Monroe Parenting

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

Oh goody, it’s that time of year again! The fair is here! Overpriced food and stifling heat here we come!

At least the weather is always predictable during the first week of August — it will either be too hot and muggy to breathe or it will thunderstorm like crazy. Either way, not a good thing if you plan to take little ones to the fair.

We did go to the parade yesterday and I think we had the best seats on the route. We were right on the corner of Jones Ave. and Monroe St., which meant that we were right at the beginning of the parade and people were still happy and not completely sweaty. It also put us directly in the path of the free Frostys from Wendy’s! Mmmmmm, nothing better on a hot day than an icy-cold Frosty!

After the parade we took the kids to the fair. Unfortunately, we barely made it to the new Expo Center before Keegan’s allergies went haywire. I don’t know if it was the animals or just something in the air, but the poor little guy seems to have inherited my seasonal allergies, which usually show up at the end of July/early August. His eyes puffed up and got red and leaky and his nose wouldn’t stop running. He looked just miserable. Dave ended up taking him home while Caitlyn and I walked around for a bit. I figured that since we had to pay to get in we might as well stay for more than 20 minutes.

Of course, Caity and I had to get some traditional fair food — some mozzarella cheese sticks from the Wisconsin Cheese stand, a couple of pink lemonade shaved icees and, of course, a bag of cotton candy.

I wanted to take the kids to spend the day at the fair on Thursday to ride some rides and pet the animals, but I don’t think that’s going to happen now. With Keegan’s allergies and the heat index projected to be in the  upper 90s, it doesn’t seem like such a good idea. We may have to pass on those elephant ears………

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

I’ve spent the last week trying to figure out how to get my pictures posted on here, but still no luck. I haven’t given up yet, but in the meantime……..

We had a great time Thursday on Keegan’s birthday. I took the kids down to the Toledo Zoo (the first time all by myself!) and I think it was a successful trip. Since it was overcast, there wasn’t that many people there and we got to walk right in to the polar bear exhibit with no wait. Caitlyn got to go into the little viewing cave area and the baby polar bear came right up to her and was licking the other side of the glass where she was sitting. It was so cute!!! I’m wondering if Keegan thought the bear was just a giant shaggy dog because he went nuts when he saw it. He was bouncing in his seat and clapping his hands  — anything to get the bear’s attention. lol.

We also got to see the baby orangutans……there’s an area near that exhibit that is painted blue and if you happen to be standing there when the orangutan pulls a rope from the inside you will get wet. Caitlyn thought this was an awesome idea and tried to encourage the orangutan to pull the rope again. Nothing better than having a monkey get you soaked on a hot day!!

After we left the zoo, Caity had to go to swim class and then we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese’s for some fun and games. Keegan loved watching the robot band and Caitlyn loved playing the games. Of course, the pizza’s not too bad either.

After dinner we stopped by Toys’R'Us because Keegan had a birthday coupon. Good times! Since we got to the store at 5 minutes to close, it was like a bad episode of Supermarket Sweep — Dave helped Keegan get his birthday balloon and crown while my mom, sisters, Caitlyn and I took off in the direction of the boy toys. We kept yelling down the aisles to each other about what we found that Keegan might enjoy. We ended up getting him a talking Home Depot Tool Kit. Both kids like playing with it, but if I have to hear one more time “Welcome to Home Depot where you can find tools for any project….” Eek!

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

My little man turned 1 today!!! I’ll have more later with pictures from his Clifford party….right now we have to go play with his new trucks!

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

I’m convinced that once a child turns 3 they discover the power of “selective hearing.”

I could ask Caitlyn a million times to come into the living room, or pick up her shoes, or to stop taking Keegan’s toys and she will pretend that I’m not even in the room. Sorry, can’t hear you!

But if I say “Caitlyn, look at this box of yummy cookies I just picked up!”…….ZOOM! She is on my lap in no-time flat!

It’s getting very frustrating to have to repeat myself over and over and over again before she’ll take her eyes off her Barbie dolls to see what I want. And it’s not like I always have a box of cookies on hand. She’s like Scooby-Doo only wanting to do things for Scooby snacks.

And I have a sinking feeling that this is only the tip of the iceberg. After all, we have the teen years to look forward to! Urgh. Perhaps I’m the one who needs the cookie now!

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

Yesterday, Caitlyn was one of three grand prize winners at the Dundee branch library for their summer reading program. She was in the 4th grade and younger group and she won a jungle-themed kiddie pool with a canopy for the backyard. She was so excited when her name was called!!!!

I am so proud of my girl! She attended a couple of the reading programs (only a few because of my work schedule) and read 170 books — well, the books were read to her. This resulted in 19 entries for her in the contest.

Yay for summer reading!

(In case anyone was wondering, Keegan participated in the program, too, but he was much more interested in trying to eat the books rather than hearing the stories. …)

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

Here’s a good piece of advice for parents: If you have a spare set of keys for your car, it would be a good idea not to let your child play with them. Because if you do, the keys most likely will end up lost. And then when you accidentally lock your keys in your car at work (which could be in, say, Detroit), AAA will have to come bail you out.

I will not admit whether this is a true story to protect my husband’s pride.

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

All right, I must be crazy. Well, me and half of Monroe County. …

Caitlyn and I went to Meijer last night for the release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” (I’m currently No. 4 out of 148 on the waiting list at the library for the book, but I couldn’t stand the suspense of having to wait until Monday to get my copy!)

So we got to Meijer around 10:40 p.m. Caitlyn had her giant “Cars” body pillow draped over the front of the cart so she could lay on it and her new stuffed friend “Brian the little owl” was on a pretty pink leash in the seat next to her. She thought we were going to a pajama party at the store and was thrilled.

I gotta say, she was a real trooper because we stood in line for more than an hour and she didn’t complain once. We played tic-tac-toe in my day planner, ate free cake and drew little faces on our hands to pass the time. Although she did keep asking about every five minutes if the book was coming yet.

Now we haven’t read any of the books to her and she has only seen the first movie and part of the second one (because it scared her so we turned it off). And yet she seems to know exactly who Harry Potter is. I mean, how could she not with all the hype going on?!

We got home around 12:25 a.m. and Caitlyn was still awake! But I let Dave put her to bed so I could get started on my book. I finally finished it this afternoon (because I did need to sleep at some point!) and it was totally worth the wait. And no, I am NOT going to tell you how it ends! You’ll just have to read it for yourself!

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

I got an invitation in the mail last week for my 10-year high school reunion. Oh geez — has it really been that long already?!

It’s hard to remember what I thought I would do with my life when I was young and starry-eyed when now I can’t even remember what I had for lunch yesterday…..To be honest, I simply planned on taking things one step at a time, starting with college. I figured that there would be plenty of time to sort the rest out along the way.

But now here I am at almost 28 years old and I’m going back to school in the fall. What does it say about me that it has taken 10 years to figure out what I want to do with my life?
Another thing that crossed my mind is “Do I really even want to see the people I went to high school with?” I wouldn’t mind showing off pictures of my kids (because that seems to be the first thing people always do), but the people I wanted to still talk to after high school, I still keep in touch with. Do I really need to pay $65 to talk to them again when we just saw each other last week??

I always say that you couldn’t couldn’t pay me to go back to high school…….but now do I want to shell out the cash to take a trip down memory lane? Who knows. I still have a month to decide.

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

I didn’t have to rush to work this morning — in fact I didn’t have to be here until noon today — so I had plenty of time to get ready for work and actually look like an adult for a chance.

Since the kids were in their room, happily playing with their toys, I thought I would get a quick shower. The moment I put the shampoo in my hair though Caitlyn came running into the bathroom yelling “I need to use the potty!!!”

Great. It wasn’t something she could really handle without assistance since the shorts she had on had a button, zipper and a belt. So I had her come close enough that I could get it undone for her without getting her and the floor soaked, and she took it from there.

I hurried and put the conditioner in my hair and I had just started lathering it in when …. I smelled it. Oh no. I pulled back the curtain and there stood Keegan — king of the stinkies. Yeah, he decided to pick then and there to make a big ol’ poo, right when I couldn’t do I thing about it.

I think I broke a record with how fast I finished that shower. I got Caitlyn all buckled back up, and rushed Keegan to the changing table with a towel wrapped around my head.

So now that they were both dressed with empty bladders, I thought for sure that I could finished getting ready……HA! There I go thinking again.

As I was blow drying my hair, I realized that things had gotten a bit quiet. Usually the kids are running in and out of the bath room, ducking under the dryer cord and bringing me toys to look at. But I hadn’t seen either one of them in about five minutes. So I stood up and peeked around the corner to see what was going on — and that’s when I felt my heart stop.

They were both still in the bedroom…… BUT……. Caitlyn was playing Barbies at the activity table and doing her best to ignore her brother, who was busy doing his best impression of an acrobat. Keegan had climbed up on top of the art desk and was balancing on one foot while holding onto the curtain so he could look out the window. He looked at me like “What? What did I do???” when I ran forward and pulled him down.

I eventually got my hair dried, 20 minutes later, while Keegan pulled all the lotions and powders off the changing table, one by one. Obviously some days things just don’t go according to plan.

By Shawna Schmitt, sschmitt@monroenews.com

Keegan absolutely loves to look at pictures of himself and Caitlyn on the computer. My desktop at home has a picture of the two of them snuggling next to each other and every time I turn the computer on Keegan comes crawling over at warp speed to get a closer look.

Last night I picked him up on my lap so he could see better and he leaned over and started squealing while patting the monitor as if to say “Hey, you! You come out of there right now! I want to squish on you!”

He couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t grab hold of the babies on the screen, LOL. Silly boy.