Our Weekend

A Picture Walk Through Our Weekend:

A little play time before bed when Mama gets home from work




Family breakfast on Saturday morning

Shopping at the Farmers' Market

Food and Friends



And Friends and Food

A Day Trip to Warwick Winery

(some great pics, thanks to Mark!)



Happy Father's Day, Aaron!





P.S.- Check our our friend Kim's blog, Design Thoughts. We are featured in her June 20th post!

Does everyone have a blog these days? :)

Zoe in action

For those of you who love video....

You may not have realized how tricky getting your hand to your mouth can be-- our little Zoe has had many mistaken hits to the head in her life so far! But I'm happy to say that since this video was taken a week or so ago she has made vast improvements, and now sometimes even successfully gets her thumb in her mouth. :)

Working Mother

I've made it through two weeks of being a working mother. Two weeks of varied nighttime wake ups and 5:30 am mornings and pumping at work and trying to rush home atthe end of the day to get some quality time in before bedtime.

I am realizing that I will need more than two weeks to understand what being a working mother really means, that I'll need to give myself time to learn to do a job that I've loved and done wholeheartedly in a new way. I'll need to teach myself how to multitask-- which will involve writing myself far more "to do lists" than ever before, as baby-brain has made me more forgetful than I imagined it would. I'll need to find a way to leave work at work at the end of the day and go home to Zoe, giving her one hundred percent, and turning work back on after she's in bed on the days that it is needed.

Eventually, I have to believe, this will just become life and I'll do it as well as I can. Eventually, I may even allow someone else to hold her after I get home at 5:30....I may even make a plan that doesn't include her on a weekend day. Eventually, I might not feel a pit in my stomach on the nights of work events, or view after school commitments as baby-time-thievery. Eventually.

For now, I'll try to let myself be okay with feeling like life is an all day juggling act. For now, I'll remind myself that I'm allowed to make mistakes, big ones-- and I have a little more time where I can still blame the back to work adjustment and be forgiven! For now, I'll either learn to cut my own hair or ignore the split ends because I'm not about to give up my baby time to go for a hair cut and what was I thinking not taking care of that during maternity leave? For now, I'll let the working mothers I know out there know that I had no idea, all this time, what they were grappling with or how impressive they truly are.

Loving my Sunday with Zoe!

She Giggles and Grabs

I know that in the future she will hopefully create science fair projects, or score a winning goal, or write a fantastic poem-- but is anything even half as cool as the first giggle?

I caught this on video and Aaron and I watched it that night and laughed like it was a comedian. Love it! Zoe is lying on a pile of clean laundry while I sort it, just as an fyi-- I promise that's not how we keep our clothes!

Zoe is just past eleven weeks, and I saw her first giggle the other day. She repeated it a half dozen times throughout the day and every time was just as adorable, from my point of view. She is still on her own clock, as she's made no sign of laughing today...but I'll give her time. She has started to grab on to toys, or bat at things that are above her head. She has made no moves towards rolling and still screams bloody murder when she's placed on her stomach, so we'll see how that goes. Aaron and I are both afraid she may end up with my athletic skills rather than his--(meaning working really hard to be solidly mediocre at every sport, rather than awesome at anything you randomly try) so cross your fingers for her!

My maternity leave is tick-tocking towards the end now. I consider myself lucky to have a job I love, and I am thrilled that Aaronwill be home with Zoe. However, I will miss this time terribly- it has been amazing to have the chance to be so immersed in her start to life. I'm totally cheesily more caught up in it than I ever expected- I think if everyone had a Zoe, the world would be a truly awesome place!

We've had such fun times lately-- Aaron finish up his MFA, and is getting ready to be a "Stay at home artist/dad". We got to have some overlap time at home with her, which will be a treat to remember when I'm working Monday through Friday and he's working Saturdays! I'm going to try to keep up this blog as a little record of her baby days (so that if we have a 2nd kid he/she can say to me, "Mom, why didn't you do this for me?")!! My mom asked me if this would be lasting as something we can show to Zoe in the future- does anyone know the answer to that? Do blogs have a shelf life?

Meanwhile, I will be enjoying every last minute of my time home with Zoe--I'm off to try to make her giggle!

Two Months!

I've become one of those people who says things like, "Can you believe my baby is two months old?!?"

Your answer might be, yes- it has been two months since she was born, so I totally believe it! But while two months doesn't exactly mean we have to start researching public schools in Brooklyn (although, honestly, two years might!), I can really say these past eight weeks have flown. Things have gone from "figuring it out" to settling into a rhythm, and I am really enjoying this time watching Zoe grow and develop each day.

Big excitement in the Swanson/Hillebrand household these days? Well, Zoe has dimples! We know this because she smiles-- quite a lot (although it is hard to catch it on film!). Her smiles are up to her- sometimes you do the exact same thing that got a smile the day before and she stares past you at the much more interesting light fixture behind your head.She is starting to grab, although not with what you could quite call intention, and she successfully gets her fist (whole thing, who can bother with a little thumb) into her mouth now. She went through a period of punching herself in the face while trying this trick, but has made it pretty much past that stage! She HATES being on her tummy, and her mother hates making her do this, as it is pretty much guaranteed to put an end to any fun times we were having.

And, she's proven that nothing stays consistent-- pretty much anything that I say using the word "never" or "always" ends that day. (Such as- Zoe always falls asleep in the carrier or she never wakes up before midnight!) She's done some solid seven....almost eight...hour stretches of sleep, but isn't ready yet to make that a permanent habit.

Aaron and I are enjoying her every day, trying new strategies when she's cranky, and finding new high pitch voices (I swore I wouldn't use) to make her smile! Hard to resist!

Four Weeks!

In honor of Zoe's 4 week birthday-- a blog update for you!

The past four weeks have been a bit of a time warp-- overall, the time has gone by so fast, but individual days at times go by so slow! We were lucky enough to have full time help the first three weeks, giving Zoe's Grandma and Granddaddy Swanson and Nana Hillebrand the chance to get to know her, and giving tons of support to us! This week has been solo for Mom and Zoe, and we've done pretty well-- not exactly routinized yet, but getting there.

Watching a brand new person all day every day is quite a new experience. I get to track the littlest changes in her development, the tiny little things that will eventually lead to a walking and talking child. But not yet! So far, Zoe can do exciting, life changing things, like lift her own head up off of your shoulder (she especially likes to do this when you are burping her, so that she is away from the spit cloth and over your neck), and kick her feet like crazy (which Aaron uses to help her kick on her socks or pant legs). And we are learning more about her likes and dislikes:

Zoe likes:
-Eating
-Staring at the light from a window
-Watching the light up toy on her play mat (she watches this like it is TV, I'm worried she'll develop an addiction)
-Looking at our black and white pillow, or the bars on her crib
-When you hold her feet (seriously, the tighter the better, it can calm her down when she's crying)
-Pressure and rocking- being held tightly, the bouncy chair, etc.
-Walking outside in the Ergo or the stroller
Zoe dislikes:
-Getting the hiccups (which she gets all the time)
-Waking up with a dirty diaper (so she screams)
-Waking up hungry (so she screams)
-Being too tired (but that doesn't mean she'll always fall asleep. Tricky!)
-The cold weather (wait, that's actually Mom. Zoe hasn't complained.)

Biggest surprise so far:
Babies make a LOT of weird noises. At least, I hope they do-- if not, we have one weird baby! Zoe has two noises in particular that she likes to make:
1. The squeaky door
2. The snorty pig
She is very good at both of these!

Biggest disappointment about having a baby:
I can no longer call my urge to eat baked goods a pregnancy craving.

Zoe Sylvia Swanson Hillebrand

Born: February 25th, 2011

20 inches long

7 lbs 9 oz

and Pretty Darn Cute

Zoe was born at 3:10 pm on Friday, February 25th-- after a long labor/ c-section that I won't write about right now. She spent 4 days as a Manhattanite at NYU hospital, where the fantastic nurses helped us to acclimate to her and her needs, and helped me with pain meds! She learned that she actually lives in Brooklyn last Tuesday, when she came home with Mom and Dad and met her cat, Zippy. Zippy is not quite sure what to make of her yet, and a little jealous that Zoe gets to be on all the furniture she's banned from.

My parents have been here the past week or so, and we are so very grateful for the help and the time they get to spend with Zoe. They will be tagging out with Aaron's mom this weekend- we are so lucky to have such a supportive family. As I've been recovering and acting as a one woman food machine (seriously, there is no exaggeration to how much newborns eat!), Aaron has been a fantastic diaper changing, rocking to sleep, house organizing new dad. Zoe only wants to eat when she's with me, so it is helpful to have some non-eating options for her between Aaron and her grandparents.

So, we are slowly but surely adjusting to this whole thing! Every day gets a little smoother. As you can see from the pictures, Zoe varies from making totally adorable faces to looking kind of like a fussy old man, depending on her expression and pose. Looking at her, I can't help but be floored by the fact that a week and a half ago this is what was in my tummy! I know it happens all the time, but it is a pretty amazing thing! I'm pretty proud of the fact that we made her!

Thanks for the many well wishes, visits from nearby friends, calls and emails we've gotten over the past week or so--- your support is really appreciated, and we love introducing Zoe to her family, "aunts" and "uncles". X's and O's-- from Carey, Aaron, and Zoe S.S. Hillebrand!