The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

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.

Well, this week was a busy week.  Wednesday Aiden had his second dentist appointment ever.  He would not open his mouth for the dentist but that is not really any different then when we try to brush his teeth here at home.

Thursday I had my second obgyn appointment.  The doc said that everything seems to be going well and we got to hear the heartbeat.  Thank goodness!  I always worry too much.

Also twice this week Aiden got into the bathroom because the door was left ajar and he decided to do this…

with the toilet paper.  Oh goody!

Saturday we went to the Salt Lake City downtown farmers market.  It was crowded but really neat.  We got some fresh and tasty raspberries, corn on the cob, and I finally bought Aiden a pair of SQUEAKY SHOES!!!  I have wanted a pair of these for my kids since I worked at Legacy Preparatory Academy.  One of the mom helpers used to bring her daughter with her and her shoes would squeak, squeak, squeak down the hall.  I will have to try and remember to get a picture or some video this week and post it.

Tonight we had fajita’s and corn on the cob.  I decided to let Aiden help me prepare the corn.  He did a pretty good job and I finished up what he couldn’t do.  I have also been working on finishing things up for my little online boutique.  You can preview my inventory online here… handmadehodgepodgebyerin.blogspot.com/

We hope that everyone has a good week.  Thanks for reading…

So I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures this past week.  I haven’t really taken a lot lately because we haven’t done anything much new and well being pregnant I don’t always think of it.  I did manage to take a few of Aiden playing in his very first cardboard house!  Daddy was kind enough to cut a door and window into the water softener box for Aiden.  Also earlier in the week Aiden woke up from his nap looking like this.  We thought it looked like someone had slapped him but if you look closely you will see little white marks where his fingernails didn’t leave a pressure mark on his face.  Too funny.

In other news, Brandon did not get the job that we were really hoping for.  We are back at square one and are both completely burnt out and tired of looking for jobs that in the end go to someone less qualified whom the company can pay less.  If anyone has any job opportunities that they know of we would LOVE any info. about them.  Also, please, Please, PLEASE keep us in your prayers.  We are getting very discouraged about the whole job thing.

We don’t really have any other news.  Aiden and I just keep ourselves busy going to playgroup and visiting great grandma.  I have been working on a bunch of hair clips, everything from bows to flowers, to felt shapes (like pumpkins, leaves, and gingerbread men) and I plan to start selling them online at the beginning of October.  The website is http://handmadehodgepodgebyerin.blogspot.com/ but there is not much to see on their right now (in fact, there is pretty much nothing).  Eventually I will also add homemade cards to the items being sold but I need to make a few first.  This little craft store won’t be hardly any income though and is by no means meant to be any kind of income for our family.  Just a little pocket change and really I will probably end up buying a stroller with it.  Anyway, that is all for this week.  Thanks for reading.

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.

In life we cross paths with many people of many types.  Sometimes we become friends with these people and with that comes wanting them to have a good life filled with the same kind of happiness or joy that you have.  Many people find happiness in life and are satisfied with that but I want more for them.  I want them to have the deep abiding joy that come from being eternally married to the love of their life.  The joy that comes from knowing that my family is linked together and will be together forever.  That I will see them again and be with them again in Heaven and that our time together is not just for this short span of our lives here on earth but for always.  As hard as it is for me to be away from Brandon or Aiden I can not imagine how much harder it would be if I ever lost them and didn’t know that they would be in Heaven waiting for me.  I am grateful for the temple covenants that I made.  I know that the joy, safety, strength, richness of life and peace that is found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints can not be matched fully anywhere by anything else (religious or otherwise).  It is God’s kingdom here on earth.  It is the church spoken of in the bible returned to earth for these the latter days.  If you are looking for more in your life, look no further simply get up the courage to ask someone about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  If you are open to it, I promise that you will find what you feel has been  missing from your life and haven’t been able to fill with anything else that you have tried.

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!

I will blog about these photos tomorrow, but just in case you didn’t know, if you mouse over (or put the cursor over) the pictures then you will see little captions about the pictures.

Okay so last week.  As you can see Monday was very eventful.  Aiden was practicing for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoats by wearing these pants on his head.  (No, just kidding but it does look very Egyptian like to me in some of the photos.)  His mommy is very silly and likes to encourage these kinds of things by aiding the process along (what 18 month old could put pants on his own head, I tell you little to none).

Lalones is how Aiden says, "pantalones" the spanish word for pants.

After his Joseph practice he then had his first attempt at taking photos.  These are just three of the six that he took.

Later in the evening we went over to the house of a friend of Brandon’s.  Some friends of ours were in from out of town and so a get together was held so that as many people as possible would have a chance to see them.  It was fun but the guests of honor showed up late and so we were out later then we had planned.  It was fun to see everyone though.  I always enjoy visiting with Jeff and Kelly.  I would still like to meet their little one though.  He was sleeping.  At the party Aiden took some time to brush up on his boxing skills with a little help from daddy.

Wednesday was my birthday.  We had pretty much a normal day (yea it stinks getting older, you don’t get a fun themed party, you’re lucky if people remember to call you, you get a few gifts but not the haul you got when you were young, and well you are starting to get “old” how fun can that be?) there were really no out of the ordinary frills except that we went out to eat at Red Robin for dinner.  They have yummy burgers and fries!  We also had cake, my favorite yummy chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting and cherry filling from Glauss (which is hands down the best bakery in Utah) bakery.  Sadly, as I had no party the cake is not being eaten fast enough and some may go to waste.  *sniffle, sniffle, tear*  Such a delicacy should never go to waste.  It is safe to say that the transition into my 27th year went uneventfully and quietly into the night.

On Thursday I pulled out Aiden’s little pool again so that he could play in it outside.  He doesn’t really like the pool itself as much as playing with (and drinking from) the sprinkler.  Never fails though that about the time I want to finish up and put everything away, he plops in the pool to enjoy himself.  I took a moment to flip the brim of his hat up for a photo op.  It is very Elmer Fudd-esque to me.

Friday Aiden found out a marvelous thing, his ability to open my drawers!  In it he found my vast collection of hats and I’ll bet he was excited at the trove of treasures!  He tried several hats on but this one has got to be my favorite by far (and the only one we got a picture of).  I think I want to enlarge the top one and frame it for my wall.  Aiden has been getting into more and more things each day, opening closets, climbing furniture, throwing wipey’s all over his room when we forget to move them out of his reach, and whatever else he can get his hands on.  If he gets into the bathroom because the door is open he will pick up the plunger and plunge the toilet.  I suppose there are worse things he could do in the bathroom.  He also says about a million words and is starting to string them together.  The two sentances he has said are, “I like it.” and “Me hold it.”  Go Aiden go!  Tonight he was saying curtain, and we have taught him to say helicopter (which comes out more like, “helicopper).  He says, “reesin” ALOT too (which is raisin) because he really likes regular raisins and chocolate covered raisins.  I can’t even begin to update on the words he has learned so I won’t.  That is all for this week!  Thanks for reading…

Hello, hello!  I did not take many pictures this week nor do I remember much of what went on.  I also didn’t journal much so I don’t have a record of most of the week.  Here are the few things I did manage to catch in my journal.  Monday I took Aiden over to visit my grandma and to run around outside.  Wednesday my dad’s school was having an open house so we took Aiden down there to see all of the new remodeling.  We went upstairs to the track in the gym and let Aiden run around it three times.  He LOVED it.  Thursday was our anniversary and in the morning Brandon and I took Aiden swimming over at my grandma’s.  Friday we got ready for our trip to the Logan Anniversary in to celebrate 4 years together.  Aiden stayed overnight with my mom so that we could have the evening alone (and of course Anniversary Inn doesn’t allow children).  He and my mom rode trax down town (his first time on trax) and she took him to Discovery Gateway (his first time there as well).  She told us that he ran excitedly from exhibit to exhibit and squealed in delight on trax.  I think he enjoyed himself don’t you?  Saturday morning she took him to the park before we arrived to pick him up.

Below are just a couple of pictures from our room at Anniversary Inn and a picture of Aiden napping Saturday afternoon after we picked him up.  In the top picture you will notice that the toilet paper holder is only a foot and half above the ground.  It was hard to reach.  We ended up staying in Rich’s Drive In instead of Joanie’s Diner because of a mix up but it ended up being ok and we still got all sorts of yummy treats.  We love Anniversary Inn!  A little tip, if you go to the Christmas open house, not only does your child get a picture with santa but you get any room for any night in the next year for only $159 dollars (with a $50.00 deposit).

Anyway so that was our week.  Oh, Aiden also has learned many new words but the most memorable for this week is the word, “loco”.  It is really funny to hear a one and a half year old say loco.  This upcoming week is my 27th birthday.  Crazy huh?  Thanks for reading!