Hibernate Blog

Yesterday we touched on the relaxing intoxication of a baby. Today, as I sat with Finley sleeping on my lap, I waited for Melissa to come in with Nate, just the thought of him bringing a smile to my face. He and I have a rhythm that involves a very serious dance of shyness followed by sly side-long glances, then little stutter steps in my direction, and finally a shy smile.

Once he’s warmed up, his chattering and acrobatics are engaging enough to rival even the most gifted public speaker or performer. Today he blew into the office with his eyes wide and an enormous grin on his face, his shyness tempered by excitement.

A crane.

Downtown Glens Falls is experiencing a renaissance of sorts and the latest projects are the erection of luxury condominiums and an extensive addition and renovation to the library at the center of town. Between the two construction sites there are enough Genie Lifts and construction trucks to make a young boy’s head explode with vroom-vroom euphoria.

Melissa regaled me with the tale of their walk from the parking lot to our office, all the while her face was turned toward Nathan. Her eyes were bright and beaming with unabashed delight at her son’s excitement. He looked back at her as if she were pulling the toggles and shifting the gears of the crane before his very eyes. It was not unlike seeing two people in the throes of new love.

His wonder is her joy.
Their crane story is our reminder to find the magic in everyday things.

The current moment in time at SaraBear is a study in the magic of serendipitous synchronicity. Our website is almost ready, with the programmers implementing the design as we put the finishing touches on new content. A marketing campaign integrating the photos from our recent shoot and the new patterns is on its way to completion. The Classic and Whimsy lines are in transit, packages of swatchbooks sit waiting for Fed Ex to arrive and our list of people to send samples to is growing each day.

If you throw all of these elements into a pot and add a couple of very driven, results-hungry working moms to the mix you end up with nails chewed to the quick, incessantly tapping feet and palpable impatience. The saving grace for us is that in the midst of all of these things that fall firmly in the it’s-out-of-our-hands-now category is a baby. A cooing, gurgling, tiny foot kicking little baby.

A quick spin through the office with her little head resting on your shoulder or a stolen moment spent watching her eyes study the bricks on the wall and suddenly there is nothing but calm. So, even as we navigate this maddening stretch of waiting we are able to revel in the miracle of life, which coincidentally, is how this whole thing got started.

Thanks, baby.

It’s been 27 days since Finley came home and 3 hours since she began her first day at the office.

The kid is a champ - sleeping through a visit from our IT guy And cooing softly as we engaged in a long hemming and hawing session about which photos to use in ads coming up for Pregnancy & Newborn as well as the ABC Kids’ Expo directory.

Coming back to work is not something to be taken lightly, the memories of the first few days back after the birth of my first daughter still haunt me, so visceral was my response to leaving my 6 week old with a sitter. This time I am in an environment that could not be more conducive to this time, the walls lined with shots of families and babies, tables covered in baby changing paraphernalia, diaper caddies and dreamy places for dozey babies (and their older siblings) to nap.

Seems almost too good to be true, then again, maybe Mom was right, “If you find what it is you are meant to do and you find the people who will encourage and support you, then everything will fall into place. Really, it comes down to allowing joy to find you and having the wherewithal not to slam the door on it.”

Well Mom, in motherhood and in SaraBear, I have found my joy.

Lessons from my first three weeks as a mom of three daughters under 4.

1. Despite the sheer fantasticness of my SaraBear diaper caddy (Umm, it is the only thing in the house I can literally lift with one finger) it does have one drawback - it does not refill the wipes container itself. How on earth do we go through them so fast?

2. The anti-frizz serum you buy at the store does not diminish the frizz in your hair unless you actually bathe and then use it to style your hair.

3. This is not a good time in life to have an unreliable washing machine.

4. Meals delivered from neighbors are not weird. They are a hot, little slice of heaven delivered in Gladware.

5. There is not a food or drink in the world that I wouldn’t be willing to give up forever if it meant no more gassy baby from 11pm-2am.
Not. A. Single. Thing.

6. Time out is weak.

7. Supportive husbands are not ever to be underestimated.

8. Mother Teresa had it right:

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts,
there can be no more hurt, only more love.

We wrapped the SaraBear Whimsy & Classic lines photo shoot yesterday. At 19 days old, little Finley Frost was a superstar, her only demands being organic mama’s milk, frequent cuddles and changes. Big sister Avery (the current SBC packaging model) also demonstrated an ease in front of the camera. Special thanks to Trampoline Design for studio space, kid wrangling, and furniture moving and to Tom Stock at Stock Studios for the beautiful photography!

The SaraBear diaper caddies, as expected, photographed beautifully. Below are the Riviera and the Havana.