Eco-Friendly Fashion Lover?! It is Possible.

Swedish Fashion in Hungary

We became an Eco-Friendly family 2 years ago. In this post I will focus on our kids’ clothes…

I have learned the following:

1. Start investing in sustainable clothing and companies.

2. Do your research to make sure the clothes you are buying are not from a fast fashion brand doing GREEN WASHING.

3. Focus on buying clothes, which are great quality (used of not used). These outfits might cost more, but it will be worth seeing them in great condition, even after years.

4. Be practical. For example, some kids are not meant to wear super thin pants.

Here is a shop, I can highly recommend because when I read a blog, I am always saying to myself: “be specific, please!”

fridafritiof

So let us go over my suggestions by looking at what my son and what my daughter is wearing here.

Frida & Fritiof is a value driven company, where you will find sustainable products. All of these brands seen on my children, can be found at Frida & Fritiof.

The dress and the thick pants (see my 4th point HAHA) are from Mini Rodini.

The T-shirt is from Pigeon Organics.

The part I wrote about research, well, it really has to be done. We cannot go on supporting companies that do harm to our Planet, that are not kind to their workers etc.

Children’s clothes CAN BE PASSED ON to others in a superb condition. But only, if the clothes are made with high quality.

I do not wish to sound like a grandma but in the old days, people had less clothes but the clothes were made out of resistant, “tough” fabrics. The children clothes were saved and handed over to the next generation.

I am doing the same. The clothes my son and daughter are wearing today, will be either given to their kids or they will be gifted to a kindergarten for the homeless.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

Hugs, Eszter
@zoardandassya on Instagram

A Day of a Mom of 2

Hello, I am Eszter.
.
I have a son, who is 4.5 years old.
I also have a daughter, who is 1.5 years old.
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Since I became a mom of 2, I get easily distracted so I prefer to read articles, which you can easily come back to.
.
If you need to take a break, no need to blush. Let me find a picture of myself so this can become more personal for you. Even better, I will take a shot of myself right now:

I will share with you a day of mine, a day when Zoard is not in kindergarten.

OUR DAILY “SCHEDULE”

6 – we wake up
Breakfast
Messing around (free play)
I tidy up
8:30 – we go out (I previously discuss with Zoard what he is willing to put on with 1 alternative option or none)
10 – we have a snack (I usually tell Zoard ahead what lunch will be when possible)
I play with them both and I read to them
12 – lunch: many times my husband is in charge of our lunch
13 – Assya’s nap time starts (she naps for 2 hours)
Together time with Zoard (when we are in Thailand he goes swimming with my husband)
14 – Zoard’s nap time starts (he also naps for 2 hours)
15 – Assya wakes up and she has together time with me
16 – Zoard wakes up and we prepare for snack time
16:30 Snack time
17 we go out
18:30 dinner time
19 Together time with Assya
19:30-20 Bedtime for Assya
Together time with Zoard (unless he is out with my husband)
21 Bedtime for Zoard

I will attach some pictures and I will share with you my weaknesses, which are:
cooking with kids around and dinner time.

The schedule above is what we stick to when we are in Thailand and mostly on weekends when we are in Hungary. This picture is a pretty typical one from Thailand.

There are three categories of conflicts that can be triggered with Zoard.

1. Clothes
2. Food
3. And how we get to from A to B

1.)

Zoard has the same set of inside clothes that he picks out and wears until I tell him it has to be washed.

He has to take his clothes off while he eats and wear an underwear.

He has clothes for outside playing and photo shootings. It is not rare that I carry in my backpack his clothes for playing outside. Scroll back to the picture I just posted and look at his shoes. His outside clothes do not just have a few small holes and stains on them, some look like rags. Which is fine. There is a time for many things.

2.)

I now try to tell both kids ahead what they will eat. They can have sugarless snacks way before sleeping time. Everyone knows their own kids the best. Zoard and Assya really need to get their sleep otherwise they are cranky and fruit sugar effects their sleep, mood, energy level.

3.)

Zoard is the calmest when there is one way we go to places. If he gets the chance to make his own decision about how to go from A to B, he becomes one, who looks for an argument. He becomes frustrated and even violent because after he had picked out a route, he becomes uneasy when he feels like changing his mind or when the next day, we cannot take that same route.

For us, this schedule and the three triggers we pay attention to, helps a lot. It is much easier to say yes to everything else.

As you might have noticed, the popular term “me time” is missing from my schedule. Yes, we follow this schedule for a maximum of a month (when we are in Thailand) because otherwise, Zoard has kindergarten. When we are in Thailand, I do not go running, I do not meet anyone or have my hair done. I am absolutely fine with this since it is the price of being together. And I do get a lot of help from my husband!

Cooking with the kids around and dinner time is somewhat stressful for me. Many times, my husband cooks while I play with the kids. Or I make something very simple or I come up with a way to get the children involved in a safe way. I do not make lasagne in the company of Zoard and Assya.

Do you follow some rules at your home? Maybe even a schedule? Do you know what triggers your children’s grumpiness? And what helps?

Thank you for reading this post and say hello if you use Instagram @zoardandassya !

xoxo, Eszter

A Typical Afternoon of a Stay-at-Home-Mom

In my last post, I wrote about a day of ours from the time we wake up until nap time.

In this post, I will attempt to write down what usually happens AFTER nap time.

Zoard is 3.5 years old and Assya is 9 months old. We are currently in Thailand.

15:00

Assya is sleeping on me in our bed.

15:10

I put Assya back in her cot but she only stays laying down if I pat her bum so eventually, I take her out.

I nurse her and I give her some balls to play with.

Imagine this for 2 minutes. Then this:

Zoard would normally, sleep in a proper bed but here on Koh Samui, we take what we get.

15:30

An excavator passes by. This is quite typical. HAHA

I let them both watch the excavator but the rule is, that Assya cannot go out on to the terrace.

On the side note: I totally forgot to take a picture of the excavator. Oops.

Pretend Playing starts

I am a crane called Crany.

Zoard is half excavator, half race car by the name of Brownie.

Assya is Little Crany.

We first, pretend to sleep. I have to say: “what time is it?!”
Zoard aka Brownie: “It is the time to wake up.”

Zoard starts dumping things on a floor since he has some kind of a part-time job as a dumper.

I help Assya entertain herself.

15:45

I start washing the dishes while I suggest to Brownie that he write me a postcard while I am away, doing some business by the stream.

16:00

I change Assya’s diaper.

I build a mini tower for Assya to knock over.

Zoard is talking like the speakers of metros in Budapest.

I try to go back to doing the dishes but Assya has a nasty diaper rash and by

16:15

Assya becomes more and more fussy.

I start carrying Assya and let her be naked.

She pees on the floor.

I clean it up and I reapply coconut oil on her bum.

16:30

Zoard has to make a snack for himself and I. Oats and yogurt. He has it with raisins.

Zoard pretends to be tram 6.

I nurse Assya.

I carry Assya in my hands.

16:50

I apply more coconut oil on her rash. (Now we know that the change in my diet caused the rash. She is being exclusively breastfed and I started eating 30-40 cherry tomatoes, every single day. Too acidy…)

17:20

My husband comes home and takes Zoard swimming.

Do you have a way of not entertaining your kids as much?!

xoxo,

See you on Instagram @zoardandassya!

Eszter

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Typical Day of a Stay-at-home-Mom of a Baby and a Preschooler

This blog post will show you a typical day of mine.

Just so you know, this is the 5th country we are living in. We are currently on an island in Thailand.

Assya will be 9 months old this week.

Zoard is 3.5 years old.

6:30

Zoard is the first one up. He wakes me up by telling me what kind of pretend play he would like us to start playing. Right now.

I am Minnie Mouse

Assya can be Pluto.

And there will be lots of babies with us including Zoard, who is a super special 1 year old.

I change Assya’s diaper.

Zoard pees in his potty. I pour the pee in the toilet and I clean the potty with Dettol.

I post on Instagram @zoardandassya .

7:00

I let Zoard make his own breakfast since there is just a little milk left in the bottle and I presume he can handle pouring from the cereal box.

I give Zoard some water to drink.

I give Assya her Vitamin D.

A day of a child from my perspective is full of mini tasks. And if you add up all these mini tasks then your day just flew by. I met someone once, who peed 25 days a day. So her day had to be planned around finding toilets. 

I change Assya’s diaper again (poo) and I smile at the fact that we changed her diapers to pull-ups. She likes standing up and hates being on her back so it started to be a real struggle to change her diaper.

I take the trash out.

I wash my hands.

I nurse.

I read my emails and I answer some questions for a blog post of a nice mom from Dubai.

Soon you will see lots of pictures in this blog post. 

I eat breakfast.

I tidy up on the floor.

I dress Assya and Zoard up for a photo shooting and we go outside. By photo shooting I mean, I take pictures of them every single day for Instagram. Today we took a picture for a page (they have 625k followers on Instagram) that comes up with a daily theme. GREEN is the theme on @jjcommunity but you will see soon my interpretation. I also took a picture of Zoard for a children’s clothes shop. He is one of their brand ambassadors.

 

In Thailand you cannot drink the tap water so after our little fun outside, we head to a small shop called Family Mart. I cannot pay with my bank card so we go back to our home passing the reception (we live in a service apartment).
I kindly tell the receptionist that we only have one chair to sit on and it would be nice to have 2 more. I also explain as simply as I can that we asked for 2 cots and it is great that gave us 2 but one of them has a mini mattress in it and we would like the size of the mattress to match the size of the cot.

9:00

Snack time and Assya’s Frist nap

This is the most challenging for me. This is how it went today:

I put an egg to boil on the stove.

I give them both a bath because I like to say yes to sweet ideas of Zoard (this was Assya’s first time in a bath tub with Zoard)

I try to wash the markers off their face. So hard. I feel so guilty.

I give toys to Zoard to continue taking his bath.

I massage Assya with coconut oil and she gets a clean diaper.

I find a can of tuna for Zoard’s snack: mashed boiled egg with tuna and plain yogurt.

9:15

I nurse Assya.

I pull the curtains and I start to hum rock-a-bye-baby.

I remember that we left the apartment so I need to put the wifi back on my phone.

I put Assya down for her nap.

I take Zoard out of the bath tub.

I peel Zoard’s eggs.

I put Assya down again. She stood up.

I drain the tuna.

I wash my hands.

I put Assya down again. She stood up.

I open a cup of yogurt to Zoard and explain to him how to mix all the ingredients in front of him in a bowl.

I put Assya down again and I start patting her bum.

9:30

I quickly edit the picture I took for the green theme.

I start peeling rambutan for Zoard.

I take the trash out and I clean the floor. I managed to drip rambutan juice everywhere.

10:15

Assya wakes up from her short nap.

Zoard is super happy that I let him climb in to Assya’s cot.

Cleaner lady knocks on the door. I tell her that we do not need cleaning but we would love it if she would take away Zoard’s miniature mattress and replace it with one that is the size of the cot, he sleeps in.

I start hanging clothes to dry.

10:45

Zoard starts throwing the coat hangers in the washing machine for fun. We have a good laugh but eventually, I have to make him stop.

Zoard helps me hang some clothes. Assya plays with the hangers.

We still do not have any drinking water at home so I ask Zoard to pee. I pour his pee down the toilet. I wash the potty with Dettol and I ask Zoard to get dressed.

I remember that we need to wash our feet. We are bare feet all the time. I also remember to wash my teeth and Zoard’s.

OK, I admit the previous picture with the sausage sticking out of my head is a selfie I took when we already reached Family Mart. And this lovely picture was taken when we were almost ready to leave….

11:25

There is a mini playground where we live at.

We stop at the playground after we bought our two bottles of water which I put in a backpack. Carrier plus backpack! – it is not as bad as it sounds.

11:45

Zoard gets a 2 minutes reminder, that we need to go home.

We play a bit while we wait for daddy to save the day by quickly whipping up some healthy lunch for us.

We have lunch around noon and then we play some more until it is time for the nap time story.

This is our before nap time scene: we are in a subway (=wardrobe). My husband’s lunch break ends and my second most challenging task begins.

13:00

Nap time story: a story that I have made up. I do these kind of things upon request. HAHA

Nursing.

13:20

Assya sleeps in her cot next to our bed.

Zoard does not have a mattress, not even a mini one, now that the cleaning lady took it away.

I lay next to Zoard on the couch and I hum Wheels on the Bus. (Requested song of the day.)

13:40

They are both sleeping. I start writing this blog post.

14:05

Assya wakes up. I nurse her while I change her diaper. I hum her back to sleep.

I write.

15:30

Assya wakes up again….

xoxo

 

 

 

 

 

I

 

 

 

Sleep Training Your Second Child

Assya is 8 and a half months old.
She sleeps in her cot, next to our bed.
Many times, she takes her naps in her stroller.

When Zoard was this age, we lived in a hotel and we had to be quiet, not to disturb the guests. I did his sleep training when he was about 10 months older than Assya is now and it was horrible. He slept on a mattress and I had to prevent him of getting out of bed by laying down on the floor, in a certain pose. I remember, he pulled my hair so hard, I had to wear a hoodie when I was doing his sleep training. He was strong and furious. And he could already talk a bit and my heart and soul fought a battle through out those days.

For a year and a half, Zoard could only fall asleep with the help of my breasts. If I tried moving away from him, he would wake up. This picture, you see here, is Assya. She is being exclusively breastfed but she has a very different relationship to nursing, compared to her brother. “Nene” – as she calls it, is about eating/drinking and that is about it.

When she is in her stroller, she turns her head to the side and you can easily tell, she is about to fall asleep.

Since Assya can stand up, you cannot just put her down to sleep and hum a few melodies. She kept standing up so one had to put her back on her tummy and pat her bum until she would close her eyes. This ritual got longer and longer.

WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME TO START SLEEP TRAINING?

I am sure that there is never a perfect time to do this.

Zoard just started kindergarten again, after a month of summer break.
Sad things happened in our family.
I started getting low moods.

I still wished to start Assya’s sleep training, because I knew that putting it off will just make it worse.

Our sleep training went like this:

Get support.
Keep telling yourself that it will be super emotional (bad) and it will only get better, later IF you do not give up!
You can promise yourself a reward for each battle.

It was NIGHT time when we started the sleep training.
Here is our bed time routine:
Bath
Breast (not letting your baby fall asleep while nursing is key here)
Bag (sleeping bag)
Blinds (to make the room dark)

The first time lasted for 160 minutes!
Assya had red, swollen eyes the following day from crying so much.

During the sleep training, I had to hold her down to prevent her from standing up.

The second time lasted for 90 minutes.

I stayed at home for nap times to practice more!

A few times I got lucky because she was so tired, that she fell asleep right away.

Today is the 5th day and it took me 20 minutes to put Assya down for a nap. She does not cry any more.

Breast, Bag, Blinds…

So more specifically what we did was:

My husband entertained Zoard while I was in our bedroom with Assya. He also cooked for me as he most often does. Sometimes, we switched and I read to Zoard while he was in the bedroom with Assya (for example, when it was 2 and a half hours long to help Assya fall asleep).

I always tell Assya that it is going to be “sleepy, sleepy time”.
She lets me put on her sleeping sack and we make the room dark. She starts nursing and I sing rock-a-bye baby to her.

I put her in her cot, on her tummy. That is how she sleeps.

When we started the training, I stroked her back or patted her bum if it made her calm down. (Sometimes it did not. For example, stroking her head made her more hysterical.)

Now, I just put her down and I start humming while I lay down close to her. Then I move farther away, I sit on the floor or our bed.

I move again, so she does not get used to me being in one place.

I move close to the door. I keep humming.

I go out and either I continue humming or I stop.

At half time of her nap, she woke up yesterday and today (meaning: after 50-60 minutes) so I went back to the room. I stroked her twice and started the humming and moving farther away from her.
I noticed: she does not get up to stand up anymore. She just needs time to let her eyelids get heavier and heavier…

THANK YOU AND PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A COMMENT.

On Instagram: @zoardandassya

 

 

 

 

Diary of a Mother of 2

Catchy title, right?! I am going to have fun with this one (this post)! It is crazy how much time passed since my last post. Were we still in Thailand at the time?! Probably. And we will be on Samui again, you just wait for my next post. But as for now, we are in Budapest. I am enjoying everyday life with Assya and Zoard. Assya will be 8 months old on the 23rd of this month (August) and Zoard is 3.5 years old.

Currently:
Assya is exploring a toy box.
Zoard is singing to himself in his room. Occasionally he lets me know how lonely he is.It is nap time. For him.

Going out:
This is what I am most proud of. I take the kids out a lot. In the morning and in the afternoon. I organize an insane amount of playdates and we use public transportation on a daily basis. Assya is not so much a fan after a certain time so I usually take her out of her stroller and she sits in my lap or I take the carrier with me.

 

 

I still take pictures as you can see. I started a collection of Zoard pushing Assya. On Instagram I have started a tag #pushingassya. Please let me know if you also have a hashtag of your own. I was inspired by a few mamas who have been doing their own tags and projects, I find it lovely!

Sleeping

Zoard still hasn’t started his afternoon nap which is frankly, quite bad. He should be napping between 2 and 4 and now it is 3pm. It will be very difficult waking him up, once he falls asleep, not to mention that he will not be tired until 10. But we will be.

Our bedroom is super dark in the mornings, and I am usually quiet and slow when I am waken up by Zoard, but let me see if I can find any pictures… morning (or sleeping) related.

Cute picture but around dawn, I am too sleepy to put Assya back in her cot and Zoard climbs in our bed at …who knows when… I just notice my bed space shrinking… so this is NOT a morning shot.

I really took this one in the morning. Zoard was showing us what he looks like when he is asleep.

You see how small our bed is?! Imagine me and my husband in it and these two, plus the swan! HAHA

EATING

We eat a lot but it is not so flattering to take pictures of anyone while they have tasty or not so tasty food hanging out of their mouth.

She is not crying. She is grateful. We are doing baby led weaning again. (Assya is making friends with some apples.)

Carrots… yumm!

By the way, my husband does most of the cooking.

Zoard still eats healthy foods but like I said, I tend not to take pictures of him doing so.

On the other hand, you can find lots of pictures of me nursing Assya. I feel very strongly about breastfeeding.  And she is still just playing with the vegetables and fruits we give her so basically, breastmilk is all she gets. We do not give her water either.

PLAYING

Here is a shot of one of the coolest playdates we had. Do you see a pattern here?!
You can find Kriszta’s blog here.

Assya is telling me I must stop right now and play with her. Yes, ma’am

See you on Instagram @zoardandassya!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am Looking for a Partner

I have been exercising in the morning. Assya usually watches me from our bed or her rocker. And Zoard is either folding clothes on our bed, getting his friends dressed up or he is painting.

So as you can imagine, my exercising routine is quick and you can even do it in the company of two children in the room.

It would help me if I would know that someone else is doing the exercising with me.

We could drop each other a message once we completed the daily exercising.

Here it is.

I do the 4 workouts 3 times as you can read about it in the post.

It takes less than 20 minutes.

I listen to this while I do the workouts. I think I repeat the song 3 or 4 times.

All you need is a towel and it is nicer to do the whole workout in shoes.

You can contact me on Instagram @zoardminiboy and we can talk about the details of our partnership.

I gave birth 3 months ago and I breastfeed. The exercising I am hoping you will join me in, will not affect your milk supply.

And yes, my nursing top can be bought online here.

I will hopefully get healthy with you!

xoxo, Eszter
@zoardminiboy

 

 

 

Hello from Thailand

It is not always easy to know which country we are in. Maybe that is part of who we are. Nomads.

Today I am writing from Thailand. We packed up are things a week ago and flew from Barcelona to Doha. In Doha we had to wait a lot for our take off and we landed in Bangkok super late so I literally ran with Zoard and Assya to the check-in. We were the last one but who can say no to a mother of two little ones.

I did not fly alone but when we followed the strategy of “be kind to us and look at these cute children…”,my husband had to take the elevator (we took the escalators) because we had so many luggage.

I wish I took a picture of me with the nursing pillow on my neck and Assya in the carrier while pulling Zoard’s Trunki. Oh well!

I think the key to flying with children, is to view yourself as someone, who is part of a comic movie.

When Zoard had a massive melt-down because of lack of sleep, I admit I changed my philosophy and became the most patient Saint on this planet. This helped me when he was scratching, kicking me (we were waiting for our boarding).

I need to share something horrible that made me silently cry throughout our journey.

I understand that some grandmothers were idiots.

I understand that being under educated is a huge problem.

But roughly shaking a crying child is NOT going to help. It can cause serious injuries!!!

Gently rocking.

Humming.

Walking.

Changing positions.

Taking big breaths.

These are techniques to follow.

Trying to make a crying baby drink, despite the fact that the baby is NOT  hungry/thirsty is WRONG.

STOP doing it when you see that your baby is gagging.
STOP when your baby is trying to turn his head away from the bottle. Or even your breasts.
STOP when your baby is still crying, no matter how many times you are trying to calm him with a bottle.

INSTEAD

Check his diaper. Change it even if it is “just” pee. Some babies are more sensitive than others.

Help your baby fall asleep. This can be done by patience on your part. Gentle rocking, singing, humming can help you. If the seatbelt sign is not on, start walking or squatting…

Being a parent can make you feel lonely and helpless, try to reach out for help.

You can connect with me on Instagram: @zoardminiboy.

 

 

 

 

 

Do I Need To Be Afraid?!

Zoard is 3 years old now and a few weeks ago, he started experimenting in a whole new way.

He is not a sous chef anymore, he does not want to “just watch” the events.

He bakes and he makes preparations to bake. Sometimes on his own…

This recipe is called Lovizilo. It has a whole bag of rice in it, oat flour, powdered paprika (the Hungarian touch to it, I guess), peanut butter, grapes etc.

I tried telling him later on, that perhaps it is best if we do the baking together.

This morning, he told me that he has a little blog which does not have a Look Book but it does have recipes like the one he would like to bake next. It has brown berries and zucchini in it.

I can proudly say, that the zucchini cake turned out great. We put kefir in it and one piece of date as can be seen on this shot.

If you look closer, you will also see that Zoard chopped off his hair today and that was a shock for me.

I am really supportive of his crazy scientist behavior as much as possible but I just do not know what will come next.

Nevertheless, he is great!

See more on Instagram… @zoardminiboy

Kisses

 

Assya is 1 month old

I will give you a quick update with lovely pictures. That is my deal. Deal?!

Assya weighs 5 kg-s.

She is a great partner in breastfeeding though we have our challenges. You would like to know what?! I am leaking, squirting… making her choke on my milk. I read about this so now I am surrounded with paper towels that Zoard helps me fold. I stop the feeding when the squirting starts… Nevertheless, Assya has to be changed many times because I make her clothes wet with my milk and she swallows a lot of air and started to recently spit up. The upward positions do help.

We go to sleep around 11. She wakes up twice during the night. This is a bliss. I am never tired.

She can also take long naps while we are outside. We put her in her cot and if we happen to be outside for hours, I nurse her in a fitting room. I could breastfeed her anywhere but nowadays, we have been looking for clothes on sale. You cannot blame us, we live in Barcelona after all!

Assya gets fussy before bedtime. We carry her a lot.

She also calms down when laying on her changing pad (from IKEA).

So far, her baby mobile is not a hit with Assya but Zoard is a fan…

Assya has gorgeous clothes. Let me show you some examples…

Onesie from KateQuinnOrganics.

Fox onesie from Igloindi.

Footsie from LovedBaby.

Matching outfit from Belabumbum.

Matching beanies from: Ryderl.
Matching jackets from: LittleIndians.

Outfit from Agiftedbaby.
Sunglasses from FjsPopShop.

Thank you for reading! See you on Instagram @zoardminiboy, I hope we can become friends! xoxo