daddy have some baby ‘dillo.”  (We also like to pretend to eat random things like toes, fingers, ears, and apparently baby ‘dillo’s)

So tonight we went to the Anniversary Inn open house and in one of the rooms that we were touring there was a fish tank.  We turned Aiden towards it so that he could see them and he said, “Hi Dorothy.”  Just in case you don’t understand why that is so cute and funny, it is because Aiden enjoys watching Elmo’s World and Elmo’s pet fish is named Dorothy.  Oh the correlations that children make.  🙂

In our continuing effort to secure our places as the ruling members of the household we occasionally remind Aiden that mom and dad are the boss.  Despite these efforts Brandon had the following experience while I was gone scrapbooking for a few hours.  Aiden came up to him,  looked him dead in the eyes, and pointing to himself cheerfully said, “Boss.”  While Brandon thought this was cute he again reaffirmed his authority as the boss.  He told him, “Dad’s the boss.”  To which Aiden replied, “No.”  Then Brandon said, “Dad’s the boss and mom’s the boss but Aiden is not the boss.”  Aiden just smiled like he knew better and walked away.

Later that same day he pointed at himself and said, “Daddy.”  Then he pointed at Brandon and said, “Aiden.”  I think we have a silly one on our hands.

Today I told my dad, “See you later” as he left the house and Aiden, quick to chime in repeated, “See you later.” in his own little toddler voice.  Kids learn so quickly it astounds me!

So this morning Aiden was sitting on my lap at the computer, pointed to the window and said, “Wanna open it.”  That is technically a four word sentence.  His grasp of communication and language constantly astounds and amazes me.

So yesterday, I was cleaning Aiden up after lunch when he lifted up my shirt a little way and said, “Hello baby” to my stomach.  Is this a coincidence?  Or does my toddler have a little bit of inspiration from Heaven?  I should mention that one day before I found out that I was pregnant, Aiden stopped what he was doing and came over and patted my stomach gently, almost knowingly.  I have a feeling that Aiden and his sibling are going to be the best of buddies.  What a cute, smart little boy I have.

So today, Brandon went into the bathroom to get ready to go run errands and Aiden looked at me and said, “bafoom.”  I told him that yes, dad was in the bathroom.  Then he said, “potty.”  I told him that yes, dad was probably going potty.  Then Aiden said, “awesome” and resumed playing.  LOL!

So, I may have touched on this before but I wanted to reiterate it again and mention that this issue applies to all, even boys.  I have seen many Latter Day Saint girls/babies wearing sleeveless dresses and shirts at church and during the week.  I have also seen little boys in sleeveless tops during the week and shorts to church.  Each parent can make their own decisions for their families but as for Brandon and I we want to make sure that everyone knows that our children (boys and girls) will only wear things with sleeves.  If you find a cute sleeveless outfit for one of our children (yes, I know right now there is only one and there aren’t currently any on the way) please buy either a matching shirt or jacket to go with it.  We appreciate your help in keeping our children modest.