First Flight

As the tiny strips of skin began to be pulled from her irritated cuticles, tiny spots of blood began to appear around. Falling under the classification of nervous habits, this would be my wife's. We still had two weeks before our plane was to lift off from the tarmac, but her endless concerns of flying with a 3 month old had already taken hold. This nervous energy was fueled by hours of web research and parental testimonials of travel gone wrong. The good news is that despite the anxiety we felt we where prepared. Little did we know........

As we lugged large amounts of luggage through the airport we emerged through check in, breezed through security, and found our seat with ease. Once we where settled I glanced over to see Kate resorting to her nervous habit, I grabbed her hands to hold them and then her leg began to bounce, the whole time Ella slept with nothing but peace. After the plane broke contact wit the earth things where calm...... for now.

Ella had just finished feeding and was now smiling at her father as she faded in and out of her milk comma. That is when Kate's face lit up as she shrieked "ohhh noooo!" Drink service had just passed and we sat with trays down, leaving little room to scratch your nose, let alone move freely. As Kate lifted Ella, I could tell by her face this was not good..not good at all! I leaned over to see a large pile of Ella's post digested breast milk between Kate's legs. Ella had EXPLODED and defied gravity to send it right out of the back of the diaper. So there we sit, on a sold out flight, Ella has poop on her, Kate has poop on her, we have a seat full of poop, AND we have no room due to tray tables full of beverages. As I began to chug random glasses of pop and water, Kate began the clean up process the best she could. To her credit, all her research had payed off, we where as prepared as a parent could be. In the end Ella had to be changed, Kate had to be changed, and a team of stewardesses help as the seat had to be changed and exited in a large plastic bag. The entire time Ella smiled with relief wondering what all the fuss was about.

The family landed safely into Denver where we met by Kate's mom. Once again Kate and I quickly faded into the background as Ella became the center of attention. While we where out there Ella got to swim for the first time and learned that if we threw her head and arms far enough forward she could actually sit up. Now if she could only figure out how to slow that momentum down and not fall face forward into the couch. The best part of my vacation was waking up with my daughter and knowing that I had the whole day to spend with the family. Of coarse Ella enjoyed being showed with love from the grandparents - Gary and Gayle.

Kate and I joked the other day that in Ella's short three months she has participated in more than I had at 18 years of age. She has road tripped to Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Colorado and the Northern tip of Michigan, she clocked a time of 44 minutes and 15 seconds as she went on to beat her mom by 1 second in a 5k road race, attended a Reds vs. STL Game and Rockies vs Cubs Game........ did I mention she is only three months old?!

July 4th in the South

The opportunity to proudly show off Ella to friends and family proved much stronger than our personal commitment to finally reduce our summer travel schedule. Kentucky bound at 3pm on a Thursday proved to be an unexpected pleasurable ride, I was prepared for the worst holiday traffic, but thankfully never found it. Once again as our car cleared the Kentucky border my wife began to squirm in her seat and begin to use the words from her childhood - "ya'all com'en over tonight?" she says into her tiny new phone. Ella remained unphased, only waking to tell us when she is hungry.

Kentucky is not technically my home, but it is as home as any place I have ever lived. Every time we pack the car up to head North it gets a little harder. Spirits remained high this time though becasue we where only heading an hour North to Cincy, where we would join Kate's Grandparents, Aunt Sherri and Dad for the Reds baseball game. First up..... gearing up Ella in here Cincinnati Reds gear and heading off to her first baseball game. She was so impressed with the 10 - 1 loss to the Cardinals that she slept through the ENTIRE game!

I spent the next couple of days watching one person walk into a room with my daughter and another walking out of the room with her. The perfect example: Sherri had walked into the kitchen holding Ella, but what she didn't know was that her brother Tom was silently following her. Following her as if he where a lion quietly stalking prey through the plains of Africa. The second Sherri needed two hands he swooped in to politely offer his assistance with Ella, he now had the prize in his possession.....it would be brief. In this family packed their is one wiser than all the rest..... Great Grandma Ruth, GG Ruth as she would rather be called. She moved into the kitchen from the laundry room to ask Tom about a load of laundry that needed to be done. Tom innocently entered the room, oblivious to the switch that was about to happen. You could see this set up a mile away ...... you know when you are at the movies watching a scary movie and the half dressed, dumb blonde ventures off into the dark to see what that noise was? Today that half dressed dumb blonde was Tom! See, he would need two hands to complete the innocent task that had been asked of him by GG Ruth........ poor guy, he never saw it coming!

I sat in the kitchen this entire time drinking my coffee and watching with curious eyes as it all unfolded. Seconds later GG Ruth turned the corner with Ella in arms and a satisfied smile. I was left thinking....... damn, she is GOOD!

Cherry Capital

We have resided in Southeast Michigan now for over two years. In that two years most of our free time has been spent with our car pointed south, as we attended the many events our friends and family created to entice our attendance. Though we would not change that for the world, Michiganders are amazed to find that we have never been North of Ann Arbor!

We consistently hear about the weekend retreats to Northern Michigan and how they are the only reason why any of us would consider living in Michigan. Pushing our chores off to the side we headed North. After about 4.5 hours no more land existed to support the roads we drove in on, we had arrived in Traverse City.

Traverse City is the Cherry Capital of the world and they prepared for a large cherry festival the week after we made our visit.
As my wife unpacked her sandals and short sleeve shirts it had become clear that she had merely nodded her head "yes" without fully comprehending my weather announcement a day earlier. Traverse City had a very unusual cold spell while we where visiting, 60 degrees was the high with clouds and good percentage of rain. Seems after we left the sun came out and temps where back in the mid 70's.

It really was a great little town and we look forward to finding another reason to head back up there with better weather on our side.

Road Trip!

Anxiety was building as I thought of the prospect of loading my 7 week old daughter in a car and pointing the car 5 hours to the South. This trip would be a mixture of work and pleasure but seemed a lot more like work when I played the itinerary over in my head. I guess it would only be fair to let you know, and my wife would be the first one to chime up, that I typically get this way before ANY family road trip. As the space in the truck was reaching capacity I looked to my left only to find several large baby items still remaining, a must for the trip....... time to remove everything, and resort to the Sam Chilton style of packing. My father has a knack for packing using the most efficient cubing technique, it would make a UPS driver green with envy.

As I turned the corner to meet my father he rose from the table, temporary leaving his cup of coffee, smiled, shook my hand, and politely asked "where is that baby?" No longer we're Kate and I the center of attention, Ella had stole the show and we could not be more satisfied. We spent the weekend with my parents telling stories, laughing and in true typical Chilton style, working on a check list of items that needed to be completed before the next week could begin.

Baby showers where not typically something that I would attend, but when one of your best friends is pregnant and makes the trip from Hawaii, it is the least I could do. Our good friends Angela and Ceil our expecting their first child in the Fall and little board shorts are abundant for this fella. What a lucky little boy to have such parents!

As breakfast made it's way off the stove I looked on to the porch of the cabin to make the final silverware count. Right then a gun metal grey vehicle appeared on the gravel road out front. A familiar smile was in the passenger seat, it took a second but it quickly became clear that my sister had played a white lie on the family. She was not in St.Louis and Matt was not out cutting the grass, they had surprised us and stopped by the cabin. The way my wife reacted you would have thought Matthew Mcconaughey had made the trip as she pushed me to the side and rushed out to greet them with Ella. This was the first time my sister had held her niece. The picture says it all!

As the tires hummed along the highway they provided the white noise needed to put Ella into a deep slumber. This was also a time for Kate and I to reflect on our great weekend, how nice it was going to be to sleep in our bed and how sad we were that our travels were not just taking us to the other side of town..........

Overnight..

My career requires that I travel, sometimes it is a day trip and occasionally an overnight trip. I have been very fortunate that I have not had an overnight trip since her birth, 6 weeks ago. The hotel in Minneapolis was now booked and the meeting was unavoidable, I was on my way. Traveling has become second nature since making my career change two years ago, I quickly found myself back in my routine. I have to be honest, I was really looking forward to an uninterrupted night of sleep. That reward quickly faded as I slipped under the covers and my mind wondered what my girls where doing back home. That night of good sleep would have to wait...

I opened the front door to our home with little fan fair, it was quite and dark. Finally a coo from upstairs. Ella had just finished feeding and was smack dab in the middle of getting her diaper changed. I snuck up beside her and began to whisper her name.
As a new dad you are always asking yourself - can she see me? are her eyes okay? can she hear me? how is her hearing? is she breathing? I can not tell you how many times that I have woke her up pressing my ear to her lips or stomach to find a clue that her lungs where functioning. Kind of funny I guess...... I hear this is pretty common with new parents though.

As I called Ella's name she continued to be focused on her mother and the task at hand. Finally after about the fifth time calling her name I once again began to wonder if maybe something was not right with her hearing or maybe she just did not have the ability to recognize me yet. She would prove me wrong as she turned her head, looked right at me and gave me a very rare cheeky smile. Right there she made everything right in my world, if only for a moment.

Randomly Ella

Reflux - for a baby?

If you told be that a baby could shot a perfectly circular funnel of milk a foot and a half before it arched I would I have called you crazy. That would also have been previous to Ella's presentation of "Let there be milk!". Ella started to shows signs of discomfort and actually performed the act as described above more and more frequently. The doctor confirmed that in fact Ella may have a mild case of Acid Reflux. I say mild case because Ella has gained 3.5 lbs in 30 days and is tipping the scales at 11 lbs, there is no doubt she is getting the nourishment she needs!

Ella has been on her meds now for about a week and seems to be much more comfortable. I only wish I could have caught her on tape, now that would something for Youtube!