Dana Burland

The previous owners of our new house lived here for 20 years. So, understandably, they tricked the place out to meet their needs. Tricks which, inevitably, do not at all meet our needs. One small (but mighty) case in point: motion detection lights in the bathrooms. I get this in theory--no movement means no person means no need for light so no light stays on. You know, for energy savings and what not. But do you know how often one is stationary, thus not tripping off a motion detector in a bathroom? Often. Like when you shower, or actually GO to the bathroom for a while, or while you put on your makeup or pluck your eyebrows or sit on the floor at 3am pumping out milk for your child which leads to a scene where you must frantically wave a hand every 60 seconds to keep from sitting in pure darkness. At least one of those examples applies to everybody. Why motion detection bathroom lights!? Why!?

When racing in the pool my coaches always told me to put my head down and drive home to the finish. The last few seconds aren’t the time to peek at your competitors--or, even worse, to glimpse at the time on the scoreboard. I operate the same way under stress: head down, get to the finish, come up for air later. On one hand I get. stuff. done. But the result is that I’m worn way, way down by the end of it. When moving week arrived I went into my standard overdrive. I packed our entire kitchen. I carried boxes probably too heavy for me. I unpacked with such focus I hardly stopped to eat. On Friday I was in the middle of a marathon kitchen shelf liner cutting session when my dad called. My great uncle--who treated me more like a granddaughter, who in his early 90s flirted with the bridesmaids at my wedding, who drove cars across the state for Enterprise until a few weeks ago--passed away. At 96 Uncle Hy lived a long and mostly healthy life, but somehow it seems like not long eno...

A few weeks ago we moved Cameron to sleep in his own room. Prior to that his room was mostly a “monument” to him—a space we mostly used to dream about the future with him. His room, like all the rooms in our small house, are treasure troves of memories. Like our office we built desks for only to find the completed tables almost didn’t fit through the doorway. Or the dining room where I sat with sticky notes making our wedding seating chart. Or our living room where we watched the 2015 Super Bowl on inflatable air mattresses because we had just moved in and didn’t have a couch yet. I can’t believe we’re already saying goodbye to our first home. While we knew we wouldn’t be here forever, I didn’t think we’d be on to our forever home so fast. But we are. And it’s wonderful! How lucky/blessed/fortunate/all the very, very good things we are. I mean, honestly, we’ve had a season of SO many good things. Healthy baby. Beautiful new house. Quickly sold current house. We’ve really cashe...

Ben had a VERY important Michigan/Michigan State game to attend on Saturday, so while he was away Cameron and I hung out with Bushi and Uncle E. We mostly spent the weekend loving on Cameron, which is by far my favorite and most skilled hobby these days. We also went down to ArtPrize to scope out the top rated pieces. Was there not as good of stuff this year? Or was the good stuff just not in the typical locations? I don’t know. I do know that in total I spent maybe five hours ArtPrizing so my recaps (http://dbur023.blogspot.com/2017/09/aunt-uncle-and-babys-first-artprize.html) are by no means comprehensive. We did see the red dirt rug, a HUGE and incredibly intricate “rug” shaped and stamped from loose Oklahoma red dirt. This is loose dirt, and super fine. Isn’t it beautiful? I think, given the limited stuff I saw this year, this is my pick for best piece this year.

Cameron is napping in his crib as I write this. He usually takes a morning and afternoon nap—unless one doesn’t happen or one is crazy long or if he passed out during a long walk. Sometimes he falls asleep on his own and sometimes I need the soothie, a swaddle or a 11-hour long YouTube video of a fan playing to help him doze off. You’d be surprised how many very long white noise YouTube videos exist. And thank god for them. I’ve learned so many ways to bond, care and play with my little boy over our almost three months home together. I’ve watched him grow from a six pound bundle of jerky newborn movements to a squishy 12 pound smiley boy full of spunk and joy. And I’ve grown too—from a frazzled new mom who hesitated to leave him unsupervised for a bathroom break, to a frazzled new mom who laughs from the bathroom when crying starts while yelling back “you’re ok, one minute please!” Sometimes I didn’t love my maternity leave. We had some long C- days. (I usually give Ben a repo...