cows, calves & co.

we’re lucky enough to live in a place where children can see a cow or a sheep in real. yesterday i took my girls (and a zoeti’s friend and her mama) to a farm near where i used to live: la greppia’s farm. i know the owners and they’ve been so kind to let us visit the farm, see the milking and feed some young calves!
i discovered few weeks ago that zoeti knows where the milk comes from… i was surprised! she doesn’t know only about the cows but she showed me which part of the cows actually make the milk! she loves cows and we always stop to see calves when we buy milk. most of farms near here have vending machines for milk, open 24/7, and that’s where we stop to see calves and co.

so here we are, all the four of us (plus alma but she slept all. the. time.) at 5pm to see the milking! i have to say that was the first time also for me!

- no more stools and milking by hand, but computer and technology! -

- let’s bring the milk to the newborn calves! (the cutest little helpers i have ever seen!!) -

bye bye cows!!

ice age obsession

Help! I thought that zoeti was still to young for a whole movie. We tried a month ago with Cinderella and after 30 mins she was paying no attention to the screen.
Then, I don't know why, she started asking about dinosaurs. I think it's George's fault ( yes, I mean peppa's brother). That's why we tried with the ice age and now it's the only thing she asks for! Luckily there are 4 movies otherwise I'd become insane! So these days Sid & co. are our best friends!
what about your kids? are they obsessed by a cartoon?

just sunday...

zoeti and i had fun today with finger paint! i bought it some months ago, waiting for the perfect sunny, hot day to use it and today was perfect! actually, after a while, it became more body painting that just finger!!

and after the creative moment, a splash in the swimming pool!

PS: still no news from the baby... he/she is really testing me! i'm so impatient!!

mini shopaholic!

yes... still a little bit big, but here we have rainy spring and rainy autumn!

recently i've been into this store with a huge sale for closing and i fell in love with powell craft! i bought this raincoat and some other cute things for our next baby, our nephew and friend's kids! zoeti keeps asking me to wear it even when it's not raining!! this english brand is a family-owned business that houses victoria-inspired clothes for kids (and a selection of nightdresses and blankets). now that the shop where i bought these fabulous raincoat is closed i'm looking for other ways to find this super cute stuff! like any busy moms i love shopping online and i found this shop, dolly rose, with a great choice of powell craft products (i don't know why but seems to be impossible to shop directly from pc website)

that's what's in my wishlist:

we ♥ books!!

that's what's new in zoeti's library... i'm kind of shopaholic when it comes to books (expecially children's book). i don't remember if i mentioned that we're trying to raise our child as much bilingual as possible (me and Giulio are both italians, born and living in italy). i'm following all the suggestions in this website bilingue per gioco (bilingual for fun - italian only), where the founder tells that it's not fundamental to be mother language to teach another language, but there are other ways. so we're buying just english books and dvds for zoeti and ... hoping for the best! i'll normaly take suggestion for books to buy in that website or here in the blogsphere, but recently i've found out that in england they give a bookstart pack to every child living in the territory (isn't that wonderful!). that's the website. in the site there's a section called book where you can find suggestions for babies, toddlers or preschoolers, and it was so useful for me! i've just bought other books from amazon but i'll told about them after a break-in period..

:: i live in tokyo :: we don't read this book very often... i think it's more suitable for older kids, but i bought it anyway bacause i think it's important for zoeti to know and understand the place where aunty comes from and her cousin is half japanese as well! we've been to japan three years ago (looong time ago!) and i loved it! it was already one of my favorite countries... i love all the tea ritual, the geisha's history, a religion so different from mine and i love sushi!
plus, there is a kind of vocabulary inside... if you want to learn some basic japanese words!


:: cleversticks :: it's another book about diversity and different culture. i think it's important for zoeti to read stories from different countries or with characters from all over the world. italy is slowly becoming an international country: zoeti will be at school with chinese, moroccan, ghanaians, vietnamese and so on and it will be such a great chance for her to discover new languages and habits! in this book a chinese-american boy doesn't want to go to school anymore because he doesn't know to do what the others can. but soon he discovers that using chopsticks is what he can do and others can't.


:: who's like me? ::

:: the game of mix and match :: definetely two of her favorites! there's a lot to do with little hands such as finding new combinations of colors and shapes or discover new animals!



:: how to make an apple pie and see the world :: definetely one of my favorite!! i can't read the whole story to zoeti because she keeps turning pages looking for the cat, the dog, cows, hens, and all the other animals that the protagonist meets along the way! a book about travelling and cooking... the best!!

Befana's day!

zoeti first befana!

the antiques market

waiting for the befana...

the 6th of january is not only the epiphany day... i don't know if it's the same in other countries, but according to our tradition today is the day when an old lady, flying on a broom, goes to every kid's house and bring sweets if you are a good boy/girl or coal if you are a bad one. every italian plaza is full of children today waiting to see the befana (that's her name) and receive the traditional sock full of goodies.
zoeti is still too small to understand and today, when we have met the first befana she started crying! it's a common reaction because normally she has a kind of grotesque mask and she's hunchback.... with a creepy voice... she doesn't seem a children thing, but when they turn 4 or 5 they love her! it's a way to have chocolate and sweets after christmas and before easter! sometimes she brings toys too!

anyway, our town organized a great event this afternoon, for all the kids, with a befana jumping down from the bell tower, and socks and ballons for all the kids. except for the befana zoeti really enjoyed all those people, and colours, and friends to play with!

how was your day?

the pleasure of reading!

when i listened to other moms saying "my little one wants to hear always the same story... hundreds of times... i can't stand it anymore!" i thought they were exagerating... until the last couple of days! zoeti has this crush for a book we bought 3-4 months ago Squash and a Squeeze

  when i ask her to chose a book she always - and i say always!!- bring this one. and she doesn't want to hear the story... she turns the pages until the old lady has to push the cow inside. zoeti loves cows, and the cow sound. she wants just to read those 3-4 pages ... 

what about your kids? what's their favorite book? and if you are not in my situation already, i suggest you to think carefully about which book to read to your little ones because you can find yourself reading the same pages for a very long time!!

cloth diapers review

source

it's 8 months that i'm using cloth diapers and some of my friends are asking me if i would recomend them, how it works, how is my experience... i'm using pocket diapers.
so, that's my story!

when zoeti was born she was simply too small to wear that big diapers so i used disposable diapers for the first months. during that time i read a lot of comments about pro and cons of cloth diapers and i decided to try them (read the post here). to be 100% honest, i didn't try cloth diapers at first because... zoeti was my first child... i had tons of things to learn and to figure out i didn't want to addsomething else to my already full schedule.

i'm still not using them exclusively because i want that zoeti remains dry during the night but i use them almost every day  when i'm at home... yes... i said when i'm at home because zoeti's nursery do not accept cloth diapers so... and i'm not using them when she stays with my mum or my mother in law (they would not be very happy about it!).

in other words, until may she was using them almost every day, the whole day, because i was working just 3 days a week (part-time). from may she started the nursery and i working full-time, which means 2 or 3 cloth diapers per day during weekdays, more during weekends.

do it for the earth!
but still, i suggest you to try. the first months we (my husband & me) stared at that huge amount of garbage that zoeti was creating and we felt awful. we don't have a proper green consciousness but we try to take care of our earth, and that seemed a totally waste of plastic, chemicals and packaging! and money!! our city gives you 100 euros if you buy cloth diapers (and you don't need much more money to buy all the diapers you need) and you have to buy them just once and keep them for the 2nd baby, and the 3rd...

washing them is not a big deal!
washing them is not a big work: i bought a big washable bag and i clean it with diapers (just put everything in the washing machine without taking them out... the spin cycle will let them out). - that's mine -
and you don't need any special soap; i use marseilles soap or bicarbonate and vinegar as softened.

prevent allergies!
i'm an allergic person, so that's influenced my choice too. i didn't want all that whitening products used for disposable diapers on my beautiful baby's skin if i can have something different!

any questions? ;)

when least expected!

i was looking for a book to read to zoeti in my mom's house a couple of days ago when i found these two books... i remember when my dad's friend gave them to me...they were his daughter's but she was a teenager that time so no longer interested in those books... i tried to found all the other serenella's books but they seemed to be not available...i loved, and still do, the drawings... so 70ish!! plus they teach you how to cook or keep your dresses clean... things that children don't now nowadays, with that retrò allure.
i'm going to keep them for zoeti!!!

are you keeping some of your old books for your little ones?

time for drawing

 
  

zoeti loves painting! i bought some non-toxic baby proof colours and she simply loves them! now she's painting not only her notebooks but also the floor, carpets and herself! maybe there's an artist inside her... i love how she's always attracted from new stuff, always curious. and she takes her time to study new objects trying to understand how it works... and she's so stubborn (like somebody i know!)

from japan...

maybe i've already mentioned that my sister-in-law is japanese... well, her parents are two of the most kind people i've ever met and they gave hospitality to us during our trip in Japan a couple of years ago. since then we write sometimes and me and my husband think of them as the japanese part of our family! yesterday we received a present for zoeti from them: miki house socks (very cute) and some baby bibs! they are soooooo kind!!!

Arigatō gozaimasu Otōsan and Okāsan!

shopping time

that's what's new into my baby's closet... cloth diapers! i have visited a lot of websites during the pregnancy but... first child, none of my friends have children... but now that zoeti is 8 and i can handle the situation, i planned to use cloth diapers.
i already had 4 but i decided to buy more diapers and try the full time adventure! i'm happy of my decision for ecological and economical reason and for my baby's healthy.

and... they're so cool, don't you think?!

i bought them to mammaecologica and Silvia (the owner) is soooooooo kind! you can chat with skype and ask her everything you want!

now i'm waiting for summer... to show my baby's diapers!!

lazy sunday...

yesterday we've been around for shopping (zoeti. needs a new coat) but we didn't find anything...
anyway we had fun taking pictures!

i LOVE zoeti new dress (H&M) and my new sweater ( Manila Grace)!

When we came back home zoeti was very... hungry!!! that's her relationship with books right now... i keep reading and she keep... eating books!