Monroe Parenting

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

While I’m thinking about it, for all of you Sandra Boynton fans out there, Kohl’s currently has three of her books with CDs for $5 each. This is a really good deal because they usually run about $15 a piece at the book store. Also available for $5 each are the stuffed animals that are featured in the books, including the dog from “Dog Train,” the rhino from “Rhinoceros Tap,” the chicken from “Philadelphia Chickens” and the pig that is, well, featured in many books.

The books and animals are part of the Kohl’s Cares for Kids program and 100% of the profits go to charity. If we didn’t already own all three, I would’ve snapped them up from Kohl’s in a heartbeat.

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

I love the beginning of the week. There are so many good shows to watch! The only problem is, a majority of them we can’t watch while the kids are awake (such as “24″ and “Law and Order: SVU”). Too much violence…….Caitlyn would have nightmares.

So we end up recording them to watch after we get the kids to bed, but more times than not I fall asleep while the opening credits are still rolling. And then I get to work the next day and my co-worker (let’s just call her Michelle) is bubbling over about what happened in last night’s episode and I can’t discuss it because I haven’t seen it yet.

Although on the bright side, at least “American Idol” is family-friendly enough that we can watch those episodes without having to record them.  And who’s Caitlyn’s favorite this year?? Anybody who sings an upbeat song that she can dance to — she’s not that picky. Too bad she doesn’t know how to phone in her vote yet.

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenew.com

I’m so excited! I just submitted my online application for graduate school at Wayne State University!! I figured it was about time I got moving and quit slacking for my family’s sake. I hope to start attending classes for the fall semester to get my master’s degree in library science. I’ve been contemplating it for quite some time now, and I finally did it! This mommy is going to be a student again!

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

Caitlyn loves to play with Playdoh, and I love to watch her squish it between her fingers, but man, oh man, does it suck trying to get all those stray pieces out of my carpet later!

When her friend Carolyn came over today the two girls wanted to play with Playdoh. Ok, no big deal. So I got out all the fun accessories and starting opening up all the different colors when I noticed that little pieces were falling off the kitchen island and all over my carpet under their stools.

I didn’t want to stop them from having fun, but I also didn’t want to have to attack my carpet later with elbow grease to pull up the pieces. So I came up with a great solution. I took plastic grocery bags and laid them out underneath their chairs. Any pieces that happened to fall landed on the bags, and when they were done playing, I just had to pick up the bags and shake off the pieces into the garbage. No mess for me to deal with later and the kids had a great time. Ah, the endless uses for plastic bags!!

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

My neighbors must think I’m insane…..well, at least they would have if they had looked in my windows a few minutes ago and saw Caitlyn, Keegan and I jamming out to “Build Me Up Buttercup.” Caitlyn has on her shiny ballet shoes and she was dancing in her circles swinging her stuffed dog while Keegan and I did twirls, dips and hops around the living room.

I use to dance with Caitlyn when she was baby and it always gave her the belly laughs (although we use to shake it to the “Chicago” soundtrack…there’s just something about “All That Jazz”….).

Apparently, Keegan is a “Buttercup” fan.

Uh oh! Look out neighbors! “Footloose” just came on!!!

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

As I was getting ready for work this morning, I happened to hear on the radio a discussion about things that new parents go overboard buying for their kids. Some of the callers confessed to buying certain diapers because of the cartoon character on them. One mother said that her 18-month-old daughter had everything there was to have that had “Princess” on it. She said she realizes her daughter at this age really has no preference about what she has, but she still can’t help picking up impulse items for her.

When Caitlyn was born, Baby Einstein was all the rage. I was very concerned with starting her off on the right foot and felt that in order to be a good parent, I needed to get all the educational videos for her. She watched some of them, but basically could have cared less. Now, the experts are saying that kids shouldn’t even watch TV until they are 2 — not even Baby Einstein videos. I guess it doesn’t really matter through, because we haven’t even bothered trying to pop one into the DVD player with Keegan. Why kill his curiosity in other things but making him a mindless zombie in front of the telley?

So now it’s your turn to confess. What useless items did you feel it was dire for your little cherubs to own?

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

Oh dear God, it’s finally happened — I sound like my mother.

Yesterday in the car, Caitlyn kept pestering me with questions about something or other and no matter what I answered, she kept coming back with “Why?”

Finally, at my wits end, I just blurted out “Because I said so! That’s why!!”

And in that very moment the thought popped in my head “Oh good God, you sound just like Mom use to!”

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

A co-worker asked me this morning if I had escaped the evil clutches of the Peter Pan peanut butter recall. And the answer is yes, simply because I only buy the Reeses Peanut Butter. When perusing all my options on the store’s peanut butter shelf, I decided that if the Reeses peanut butter was good enough to go with chocolate, then it was good enough for my kids.

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

Caitlyn is a very weird kid when it comes to what she likes to snack on…..not that her choice is a bad thing, just bizarre. She loves to eat raw pepper slices. Doesn’t matter if they’re red, green, orange or yellow — she loves them. Every time I try to make a meal for Dave (keep in mind he’s a vegetarian, so there’s always veggies involved) she comes right up to the counter to see what I have. And if there’s peppers, the pestering starts.

Today I chopped up some green pepper slices to put on a pizza for lunch. My mistake was in leaving the bowl on the edge of the counter. Caitlyn saw what I was cutting up and immediately came over to beg for a piece. I gave her one and she ran off to show her daddy, the green pepper proudly waving in her hand for all to see. I thought that would keep her busy for a bit and went back to unloading the dishwasher. When I turned around, I happened to see a little hand creeping over the corner of the counter toward my pepper bowl. She really couldn’t see over the edge of the counter, so she was trying to be really quiet and just feel around. Then it was like one of those snake attacks you see on Animal Planet — her hand dove into the bowl, she grabbed a fistful of peppers and then took off before I could catch her.

I wonder if she realizes that I would never scold her for wanting to sneak more peppers? I can always chop more and they’re better for her to munch on than potato chips!

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

I heard that we’re supposed to set a new record low tonight with -5 degrees. I hope everyone remembers to keep their little ones bundled up well when taking them out and about. When it gets that cold, little fingers and toes can freeze in a hurry!!