Money Money Money....MONEY!

One of the main reasons we fell in love with our terrific house that we bought in 2008 was because of the open floor plan that was designed for hosting parties. Being the political dorks that we are, we of course envisioned hosting big political events at our house. We moved into the house the week of the 2008 election and had our Democratic yard signs up before we even got the mezuzah on the door (mostly because the mezuzah was packed in a box). Our neighbors new that the Democrats have arrived on the street!

In 2009 we hosted a house party for a state rep candidate and this year we decided to go even bigger and use our home to raise money for our Congressional candidate, Gerry Connolly.

I'll admit, I was nervous that it wasn't going to pull together in time. I like to have things planned out in detail far in advance, whereas Brad is more of a "closer to the event" kind of planner (which drives me bonkers). I'm delighted to announce that our hard work paid off and the event was FABULOUS!

We had 40+ people in attendance with speeches by Congressman Gerry Connolly, State Senator George Barker, and our dear friend State Rep. Eileen Filler-Corn (first Jewish woman elected to the state legislature!). So far we have raised about $13,000 which was TRIPLE the goal that the campaign set for the event! Woo hoo!

Money is still pouring in online and we welcome ALL donations! The Wall Street Journal considers this race the bellwether race in the country - if Connolly wins, then the Democrats will keep the House. If Connolly loses....let's just say, I'm moving to Canada if Boehner becomes House Speaker. I shudder at the thought.

So, if you'd like to support our fundraiser and make a donation, just go to https://secure.swift-cpa.com/gerryconnolly/ and let us know that you made a contribution so that it can be counted as part of our event's fundraising. :) Every dollar makes a difference in this very competitive race.

BIG thank you to my amazing brother David who babysat for Sam in the playroom during the event. Several of our guests brought their kids and seemed to think that David was there to babysit their kids too! So, David started a terrific game of Little Tykes basketball game in the basement with 5 kids - what a great uncle! Congressman Connolly said that David was a mensch (how cute is that).

Here's hoping for a BLUE election day!

Scary morning at the dr office

Sam gave us quite a scare Wednesday morning, but thankfully everything turned out to be fine! He woke up with a cold and was wheezing pretty badly. We gave him two breathing treatments which helped for about 5-10 minutes and then his wheezing worsened as he raced around (still with plenty of energy and playfulness!). When he was sitting in the highchair eating breakfast, not moving around, and I could hear him wheezing from across the kitchen, I decided it was time to bring him in. We got a 8:15am appointment and raced on over. In the car on the way over, I burst into tears fearing the worst. I began to mentally prepare myself for another visit to the ER and hospitalization because his symptoms were so similar to the respiratory virus that attacked his lungs 2 months ago.

The doctor saw us almost immediately and took his pulsox (which measures the amount of oxygen in his blood). A "great" number is above 95, but he must be above 90. When he went to the ER in July, his number was 82 which was very scary. On Wednesday, his pulsox was 96!!! We were overjoyed! The doctor listened to his lungs and concluded that the wheezing was due to mucus in his throat and was NOT related to his breathing nor was there any problem in his lungs. However, she assured us that there's no way we can differentiate the cause of the wheezing without a stethoscope and we were correct for bringing him in. He had just seen the pediatric pulmonologist 48 hours ago and his lungs were perfect then, so we all felt great that he was breathing fine and he was not in danger.

Throughout all of this, Sam couldn't understand what the big deal was because he was playful, energetic, trying to destroy everything in the dr office, and his normal happy self.

Brad and I were so relieved that everything went well. I wonder how many times he'll have to get sick with a normal cold before we start freaking out that we will end up in the ER again. After a scare like that, I think it might be a while.

The passage of time

Last night we went furniture shopping with Sam. As we have slowly furnished our house, we've periodically gone back to the same stores by dulles to buy furniture. We went twice while Rebecca was pregnant with Sam, once last winter when we was an infant and then today. It was interesting to reflect back on how much our lives, and he, in between each of our visits to the store.

Sam is an expert shopper

He confuses the shopping cart with the monkey bars and loves to hang!

Trying to escape

Sam learns to stand in his high chair, time to put the straps on it! He is so proud of his new accomplishment.

New Addition to Geller-Cheney Family

Ch-Ch-Ch-Change is coming to the Geller-Cheney Family! We are delighted to share that we are expecting a baby March 28, 2011, which is 4 days after Sam’s second birthday. We had hoped to have kids 2 years apart and are thrilled that the timing worked out so well.

First trimester was pretty tough and I was much sicker than I was with Sam. Thankfully I’m starting to feel better! But it always seems like the days when I’m the most exhausted are the days when Sam has the most energy! Why is that? :) Brad is still trying to adjust to my new 9pm bedtime (we are normally night owls and go to bed around 1130-12).

The beginning of the pregnancy was quite intense. I found out I was pregnant in July when Sam was in the hospital for 4 days with a scary virus. It was quite the contrast of different parts of my life to take a home pregnancy test in my toddler son’s hospital bathroom. I had a feeling I was pregnant (since we had just started trying) so it wasn’t a total surprise when the test came back positive but it felt very overwhelming to receive the news in the midst of Sam’s hospital crisis.

My tummy is already beginning to show a bit which I hear is normal with a second pregnancy, something about your muscles already being stretched out from a previous baby that makes you show much earlier with a second kid. Every morning is a challenge as I try to figure out what fits me and what doesn’t! I’m trying to be very careful to not gain much weight since I had just lost over 50 pounds (80 pounds if you include the pregnancy weight!). I seem to only want to eat carbs which doesn’t help much :) I’m pretty disgusted by red meat (much to Brad’s dismay since he would be happy eating steak every night of the week) and my sense of smell has changed significantly.

The first few months of a pregnancy are challenging on a number of levels. We were very excited, but cautiously optimistic because you never know what can happen in the early stages of a pregnancy. We told a few people, but it was so hard to keep it a secret for so long! As you can see from the blog, we’re not private people and were bursting to share our news! It feels great to be able to share this exciting chapter of our life.

We welcome your thoughts, comments, etc on this blog and look forward to experiencing this next stage with so many wonderful people. If you’d like, you sign up to receive emails notifying you each time we update it.

To our Jewish friends – we hope that you have an easy and meaningful fast over Yom Kippur and l’shana tovah!

Discipline help?

Lately Sam has started to test every limit to see what he's allowed to get away with and what he is not allowed to do. This has resulted in some very repetitive conversations about "no hitting" and "no biting" and "no throwing." The biting has subsided, but the hitting and throwing have increased. He doesn't hit out of anger or frustration - it is very playful, and we work on being gentle (showing him how to gently pet the dog, etc) - but it still hurts!

This week we were at Friendly's with my friend Melissa and her daughter London. Sam was frustrated that I wouldn't let him play with the knife, so he took his sippy cup and threw it across the table and almost hit London! I immediately picked him up and he had a time-out in the lobby of Friendly's. I couldn't believe he was acting out like this!

Time-outs and stern conversations have been helping, but this process is so frustrating. We work hard on being consistent, but there are times when it's just exhausting to continue saying it over and over again. I can't help but wonder if the time-outs and stern conversations are working? And it doesn't help matters that I'm not the most patient person in the world...

Anyone have advice on teaching a 17 month old that we don't hit, bite, or throw things at people?

Where's Sam's nose?

Yesterday at The Little Gym, the instructor said at the end of class that next week we are going to work on learning and identifying various body parts. Sam happened to be standing in front of her and she said, "for example, does anyone know where their nose is?"

Sam demonstrated to the entire class that he knows where his nose is - he put both hands on his nose, laughed...and then began picking his nose. Lovely. All of the parents and the instructor burst out laughing watching him, there's a very fine line between "where's your nose" and "please don't pick your nose."

Oh, the things that kids do!