Dana Burland

A couple days ago Cam climbed up on the rocking chair in Adrian’s room with a book. Ben held Adrian next to him and Cam began to memory-read “ Goodnight Moon ”. You saw this if you follow the boys’ Instagram account. I captured a quick video of the moment, which was impressive because while filming my heart was actively oozing out of my body. In the video Adrian is doing his squirmy, squacky 3-month-old thing while Cam reads “...and the cow jumping over the moon”. When Adrian squacks again Cam comforts him saying “I’m here, I’m here”, soon followed up with “you don’t like this page?” It’s so endearing and funny all at the same time. And it reminds me how I feel three days in to our Governor mandated “Stay At Home” policy. “I’m here, I’m here” everyday for my boys. I’m keeping their world turning as close to the same as it was a few weeks ago, even though the world feels so far from where it was then. And I very much “don’t like this page”. Which is to say I’m trying to...

Today is my first day back to work from maternity leave, and A's first day at daycare. I posted this on my company's intranet as a way to share what their awesome maternity leave afforded me, and thought I'd share it here too: Now might not seem like the right time to share a return-from-maternity-leave story, or maybe it’s exactly the right time. Either way, today is my first day back to work from a 12-week leave. It’s a weird time to be “back”, as I’m working from home for the foreseeable future, but I’m back nonetheless. In the spirit of my return, here’s a look at what the last 12 weeks have been like for my family. My second son, Adrian, surprised us when he arrived almost four weeks ahead of his due date on December 21. Thankfully he was healthy and strong, and when we were discharged from the hospital the only lingering health concern for him was a touch of jaundice. For the first two weeks we juggled family visiting for the holidays with daily doctor app...

Some day, in the closer-than-I’d-like-to-imagine future, will you be writing a school paper where you have to interview us on living through the Coronavirus? You might shrug your shoulders and say “Coro-what?”, as you learn for the first time about something you’ll think was NBD. You, my two boys, are blissfully, wonderfully, completely unaware of why we’re spending so much extra time at home right now. “Social distancing” for a two-and-a-half year old life looks like learning the board game “Feed The Woozle”, laughing hysterically as I dropkick a soccer ball in the backyard and finger painting in the bathtub. “Self quarantine” for a two-month old is gummy smiles, spit-ups and cuddling the stuffed dinosaur attached to your pacifier. Swim lessons have been canceled. The library is closed for weeks. While schools are closed for a month, daycare is still open with precautions that keep adults to common spaces and out of individual classrooms. Your pediatrician recommends no u...

The time has come again in where I turn my home kitchen into a commercial bakery in the name of bachelor party cookie baking. I started a tradition 6 years ago of baking an outlandish amount of chocolate chip cookies for Ben to take with him when attending bachelor parties. Here’s a recap of the tradition thus far: Andy’s bachelor party 2014: 100 cookies baked Ben’s bachelor party in 2015: no cookie count recorded Allan’s in 2016: 159 cookies baked Joe’s in 2018: 192 cookies baked It’s worth noting I didn’t bake cookies for Niles’ bachelor party in 2019 due to a combination of being wildly uncomfortably pregnant with Adrian and because the party was out of state/a flight away and I wasn’t sure how flying with the baked goods would work. There also was a “bachelor party for no one” the guys threw for themselves just to get together in 2017. I’m actually not sure I baked cookies that year. I might not have as it wasn’t a celebration for anyone in particular, and I was 8 months...

I’ve increasingly been inundated by social media ads for a swanky New York bakery. They’re pushing a 4-inch birthday cake. They’ll ship it to you in a few days! With special pricing! It’s a limited time offer! That just so happened to end right before my birthday. After the 24 millionth time of seeing the ad I thought--you know what, give me that cake. I emailed the info to my husband. For my 33rd birthday I want 20 minutes of quiet at the end of the day with my husband to enjoy a tiny, boujee birthday cake where each bite probably costs $5. This feels right given the thick of where we’re at right now. I’m 10 weeks into a 12 week maternity leave. Each morning I wrangle two boys before Ben and Cam leave for work and daycare. Then my day is a blur bouncing, feeding, soothing and oogling over a beautiful baby. The two big boys are home just before 6pm and in two hours we play, feed, bathe and bed them. Ben and I do a 30-minute workout together and watch 15 minutes worth of a Bill...