Cocoa Beach - Our First Home Exchange

With our little guy just 5 weeks old, we had the crazy idea to go on a trip. We knew we had to keep it reasonable and stay on the continent, we also wanted to combine it with a visit with our dear friends Kristi and Vic Everingham, and last and most important, we wanted to do our first home exchange.

Kim and Kent are a couple who love Las Vegas and have homes in Florida and British Columbia. Their place in Florida is a condo on Cocoa beach and it was a great location for our first exchange. We had three bedrooms and their Mercury Mountaineer at our disposal. Even better, it was 20 minutes from our friends in Merritt Island.

We spent a week over Christmas playing in the sand, swimming in the pool, having daily visits to our friend's beautiful home on the inland waterway, and exploring local sites such as the Kennedy Space Center.  Highlights were the warm nights spent on our friends' patio eating everything from Monkfish to steaks.  There were lots of people around and lots of merriment. Harper had fun trying to keep up with the Everinghams 5 daughters and it was especially memorable when doing so, she fell off of a playset and came walking up with a face covered in dirt. Luckily she was not hurt.  Little Hudson did not fare so well.  After 6 days of a fever of 103, we ended up in the emergency room.  Urgent Care does not take a child under 6 months (something new we learned) so there were two scary instances in the ER where they attempted to get his fever under control.  Poor little guy was poked and prodded and to this day we did not receive a straight answer but he may have had a UTI on top of a cold and/or flu virus. We feel badly that he was this sick and we are extremely grateful that he made a full recovery and has never looked back.

Beach in December

Our Home away from Home

Kennedy Space Center

Face-Plant

Ugly Sweaters

First Smiles

Heading Home

Repurposing the Blog

It's been awhile and our excuse involves the very beings that inspired blogging in the first place.  Our two kiddos are now 4 and almost 2.  It proved to be a bit much to blog through those early sleepless years but our goal remains intact: documentation of life's adventures so we can look back with gratitude.
What now?
In October of 2013, after watching the movie, the Holiday, Kevin and I became enamored with a new way to approach our favorite hobby.  We are both proponents of the sharing economy and neither of us are especially protective of our material things. Given that some of these things have value, they are commodities in the sharing market.  Enter homeexchange.com; a website that facilitates the swapping of homes, cars, pet care, etc as a way of exploring the world through the eyes of a local.  It's simple and yet it's brilliant and it has afforded us the opportunity to visit many new places, stay in comfort with multiple bedrooms to accommodate our family, keep costs low by doing some cooking and eating at "home," and introduced us to many new friends who love home swapping too.
We are repurposing this blog as a way to remember each of our home exchanges. As of this date, we have 11 exchanges under our belt so we will start at the beginning and work to the present.

Thumbs Up! A Brudder on the Way

In the words of Harper, "We're going to have a brudder."  There was excitement all around when we went for a regular 15/16 week doc appt and the ultrasound tech was hanging out bored after someone missed their appt.  We took full advantage and within minutes she was announcing, "It's a boy!"  We are now at 29 weeks so a little delayed in posting but the news has fully set in.

Lots to plan for but also a sense of deep peace that the Humphreys name will carry on in the form of llittle "Hudson Paul Humphreys." It only took me a few days to start packing up all the girlie clothes we had been saving (this was actually very bittersweet) and start thinking in terms of our new addition.

Hudson's room is coming together nicely with a jungle theme focused on elephants and monkeys (pic soon) and we have been so blessed to receive little boy clothes from great friends.  I am definitely carrying this little guy differently than his Sis and he's got quick a kick.  Can't wait to see what his looks and personality will be like.  In the meantime, we are milking up the remaining months with our only child.

Here We Go Again

I am pragmatic by nature but also a bit of a dreamer.  At 35, I am still shocked when something that I only envisioned as a possibility becomes reality.  Unless that 99.9% accuracy claim is a sham, I am pregnant with our second bambino.  Blogging was a great outlet last time and it will also prove as documentation that I am a really good whiner and fall squarely in the generation of over-worried, over-researched, and overly consumed with the fact that I am doing something that millions have successfully navigated before me.  For the past few weeks I have felt short of breath as in having to take a break at the top of our meager flight of stairs and having to pull in extra breaths when trying to read or sing to Harper.  Given my decent set of lungs and endurance, this could only have meant one thing.  We are 4.5 weeks into this journey. Already, I am humbled by the fact that child #1 will not be making any concessions for child #2 and sleep with a toddler in the house will be tough to come by.  I am also humbled by the fact that I now need to finish my dissertation a couple months ahead of schedule.  A baby is good motivation, I lost a significant amount of brain cells with the first one and there is no telling what my intelligence will be like come the fall.  Already, I am having to describe items by their uses e.g. "that thing you use to scoop."
All of this to say, we are extremely excited that Harper will have a sibling. If her bossing around of the dog is any indication, she is made for the big sister role.  Kevin has the parenting job down so between the two of them, this second child stands a chance.  He or She will be gracing us with their presence mid to late October and although it's early, I must guiltily admit that once again, I seem to be avoiding nauseau and feeling good overall.  I best go knock on some wood.  More to come....

The First 6 Months

More pics of Harper 6 months (taken by our dear friends and photographers: Nate and Kodi Campbell http://www.nkcphotos.com/. To view the gallery: http://www.nkcphoto.com/Clients/2011/Harper-at-6-months/20399178_pzzmhg#1614236609_WTQ2Drs (password "Collins")

Pics (unedited) of our fall trip to NYC, Budapest, Prague, and DC: http://gallery.me.com/kevinhumphreys#100031

So..... Having a baby keeps you a whole lot busier than we ever dreamed. Hence, the very delayed update to firstsforus. Certainly there have been many firsts to celebrate and laugh about as Harper Ann Humphreys entered our lives. For starters, there was the night where an exhausted Mommy and Daddy returned home and left Emma the dog locked up in her crate all night long. For Emma, this injustice was small compared to the many times we have forgotten to feed or give her water in the midst of taking care of our little human's needs. Thankfully, Emma is one gracious dog and is just looking forward to when Harper starts dropping some serious eats/treats from the high chair. Then, there was the time that Mommy and Daddy made it out to the grocery store with baby, managed to get all the groceries and baby securely in the car and promptly drove away without the diaper bag. This might seem forgiveable except that the diaper bag was on the ground behind the wheel of the car and was run over, by us, twice. Thankfully some kind stranger turned the bag in, we finally traced it's origin 3 days later and the tire marks all came out nicely.

Of course, all the best firsts have been those precious moments where Harper shows us the many sides to her personality and the precociuos little being she will grow to be. Her first smiles, giggles, toots (first of many), the times she "surprises" us while in the midst of a diaper change, all of the first trips, the babbling, the "I'm mad at you" looks. It's been a true blast and we're thoroughly enjoying this journey.

As the year 2012 peeks around the corner, we cannot believe all that was experienced in 2011: marriage, birth, visitors, school, work, travels, and more. Here's to a wonderful and no less exciting 2012!

Enjoying Every Moment

Harper is two weeks old today which means we are officially behind on posting a whole lot of firsts. To be truthful, I don't know where to begin but I do not want to delay further as I hope this blog will someday serve as a fun read for Harper and a glimpse into what was going on in her parent's heads while she was in utero and now out in the world. I suppose I should start with the birth story: Harper sure kept us on a toes for a few weeks as she was set to make an entrance on May 4th and instead introduced herself via C-section a full two weeks later. The reasons for the drama ranged from low platelets in Mama to the predictions for a very large baby to the pesky umbilical cord but the bottom line is that Harper patiently waited for the cervix to open and it just didn't happen. The C-section was a scary moment for me but that mostly had to do with an intense fear of being cut, pricked, etc. There were parts of it that were as bad as I imagined and there were parts that were surprisingly easy and at this point, I am healing up nicely. I was so thankful to have Kevin right by my side through the procedure and then with Harper from the moment she was born. My Mom was our other crutch and she was infinitely helpful with everything from getting Harper to latch on for feedings to getting me clothes to fit my no longer pregnant yet not quite not pregnant body and even staying a night in the hospital with us.

The first few days of parenthood are a blur but they include many of the classics such as being peed and puked on, leaving the house without a diaper bag, taking 40 minutes to leave the house period, forgetting to feed the dog, looking and acting like zombies, etc.

On the other hand, Harper is pure joy to look at, be around, smell, etc. She surprised us by having a full head of dark hair which is growing quickly and slowly turning more brown. She has her Father's thoughtful eyes and carries on a constant little chirp when she sleeps (not great for Mama's shut-eye as every little noise makes me want to check on her). She loves to be swaddled but also loves a good stretch and had her first venture out in a baby carrier today. She's a good sleeper (knock on wood) and ranks even higher in the appetite department. She hit her birth weight again yesterday and has strong little limbs, I sense an athlete in the making ;-)

We have taken enough pictures to last a lifetime already but we look forward to continuing to document and share our adventures. We have a summer full of friends and family along with time to bond as our own little threesome and we are trying to be mindful of the mantra that everyone shares, "Enjoy every moment, they grow up so fast."

Waiting on a Woman

Ah, patience... never my best virtue but one I have been working on for years and one that I was prepared to embrace as I waited upon the unpredictable act of childbirth. This did not stop me from doing a bit of planning in the form of last day of work, grandparent's arrivals from Oregon, last minute baby supplies, etc. Then as Murphy's Law would have it, a week before our due date, we hit the perfect storm of a very large baby girl (per the ultrasound), a very low amount of amniotic fluid, and a low platelet count for Mama. With these things in mind, our doctor scrambled to get us into the hospital for an induction and we complied. As of last Wednesday evening, they had a bed for us and after a lively night in the hospital, on Thursday, May 5th we were told in a most definitive manner, "Your daughter will arrive today."

Here it is Wednesday, a full week later and the house is silent with nary a baby coo or grunt or whine. Super-Grandma (Mom/Grandma Sparrow) managed to do some last minute flight re-arranging and has been here almost a full week and Dad/Grandpa Sparrow arrives today. If Harper was looking for an audience, she's got it now and if my contractions keep up at this rate and pain level and yet do not result in a widened cervix I will truly be surprised.

Because of the improvements in all areas (who would have known that a little relaxation could bring that amniotic fluid right up) we have been in a holding pattern of fetal monitoring and measurements. We have appts tomorrow (Thursday) and next Tuesday but something tells us she will arrive before then. The doctors have indicated that they do not want us to go past the middle of next week but we have heard "definitive" announcements such as this before and we aren't believing anything until it happens.

In the meantime, we are being well fed (thanks Mom/Grandma) and well cared for ("Cranky" aka Dad/Grandpa Humphreys has been putting extra long hours in with Kevin at work to prepare for baby go-time) and look forward to the relaxing and positive presence of Dad/Grandpa Sparrow as he arrives to enjoy the Sunshine. If nothing else, we now have a interesting "birth story" to share with our little unpredictable one and we are truly, truly ready to have her join our lives.