The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

This is for all you moms in the court and any and all of the moms that I have crossed paths with in my life.  You are doing a better job raising your kids then you know.  I learn so much from you and I recognize that kids are kids and that sometimes there will be hard days.  I admire all of you for your hard work and dedication.  The best way to measure how well you are doing as a mom is to ask yourself this, does my child love me?  Do they trust me?  Are they healthy and happy?  If the answers are yes, then the bumps and bruises along the way (which are inevitable I have come to learn) are all simply a part of being a kid and being a mom.  Keep up all of your hard work and keep on loving those little ones and when you are having a rough day remember that at least one person recognizes all you do and the positive influence that you are in the world through your kids.  🙂

Oh and per my previous entry I was lucky enough to find a killer deal online on a swimsuit that will match my existing swim trunks.  Sweet!  (It is also 90ish% polyester so it won’t wear out as fast.  Yay!)

So, for several years I have wished that I would follow my heart a little bit more and my head a little bit less.  I have, for as long as I can remember been a very logical minded person, weighing everything heavily and in the end opting not to do something because it was too risky.  As a result there are a couple things that I regret having missed out on and I am still hesitant to do anything that if it goes bad could have to big of a risk.  In this sense it would be nice to follow my heart a little more and quieting those fears of negative risks in me head. 

Recently however, I have seen a glimpse of what happens when someone follows only their heart without their mind keeping it in check.  It too can be bad to always just follow where your heart will lead with out thinking of the consequences or listening to the nagging thought in your head that perhaps you ought to reconsider the path on which you are headed. 

As a result I have learned that the best thing is for your heart and your mind to work together as one as you trod through lives paths taking risks every once in awhile (it is good for you) but also letting your more logical thought processes let you see the bigger picture further down the road.  I just need to learn to look at the big picture of each decision and be willing to do something if the negative risks aren’t too great or if the amazing things I will get out of it are greater then the risks.

For instance, in 2003 I had the oportunity to go to Europe as a tag along with one of the U of U choirs.  I paid for the trip and in the meantime flew on an airplane to California.  It was only my 2nd or 3rd plane ride but I was sick a couple of times during the flight.  I was already feeling aprehensive about traveling 5,000 miles away from home without my parents or family and then to think I would be air sick for 15 hours during the flight over I just about talked myself out of going.  Thankfully, my wise mom sat me down and helped me to put my fears and the pros and cons on paper.  We also talked about the worst that could happen while I was gone and the best that could happen, my mom said that the trip would fall somewhere in between and I decided to go despite my worries.  To this day that trip is still one of the biggest life changing events in my life.  It as helped me to see the things don’t always go wrong and I met a lot of cool people and saw some of the most amazing things that I have ever seen in my life. 

So there you go.  Don’t follow your heart all the time or your mind.  Let them be balanced with one another and work together so that you can get the most out of life.

You are all probably thinking what?!?!?!?  But it is true, they are cute, prevent bum rash, and they aren’t much more difficult then disposable.  Yea, I have to rinse the poo off whenever he has a bm but that is down to once or twice a day and really isn’t as bad as most people think.  They also leak a little bit more if I don’t change him frequently enough but that is my own fault for not changing him.  As for blowouts, I have had an equal amount of those per cloth or disposables so what can I say?  I highly recommend making the investment.  If you are curious about the different kinds and what not then let me know and I will arrange to show them to you (I have several kinds) and can tell you what my favorite are and why.  So there you go.  Cloth diapering is going well and I don’t regret it for a second.  🙂

Well, I plan to write about family news later this week but I just had to take a moment to declare that I am proud to be an American.  Let me explain a little.  Lately where the USA, government, and all things politics are concerned I have been worrying about the state of affairs in America.  All the talk about illegal immigration, global warming, the war in Iraq, the Nafta super highway, and the insane rise in gas prices has been enough to make me wonder where this country would be in 10 years, it has made me worry about the kind of world that my children will live in.  The thing that concerns me the most is that a vast majority of the people that I talk to aren’t going to vote for the presidential candidate that best exemplifies their political views, instead, because they don’t like any of the candidates or have one they especially dislike, they have decided to pick the candidate of the “lesser evil” and vote AGAINST the one the dislike the most.  Whatever happened for the people, by the people? 

Anyway, as I was watching the fireworks explode in the sky above me last night after the REAL Salt Lake game and saw the awe in my son’s eyes at something so simple, but that keeps me amazed year after year, I realized that despite everything, I am glad to live in America where I am free to wear what I want, go where I want, do what I want (as long as I am following the laws of the land, which were put in place to protect U.S. citizens) and to choose whatever religion I want.  I also realized that no matter how bad things appear to be, this country was founded by God through our fore fathers and that he is watching over it and us and won’t let things get so bad that I am in constant fear for my life and the lives of my child(ren).  What a priviledge to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave!  🙂

So, this is the next update on cloth diapers.  You see these days Brandon and I are looking to save money any way possible.  We recently decided to start taking advantage of the food co-op in our complex (they are actually all over utah here is the link…http://www.crossroads-u-c.org/cfc/) because you get a lot of good food for about half the price.  Then of course we have our garden, a lot of which will become baby food for Aiden.  We also decided to make an investment and buy 24 pocket/all in one diapers with our credit card.  Now, we do not like to go into debt for anything.  But we both could not see a way to get the diapers without doing so, because the money we would use to save up for cloth diapers would need to be spent on disposables for Aiden to wear in the meantime.  This way we will only spend the $40-60 you spend a month on diapers for the next 6 months and then we will have paid off the cloth diapers.  This seemed like a much better idea then spending $40-60 a month indefinitely for 6 kids.  I recognize that we will have to replace worn out ones and if by some craziness we have twins then we will need twice as many as we do now but it is still much MUCH cheaper then continuously buying disposables.  Here is an approximate price breakdown.  $300-500 for 24 (which is two to three days worth) cloth diapers (I bought mostly the one size fits all diapers which will fit 5 lbs. babies to 35ish lbs. toddlers) that will last through the entire length of time that at least one child is in diapers (say 24 months). OR disposables which are about $10.00 for a package of 40.  I go through 6 packages a month which would equal $60.00.  So the total cost for two years worth of disposable diapers is about $1,500 per child if they are potty trained by age two.  This cost is 3 to 5 times more then cloth diapers.  Can you believe that?

Anyway, so far Aiden has worn 3 of his all in one diapers and it is going pretty well.  I have to change them a little bit more frequently because the all-in-ones are just flannel lined and so the wetness sits on Aiden’s skin.  However, once I get the pocket diaper liners pre-washed their 5 times before first usage they will slide into the pocket on the diapers and Aiden will have fleece against his skin which will wick the moisture away.  Pretty neat eh?  Well, I better go get the liners off the clothesline and back into the washing machine again.  If any of you are ever curious about what they look like and some of the different brands (I have 5 different kinds of pocket diapers and one kind of all-in-ones) then you can come see my diapers.  If there are enough curious people I could even throw a diaper party to introduce the different kinds of diapers and how they work (there is a place online that will send me a diaper party kit).

So there you go.  Cloth diapers are much more fancy and user friendly then they used to be.  I also read this tid bit of information that said one child will produce 2 tons of dirty diapers from infancy to potty training.  I don’t know how accurate it was but I was shocked and amazed.  It must be fairly accurate because it was in the users manual for my Kushies diapers.  Wow huh?  So if you are looking to save some money one was is buy and use cloth diapers.

 I know that I just wrote on Sunday but a comment made the other day got me to thinking.  As we who are parents know, having a child changes pretty much every aspect of our lives.  This change can be made much easier by support from others.  My thoughts then turned to the ward that I live in.  The 900 court makes up the entirety of our ward.  This wonderful blessing enables closeness among neighbors and ward members.  Everyone helps each other out and watches out for each other.  I have even had a few fellow ward members offer to babysit if I ever need a break and I know that if I were to ever need a cup of sugar I could borrow some from someone.  Once I got stranded in my car and called someone in the ward to see if they could come and help me out and they were ready and willing.  This ward exemplifies the true meaning of a ward family. 

I want to point out though that next year when we move out (and the Elders Quorum helps like they always do) I can have confidence to know that there will be the same unity of brotherhood in our new ward.  It will be slightly different because of the change in proximity.  Members will live up 5 mins. away in a car rather then just a 5 min. walk across the court but, the support will still be the same.  Members will still be there for each other and I will still find that there are women in Relief Society or girls in Young Womens who would be available and willing to babysit.  It is a nice feeling to know that wherever I go near or far, that if there isn’t blood related family close by, there will always be a ward family who can help our little family when we have rough times.  Family (both our own individual families and our ward families) really is a heavenly principal and a blessing.

So this afternoon around 2:00 Aiden got really sad/upset. He had awoken from a nap not too much earlier and it wasn’t quite time to be hungry yet. He did smell poopy so I changed him then tried to just calm him down with a low shhh, soothing tones, and rocking/bouncing him. After 20 mins. I decided to just try and feed him and he ate voraciously. So there you go, you never know when your little one is going through a growth spurt and so even though it may not be quite time for them to eat, when all else fails to calm their tears there is a good chance that they could be hungry!

Brandon and I decided to wait on the cloth diapers until Aiden is a little bit bigger. It was just too funny to cause him to have a big wad of fabric between his legs and well right now we have a decent supply of disposable diapers. We figure when they run out and Aiden is a little bigger and we are having to buy a lot disposable diapers then we will be more motivated to use the cloth diapers. Other then that Aiden is doing well. He smiles more and more each day and squeals, coos, and gurgles regularly. It is a lot of fun to be able to enjoy his happy faces. Until next time!

So Aiden went through 3 cloth diapers today before I changed him back into a disposable for the evening (I think disposable are probably better for him to sleep in and ok, it was at 5:00 when I put a disposable back on him, I need to get the hang of the other and want to talk with Brandon about it some more).  Well, around 8:00 I was bouncing Aiden on my knee when I noticed a wet spot on my leg and wondered where it had come from so I of course did an inspection of Aiden to see if it had come from him.  Needless to say there was a nice wet spot all the way down his pant leg (he had completely filled the disposable diaper to the point that it was leaking out).  This just goes to show you that nothing is fool proof when it comes to diapering a child.  The end of this story is that after todays adventures I gave Aiden a thorough bath before putting a clean diaper on him.  🙂

Aiden is officially wearing his first cloth diaper. I put it on him during his 10:00 feeding this morning. He seems to be ok with it. We shall see just how well this all goes and if it turns into a real pain or not. The cloth diaper still drowns him a little bit so my real hope is that the plastic pant that holds in the wetness will also prevent blowouts. We shall see. You may think that I am crazy, let’s see if you are right. This adventure is to be continued…