Isn't she lovely?

Maudie and I had a nice little day yesterday. I took her to JC Penny to get her 2 year old pictures taken. She was a bit shy at first but hammed it up after a few snaps of the camera. If the photographer would've been quicker on the trigger, perhaps we would've actually got some good photos. She didn't stay on task very long, but we got our mission accomplished.
It takes a week or so to get the photos printed, so here is a preview from the waiting room. She looked so cute in her 'ballerina dress' (as she named it) and all the ladies had to stop and ogle over her.

After her photo session we stopped at Build-a-Bear where we made a stuffed puppy (named Puppy) complete with a pink dress and hair bows. On our way the car we stopped to see the Easter Bunny, dance outside of Abercrombie and Fitch, and got an Auntie Anne's pretzel. She didn't make it much longer before we had to head home for a nap.

I got hosed!

That's right, I got hosed. I should say Hosed (with a capital H). If there was a Hosed-ville, I'd be the mayor.
Our neighbor kids invited us to a brat fry benefit to raise money for the HS LaCrosse team, and we gladly bought tickets. The benefit included a brat or hotdog dinner complete with pasta salad, chips and a cookie....but thats not important part. At the dinner there was a silent auction to raise more money. Since Madison is the home of American Girl dolls there were several items donated from them. Let me note: I have been obsessed with these dolls since I was a child...however, the closest I ever got to owning one was when the free catalog came to our house, I would flip thru the pages until they tore. Well, at the auction tonight they had a pair of Itty-Bitty Twin boys complete with the stroller. The starting bid was $60 (valued at $150). I immediately bid the minimum price thinking I had this in the bag (only an hour left to the end of the auction and I was the first bidder). I REALLY wanted the boy dolls for Maudie to have a baby boy of her own when Charlie arrives. Do you know how hard it is to find a boy doll?? I figured I'd give away or sell the second doll.
While we waited for the auction to close we ate our dinner, chatted with the neighbors and bought raffle tickets for a 50:50 drawing. They were running a special.... for $20 you could get your (or one of the player's) arm span worth of tickets. At 6ft 6in that's a pretty good deal for Chris (43 tickets). Maudie placed her bid on a Minnie mouse doll for $8 and Chris put in a bid for $10 on a hand held golf game.
OK....here we are, the night is coming to an end. Chris won the drawing (almost $100) and Maudie won the Minnie Mouse (Daddy then bought her the matching Mickey) and I was stoked about my prize (not yet in the bag). We checked the bidding to make sure nobody out bid me and there was another bid for $5 more. I bid again. Come back a few minutes later, bid another $2. At this point there is only 5 minutes left of the auction so we take a seat near the item to catch a glimpse of who keeps out bidding me. Turns out it's an old blue-haired granny. I was going to out-whit her and bid in the last minute. But grannie was circling like a vulture. I went down to make the final bid and they shut it down 1 minute early. Someone was going to allow one more bid but grannie yelled at her and I quietly slipped away. Chris said I should have brought Maudie with me and made her cry because she couldn't have the dolls....or make up some story about having twin boys, maybe throw in the fact that daddy had a brain tumor and we may never have more kids. Instead, all I won was a horrible case of heat-burn.

New Dog?

No, we didn't really get a new dog. Olive just got one of her tri-annual clippings today, which always good for a few laughs. The change between her shaggy look and her pre-summer shave is so dramatic that I had to make sure to take before and after photos. She looses about 6 inches of fur and what looks like 25 lbs... Snuffalopagus to a drowned rat. This was the first time Maudie actually realized there was a difference and she got the biggest kick out of it. Olive on the other hand is a bit self-conscience and would rather sulk in the corner with her new tennis ball (which she can actually see now).
Since we are on the topic of our pets, I would like to introduce you to the newest members of the Heideman Clan. They are a trio of gold fish. Two little ones and their giant leader the 'daddy' which Maudie has happily named him. She's been obsessed with 'Finding Nemo' since we DVR'ed it a few months ago, so we decided to get her an aquarium for her birthday. It's a sesame street theme tank so we happened to capture two of her favorite things in one...Elmo and Nemo. It's been a match made in heaven (well...heaven to some, the pet section of Walmart to others).

Hired Help Wanted

I swear if I had the money, I'd hire a maid. I feel as exhausted these days as I did in the first trimester, except now I cant sleep because I'm too uncomfortable and have to pee too much. I'm overwhelmed with the thought of everything that needs to be done before Charlie comes. The taxes, put together the nursery, get Maudie's pictures taken, make Maudie a new blanket and sheet set for her toddler bed, get Olive's hair cut....the list goes on and on. If I had more energy to care, I'd clean and organize the house too. But isn't that what maternity leave is for? As least Maudie's doing her share....

Dinner Mayham

Today, the girl who lives next door (Jenna) got her braces off and since she is Maudie's favorite babysitter, we decided to do something nice for her. Chris thought it would be fun to make her a pan of ooey-gooey s'mores bars to celebrate the re-birth of her metal-less smile. So, we picked up Maudie from Kristeen's house, went to the Piggly-Wiggly to get all of the ingredients and hurried home to whip up a batch. Maudie, being the good little helper that she is, helped me carry in a bag of groceries and spotted the mini-marshmallows. I thought it would be pretty harmless to give her a FEW to snack on while dinner was cooking. But when she gets something in her head there is NO changing her mind, and she had her mind set on eating ALL the marshmallows right out of the bag. A few minutes and a few thousand tears later, I got her settled down (minor detail: by giving her the whole darn bag of marshmallows). She only ate a few before she "helped" me toss them into the pot of melted butter, but she ate them with conviction and attitute.
I finished up preparing the bars and formed them into the cake pan while Chirs browned the meat for the last batch of chili for the season (who can eat chili when it's over 70 degrees? Not me). Anyway, we opened all the cans of tomoatoes & beans and dumped them into the cast-iron dutch oven my mother-in-law, Jennie, had given me for Christmas. We put the pot on to simmer and headed over to the neighbors.
While we were there, Jenna showed Maudie her pet miniture hamsters. They have three of them... BoBo, Oreo and Ruby (the albino one). Maudie was in LOVE. Owen, Jenna's brother, lowered BoBo into one of the ball-dealio thingys (technical term) and Maudie scooped it up and planted him right in her lap. Before I knew it we were there 20 minutes or more, but I'm sure everthing is OK, because I turned the chili down to low, right? Or did I?
We walked in the door and smoke was billowing on the celing. My preg-mencia (demencia for the pregnant lady) had gotten the best of this dinner and the pot had been on 'high' for nearly a half an hour. Now, ordianarly I consider myself a pretty good cook however, ever since Jennie gave me this pot, I have not been able to cook one darn thing in it. I think she cursed it. Chris says it still tastes better than her cooking (sorry, Jennie) but I think he's just trying to make me feel better. I must admit, I'm getting pretty good at cleaning the damn thing. I discovered if you make a paste of out baking soda and water, it dissolves off all the black soot on the bottom of the pan with out using steel-wool.
Long story short, we had hotdogs for dinner. At least the bars turned out alright. Please note, the photo of Maudie at the dinner table was not of this meal....it was last week when I burned the tar out of a batch of wild-rice soup.

Here's the recipe for my S'mores bars...
1 stick butter
1 large box of Golden Graham Cereal
1 large bag of mini marshmellows
1/2 sleeve cracked Graham crackers (cracked up to roughly bite-size peices)
3 Hershey bars

Melt the butter in a large pan (avoid dutch oven at all cost) toss in marshmellows reserving a large handfull. Stir until melted (do not take your eyes off this for one minute) add in box of cereal and coat with marshmellow. Add crunched-up/cracked graham crackers & reserved marshmellow, remove from heat & stir. Fold out into a greased (Pam'ed) cake pan. Break Hershey bar into the little sqares and tuck into nook and crannies of the Golden Grahams. Cover with saran-wrap and gently press mixure into pan to condense or use the back side of the butter wrapper.  Wha-la, done. Don't bring these bars anywhere without carrying a copy of the recipe becasue people are going to ask for it!

Spring has sprung?

You try to explain to a 2 year-old that the weather in Wisconsin changes from minute to minute. Yesterday it was a record-breaking 70 degrees and the kids spent the entire day playing outside. It was glorious. Well, now today Maudie wants a repeat of yesterday and it barely hit 50. She didn't care...she was perfectly content outside despite the chilly winds. Her, her rubber boots and her bucket of play-dough.....just incase a walker-by needs an impromptu play-dough cookie, I guess.
As far as Charlie goes, he's going good. He's found a comfy spot very low in my pelvis ....from the feels of it right atop my bladder. Which is nice. We've hit the 28 week mark and by all accounts are now fully into the third trimester and doing well. No signs of the dreaded preeclampsia despite sneaking Chinese takeout on Sunday (which I believe was the start of my downfall with Maudie) He'll officially arrive on June 3rd which is the date of my scheduled C-section unless I go into labor earlier.

Maudie turned two!

Well, the big exciting news this week was Maudie's birthday. I can't believe she's already two years old! Time flies so fast, I wish I could savor every moment while she's little. Of course, she insists that she is a 'big girl' because she has recently mastered her 'big girl' toddler bed. Now, if I could convince her that going on the potty chair was a 'big girl' activity.
We had a pool party for her second birthday, and after 5 hours in the pool she was sufficiently water-logged and blissfully happy. She loved every moment of it... I think she was born with gills. Perhaps her favorite part of her birthday (and the three days leading up to it) was singing 'Happy Birthay'. With every mention of her birthday, and every piece of left over birthday cake we had to break into song. At one point after "Happy Birthday" was over, she tried to lead Grandma & Grandpa into singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" just to make the moment last.

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog... Tales from Charlie and Maude!
I have decided to create this blog to share everyday events in the life of our daughter Maude (Maudie) and her soon-to-be brother, Charlie.