The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

Well, Aiden has had an adventure filled couple of days.  Friday we went up to Pineview Reservoir again, this time with our ward.  We spent the day on the beach and we took one boat ride.  I wish I had a picture of Aiden in a life jacket.  You see it was for 30 pound toddlers, not 16 pound infants and it squished around his little cheeks and made him look a bit like violet on Willy Wonka when she turns into a blueberry.  Tee hee.  He seemed to enjoy the ride and since it was nap time it eventually lulled him off to sleep. 

Saturday Aiden and I went to my friend Katie’s baby shower while Brandon stayed home and designed some things for thumb prints.  At the shower we went swimming and so I took Aiden in the pool again.  This time I was brave enough to dunk him twice. 

Sunday after church I had a meeting and Brandon had to do some home teaching.  I made an apple pie and we started a batch of apples to dry along with two trays of strawberry apple fruit leather.  Saturday we dried banana’s, peaches, and made apple fruit leather as well as peach fruit leather.  We love our food dehydrator!  We also picked up our first food co-op order.  It was a GREAT deal for some really quality and fresh food.  There are food co-ops all over the state for information about a food co-op in your area go to http://www.crossroads-u-c.org/cfc/ You can get about $50.00 of meat, veggies, and fruits for $21.00.  Sweet!

Yesterday, my sister and I took Aiden to the zoo.  He slept through a lot of it as babies tend to need a lot of sleep but he did enjoy the things that he saw after he woke up.  It was extremely hot but we kept hydrated and Aiden drank out of his sippy cup pretty well.  It was fun for me to go and see all of the changes.  I haven’t been to the zoo in a few years and was pleased with most of the changes.  Although I must say, “Where are my beloved hippopotumuses?”  🙁  They are gone, it is very sad.

Today, oi.  First of all Aiden spit up about 4 ounces of his morning milk feeding.  Resulting in a need for a change of clothes and a mopping of the floor.  Then I fed him prunes for the very first time and he liked them, he was squealing and grinning (to me they smelled a lot like raisins).  Then while he was napping his pocket diaper leaked (sometimes the fleece wicks the moisture right out of the diaper, but not too often) and of course I had to change his clothes again.  Then while we were sitting at the computer so that I could do my weekly scrapbook page, he spit up a little bit of prune colored goo down the front of his most recent onesie.  So, he gets to go around looking a bit messy until he soaks this outfit in either spit up or urine.  Such is the life for a mom.  Busy, busy and messy, messy!  😉  It helps that he is so darn cute though!
Well, I don’t really have much else to say.  Things are going well.  Brandon’s job will be at the U of U stadium before the Real Salt Lake game on Thursday doing promotions for their business.  As a result he gets a few free tickets to the game and so we will get to see the fireworks and soccer game on the 3rd.  On the 4th we are being pyro’s at my mom’s and having our own small firework display and then on Saturday the 5th we have free tickets to go see the 23rd army band at temple square.  I think it will all be a lot of fun.
We hope that everyone is doing well and is having a fun filled (and cool) summer.  Be careful on the 4th!  Thanks for reading.

Before I even start I must admit that I will probably get a little choked up writing about my very first Mother’s Day.  I mean who wouldn’t?  It is a momentous occasion for a new mom.  So, a few weeks ago Brandon bought me my Mother’s Day gift early because it is a useful and practical item which has already come in handy on several occasions.  He bought me a front and back carrier so that when there are times that Aiden just won’t let me put him down (or if I just don’t want to because I want to stay as close to his cuteness as often as possible because I know inevitably there will come a day when he does not want to be held or cuddled all day by mom and dad) then I can put him in it and still get some of the household work done.  Because I received this early I figured that I would either get nothing on Mother’s Day or else something very small, but was looking forward to our free night stay at the Anniversary Inn.  (We love and adore Anniversary Inn.  As such we HIGHLY recommend that any couple save up enough money to spend the night in one of the themed rooms because it is SO MUCH FUN!)  View video of the room at http://wilhelmsenfamilyadventures.blogspot.com/.

Anyway, imagine my delight when on Saturday evening Brandon mentions that he has a quick errand to run for me and my mom and that he couldn’t see how it would be plausible for me to wait to receive the gift resulting from this errand until the morning.  I tried to encourage him to please wait to give it to me (even though I had an inkling of what it might be and knew that it could be difficult to hide from me).  As he left I told him that I would just really like something cheap or free that I could have on the actual day of Mother’s Day, even if it was just a card.  So he left and when he came back he had a bouquet of flowers for me from him (see photo) and a tiny bouquet from Aiden (see photo).   It was very cute he even wrote a little note for me from Aiden, thanking me for being so loving, caring, and for making him the happiest baby ever.  

Yesterday morning when I woke up and we were rushing around the house to get ready for church Brandon gave me a card that was especially for a first time mom.  In it he thanked me for “filling” up his life and for sacrificing as our son’s “milky way”.  With the card he gave me a hostess cherry pie and a Milky Way candy bar.  🙂  After we were ready we walked to church.  I always love sacrament on Mother’s Day because either the primary does the program or they sing a couple of songs.  When the little primary kids sang, “Mother Dear I love you so…” I got choked up.  Being a mom is so great. 

Between church and 3:30 was a bit stressful because we were trying to eat, dip strawberries in chocolate, pack Aiden’s stuff for a sleepover at my mom’s, pack our stuff for our stay at Anniversary Inn and several other things.  But we managed and got out the door fairly close to on time. 

We then went to my mom’s to spend a little bit of Mother’s Day with her and we all just chatted and ate pizza.  Then Brandon and I went to Anniversary Inn.  I told him that I never wanted to be away from my kids on Mother’s Day ever again because I had started to miss Aiden before we had even parted from him.  Nevertheless it was a nice relaxing getaway with a bit of silliness mixed in…

 As you can see we stayed in the Treasure Island suite.  Not only did we spend a plethora of time enjoying the huge tub but we also watched, “Memoirs of a Geisha.”  It was a good movie and an interesting glimpse into a culture very different from our own.  So I can say that all in all it was a very good Mother’s Day.  On a side note, in each room of the Anniversary Inn there is a book that you can write in about your stay at the Inn.  A memoir of sorts for the room I suppose, well, as I was looking through or rooms memoir I noticed an entry signed, “Emrazian.”  I called Brandon over and asked him how likely it was to be a relative of our good friend Dan.  Very likely was his response, he then added, “in fact I do believe that was the day Dan’s brother Aaron got married because I remember putting that date on the pumpkin.”  How crazy is that?  “It’s a small world after all, it’s a small world after all….”  🙂 

So there you have the brief synopsis of my very first and momentous Mother’s Day.  I hope that all of yours were good as well.

Over the past several months I have heard a great deal about a social networking tool called Twitter. I finally decided to try it and I do love it. I encourage everyone to take a look. Instead of me trying to explain its merits, check out this short video about the service!

http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter

Hope to see you on Twitter!

     Well, I guess that it is about time that Brandon and I have something to rave about since we are constantly ranting about the status of the world, politics, and various other things.  As you may or may not know there was a writers strike, this has caused that there will not be a new season of 24 until next January.  It has also shortened this years season of Lost by 3 episodes.  This had Brandon and I kind of bummed and wondering about what we would watch in the evenings.  Well, we came across 3 new shows that we like. 

     The first was in the fall, it was called, “Samantha Who.”  The premise is that this girl (played by Christina Applegate) has lost her memory and now has to experience life and figure out who she is.  It was a fun concept and well acted.  The 2nd show is Eli Stone, it’s premise is that a lawyer is having visions, he is diagnosed with a brain anuerysm, and his old friend also tells him that it is possible that he could be a prophet.  It is a new and unique concept with a lot of wit and fun characters.  Lastly, we have recently started watching New Amsterdam, the concept of this show is that the man is a homicide detective who in the year 1770 was given a gift that he would not die until he met his true love and that when he met her he would feel it in his heart and that once they were wed he would age normally and die.  This show has been intriguing, they do flashbacks from his past and he works on various cases during the episodes.  So, if you are at a loss for what to watch, look up these shows and watch them.  New Amsterdam is on Monday evenings, and Eli Stone is on Wednesdays after Lost.  So there you are! 

They say that it isn’t money that brings happiness. And they are right. But the last two weeks have taught me the top two things that do constitute happiness.

They are:

     1) progeny
             &
     2) sleep

The mysterious thing about this fact is that the items above are mutually exclusive, at least for the first 18 years, from what I’m told.  🙂

We love our little boy and have consigned ourselves to the idea that less is more when it comes to regularity in slumber. Though this trite little cliché might comfort some, it does nothing to placate the eight pounder when he is hungry at 2 am and then also at 4:30 am. Some might try to reassure with the empty promise that a baby’s biological clock will find some normalcy, and to that I’d say, “What Bio-clock?!” This cute-faced kid is merely a front for a bio-time-bomb that could go off at any second, releasing any number of bodily fluids in any combination imaginable! And babies have the amazing ability to rough you up like a mob enforcer without any teeth. You’d better listen carefully because his next request, if misunderstood, could result in another hour of confused crying. And then the little one would start wailing along with Dad.

But seriously, Aiden is adorable and is very sweet. We have had some ‘fun’ moments as well, but it is a tremendous blessing to be heading down the road of parenthood.

I’d like to mention one highlight of our last week. Erin and I stole away to watch August Rush. This film is tremendously acted and fantastically written. It is one we will commit to our library for sure.