Elaine has just accomplished a number of firsts. She took her first plane ride; she visited the Mother Country (sometimes called the "Midwest") for the first time; she crossed three time zones for the first time; and she pooped five times in one day for the first time.
Naturally, the latter is the most stupendous and (not incidentally) the most interesting accomplishment. Apparently inspired by the Olympics, she managed to complete all five in a record-breaking 9 hours, sprint-style. She also did all of them en route from Michigan back to the Bay Area. And to add depth to her feat, she blew out two diapers and soiled two outfits. By the time we staggered off the plane at SFO--me toting the bag with the poop-redolent baby clothes in it, Brandon actually wearing poop-redolent clothing in the form of his own stained pants (Elaine had been sitting on his lap during one blowout)--we had our daughter stuffed into an old, teeny tiny newborn diaper that we'd fished out of her Skip Hop after burning through all the size 2 ones we'd brought.
One very important lesson Brandon and I learned from this particular adventure was that disposable diapers suck. We were using them because we figured it was undesirable to have to haul around her dirty diapers after changing her on the plane or during the layover. But we've never had a blowout with the cloth diapers we usually use (BumGenius 2.0). Two blowouts in one day definitely got our attention.
With regards to Elaine's other firsts during the past week, I think we all enjoyed our time at my parents' beach house in Michigan very much. The weather was not especially welcoming; in early August I'd figured we could count on balmy summer weather, but there was a pretty stiff wind out of the north most of the time, rendering it a bit too cool for much beach relaxation. Didn't matter. We took lots of walks with her in the Bjorn, ate all our favorite foods (tons of fresh blueberries, Pereddies bread, dark chocolate seafoam from the Holland Peanut Store), saw some Michigan friends, and sat on my parents' spectacularly 
gorgeous back deck. It all passed much too quickly. And now that I'm home, I have much to think about: my career transition; the pain in my sinuses that's telling me I'm fighting off the bug that ravaged my mom and my sister's family last week; and the hole my dermatologist carved in my arm today when she looked at my file and announced that a biopsy from a year and a half ago was indeterminate and the site needed to be re-excised. I'd really love to be back on that deck.
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