Dana Burland

Looking to give a gift to your favorite 4-month old this holiday season? Here's what Cameron is hoping to find under the Christmas tree or next to the menorah this year: Empty candy wrappers So many patterns, so much crinkly noise, so much fun. Noses These face knobs are so great for grabbing! Ceiling fans Spinny, relaxing, confusing, delightful. Chew toys Could it be made for a dog? Who cares! Putting things in my mouth is da bomb. Lights--all varieties Track lighting. Wall lighting. Colorful twinkly lights. Lights outside. Gotta love them all. Dangling things Like toys in the jungle gym. Or better yet, Mom's hair. Invites to all holiday parties With a massive case of FOMO (fear of missing out) a invite to every holiday party in the state would be greatly appreciated. What else is a plaid button up onesie good for if you don't have a party to show it off at?

This was my 10th (!) year in a row running the Detroit Turkey Trot. I wish I didn’t know this because if I ever didn’t do it, it would feel so wrong. If I’m being honest, though, getting up that early and standing at the starting line in the cold rarely feels right. Each year I had a different goal, fitness level, person I was running with, etc. For the heck of it here’s what my last 10 Thanksgiving mornings looked like: 2008: 10K in 1:03 2009: 10K in 58:33 2010: 10K in 1:02 2011 : 10K in 59:12 2012 : 10K in 1:03 2013 : 5K in 30:06 2014 : 10K in 1:21 2015 : 10K in 51:39 2016 : 10K in 1:01 2017: 5K in 33:00 This year did not go as I hoped. I wanted to feel strong in my first race post baby. But that baby, plus getting sick (several times), plus moving meant something had to give and unfortunately that was my training. Such is life. I did run the whole 5K and it felt nice and hard and awful and great all at the same time. Post trot we had a blast taking Cameron ...

Four whole months! Cam seems so big and so little at the same. At four months he talks so much more, grabs more including his toes, rolls more and is making more sense of everything around him. Cameron is a happy, social boy very eager to be where people are. He’s quite independent, too. He can entertain himself for quite a bit just quietly and contently. We’re back into a nice sleep routine of one wake up a night compared to a few weeks ago when he was waking up almost hourly. He’s all about self soothing with his thumb and is showing more interest in objects around him by way of sticking whatever he can grab in his mouth. He’s rolling onto his side more and more--heaving his legs up for momentum. One night I found him sleeping on his stomach (!!) with a tiny arm propped under his head as a pillow. He has MUCH more head strength than a few weeks ago and lifts his chest off the ground during tummy time. He likes: Cause and effect games: repeating our movements as we make...

We've been in our new house for just a few weeks now, but it mostly feels like home. I think all our stuff  being here and also quickly settling into our routines (which is key with baby in the mix) has helped. Our old house didn't really feel like it was ours until we made it that way. We painted and fixed up and really spent a lot of time making it what we wanted. We'll do the same with the new house over time (though thankfully it doesn't need nearly the same amount of love). I'm really proud of our house on Abigail Street, especially of how it photographed for our listing. In case you want to see, here's our first home: (Click through the images to see the slideshow)

I just realized I never posted Cameron’s three month update. Sigh. Well he’s still under four months, so better late than never. At three months Cameron is curious and social. He’s constantly wide-eyed examining the world around him. If something is happening in a different room he’s desperate to be there. The women at daycare agree—he’s got FOMO (fear of missing out). He’s also very social and friendly. He’ll let just about anyone hold him and is pretty liberal in flashing gummy smiles especially to people he recognizes. He giggles in his sleep occasionally but is still holding out on giving me the alert giggles I’m looking for. A few weeks ago he found his thumb and has been all about it ever since. He’ll suck his thumb to put himself to sleep or to calm down when upset. Both are great, especially when it means he can self-soothe in the middle of the night. Go Cam! I can already see how daycare has made him more confident and independent. He does a great job playing on his ...

I can’t stress enough how over the top pumped I was for Halloween this year. In years past it’s been a oooh, fun! holiday, but this year? Cameron’s first? I couldn’t handle my excitement. In the days leading up I kept catching myself thinking— should I be making crescent roll hot dog mummies ? Should we string orange lights from our front porch? Should I be hallowing out a pumpkin and carving out leg holes to plop our little pumpkin in? In the end I was too busy, and perhaps too scatter brained, to go overboard. I did, however, subject Cameron to wearing his costume for many more hours than necessary. I can’t help it, he was SUCH an adorable moose. And really, he did party hard on his first Halloween anyway. Over the span of 3 days he was in (cough, slept through) his daycare’s Halloween parade, he visited both my and Ben’s work places in costume, he went out trick-or-treating to meet two different neighbors and he got to see the big kids in costume as we passed out candy...

Lest it seem like our move to a new home with a 3-month-old was easy breezy—let me fill in the gap with a short story. I tried real hard not to order anything online during the middle of our move. Who wants a package going to the wrong house, or to the wrong person, or to the right house in a neighborhood where you don’t yet know where said package will be left. But aforementioned 3-month-old makes getting to local stores tough if not sometimes downright impossible feeling, and recently I had a very serious need for additional nursing bras—stat. I’ll just be reallllll careful about filling out “shipping address” correctly, I thought. It doesn’t have to go wrong, I thought. But it did. I’m 80% certain there’s a package waiting at our old house for the new homeowner who is a 30-something-year-old single man. I’m 100% certain that package is something he won’t quite consider a useful housewarming gift. Dang.