Enough Whining..

Do you ever have those days when no matter how patient you are trying to be with your children you just want to scream "Oh for crying out loud! Quit your whining!!" I kinda feel like that with myself lately. And if I feel like that, I am sure you do, too. The fact is, we really have tried to make the best of it through my ickies.

Marin and I have frequently gone out to lunch together at Panera because I couldn't handle the thought of having to make and clean up lunch. Plus, for some reason I am totally okay with going there wearing a big coat with my pj's hidden underneath. Marin goes crazy for the yogurt that you can squeeze right into your mouth and the milk disguised as a juice box. Plus, she and I equally love the mac and cheese there, so what she doesn't eat, I always finish.

We have been going to the home Illinois games, although it is an ordeal and a lot of time in the car is seriously hard on my stomach so we skipped this last week. One week my father in law gave Marin, myself, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law and my nephew tickets to the 77 club, which are the fanciest seats in the stadium, located inside. It is set up like a large box, but it's an entire section. There is free food and drinks and leather chairs and the bathroom is marble. Seriously different than Jason and my seats in the horseshoe with the epic bathroom lines tucked between the hot dog stands. It was fancier than any sporting event seats I have ever sat in anywhere, and was packed to the brim with local and Chicago celebrities. There were some very fancy men in front of us wearing sport coats (not the usual sweatshirt and jeans at a football game crowd). About half way through, Marin accidentally flung her apple sauce all over the shoulder of one of the fancy sport coat snoots in front of us. I was mortified and apologized profusely telling him, "I'm so sorry; she's not yet even two.", as if that would excuse her shaky hands. I'm sure he was thinking "what is your not yet two year old doing with a $200 ticket?!" The answer is that if you're under two you're free, but he didn't care. As if that weren't bad enough my maternal instincts kicked in and I literally scooped the applesauce off his shoulder with my finger. Ew. I don't think he was impressed. About an hour later Marin got excited about a touchdown and threw a bouncy ball right at the same gentleman's head. Luckily it missed them, but they knew immediately that the ball was coming from us as they begrudgingly bent down to retrieve the ball and return it to me with a half stern, half smiled face. I don't have any pictures from this particular day because I forgot my camera. Maybe that was for the better.

Speaking of the Illini- Marin is in love. She wants to read her Illini books, wear the clothing, and every time she sees football on tv she yells (and I mean yells), "Daddy, Llini!!" She knows to hold both hands above her head when there is a touchdown, and she ooos and aahs her way through every game, whether she is in the stadium or watching from home.

Marin loved helping her daddy rake the leaves in the yard this fall. Lucky for Marin, it seemed like there were always plenty to rake. And Marin decided that the broom did just as good a job as the rake. In Geneva, we just have to rake all the leaves to the curb and the city comes by and sucks them up. Marin loved watching that process just as much as the raking. "Oooo! Bg Tuck!", she'd say (meaning big truck).

One exciting thing is that Jason has a new job, that allows him to work from home most days. We have loved having him home more and having breakfast and lunch together almost every day! He was in New York on business last week, so Marin and I headed over to my parents house to take advantage of some extra hands. One day, we made cookies together. Marin loved measuring out the ingredients- scooping the flour and the sugar into the measuring cups and leveling them off- as well as eating the end result!

When Jason came home Marin was sure to give her daddy extra love.

So see, it's not all so bad. I'll stop whining... for now.