Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Jack is 9 months old

Where has the time flown?

Jack you are becoming a real little boy and everyday you continue to delight us with your gorgeous grins and your studious nature.


You are now 76cm long and weigh 10.24kg

You started saying dad at 6 months and 3 days :-)
You still mainly say Dad, sometimes it sounds like you say 'I did', 'hello' and when you're upset 'mum' otherwise you babble and enjoy the occasional high pitched squeal/scream. You also enjoy growling, a lot. You talk in your growly voice and find it very amusing.


You are starting to experience some separation anxiety over the last few weeks and have become more cautious of other people. When I am carrying you I can tell when you get nervous or anxious as you squeeze my left arm (tricep) with your hand, this sometimes is quite painful.

You are moving more but have not quite made it up on your knees. You get around slowly by commando crawling and generally under protest. It is hard not to pick you up as you usually whinge every inch of the way :-)
You much prefer being on your feet and pull yourself up whenever you can (bath time included) and have started making your way walking around the furniture. We bought you a walker/trike but you have only taken a few steps at a time unless someone is holding you. 


You finally have some teeth. All four front teeth appeared within 3 1/2 weeks with the last one finally cutting through just a few days ago. First it was your bottom left, then bottom right, top left, then top right.

Your sleeping has been erratic over the last month, with you waking anywhere up to three times in a 12 hour period but I am pleased to say you have improved again and back to sleeping through however we have resorted to giving you some formula in a bottle for your last feed at 7pm and this seems to have helped.


You can wave hello and good bye, mostly in a regal kind of way. You started off greeting people by offering your hand, it looked like you wanted them to kiss it, this progressed to a royal wave and is now more of a proper wave. 
All very cute of course :-)

You understand simple instructions like where is your toy car and know your name. You understand 'No'but won't always obey. 

You still love your food and are getting better at eating fruit. You have no problems chewing and can self feed but much prefer us to feed you. I don't think you can wait long enough to manage it on your own and can be quite demanding at the dinner table if we don't feed you fast enough.

You are one very adored boy and I love just being with you and watching you learn and discover.
Mum
xx 


Thursday, September 19, 2013

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Busyness - in a good way

I have been quite slack at blogging lately and even my Instagramming has fallen by the wayside :-( 

I have been a little busier than usual and for all good reasons. I was ready to put some time into my business and it has paid off with lots of sales and lovely people wanting to come and shop. I had so many requests to look at my products that I have set up a temporary 'Shop' at home. 


I am 'Open' on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10am and 6pm for any one wanting to come and shop, sticky beak or collect and order. It is a great way for me to meet so many new people and the upside is I don't need to leave the house and I can look after Jack and work :-)


It has taken a few weeks for me to work out a nice balance between work and home but I am getting there. 

I have some markets coming up as well as another promotional photo shoot to prepare for. Lots of stuff to look forward to and to keep me busy. I'm also looking forward to attending the next gift fair n Sydney. It's a great excuse for a weekend away with hubby and it will be interesting to see how we cope with a baby especially since we can't take the pram into the Convention Centre and Jack is a hefty 9.8kg of dead weight. Looks like Dad will get a good work out that day ;-) 

Don't forget Father's Day is just around the corner and I offer a $12.95 flat rate of postage Australia Wide. I can gift wrap and enclose a card all at no extra cost just remember to request it.



Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Jack is Six months old

So, I started this post more than a week ago and am still going. In order to get it done before Jack is 7 months old I will keep it short and sweet.





JACK.......

  • Your Length is 74 cm
  • Your Weight is 9.19kg

  • You are sitting up with out support
  • You are Drooling lots

  • You have 3 teeth that are visible just under the gum on the bottom
  • You have 2 teeth that are visible just under the gum on the top

  • You are drooling lots
  • Some days your nose drools just as much as your mouth


  • You're not really interested in rolling over, we know you can but you don't
  • You love making brrr noises and I can tell when you start to get agitated as your brrr's get more intense :-)

  • You drools lots
  • You are a very happy boy, smiling lots but still very studious and serious around other people.


  • You have started making a noise across between a growl and a grunt, you think that it's pretty funny
  • We all love you lots :-)

xx

Monday, July 8, 2013

Things for Kids Market

I had a lovely time on Sunday morning at the Things for Kids Market in Orange. It was a nice easy market for me to go to, perfect to get back into the swing of things.


It is always fun setting up my display, not so much fun putting everything away again though :-(


Everything pictured is available in store at 



Please contact me if there is anything you are after, I am more than happy to try and help find it for you.

Have a great week.

xx

Monday, July 1, 2013

Congratulations, Thanks & Love


Due to some issues with commenting on my blog, I have entered everyone who commented, liked or shared my give away post on FB and here.


CONGRATULATIONS to Angela Hanley on winning the French Market Basket.

Thank you to everyone who entered and thank you for all  of your support and love that you show me, it really does make my day :-)


Theses gorgeous metal tags are available in store in packs of 6, there are 4 designs and are $7.50 a pack.

You can find them here

Have a great week!

xx

Friday, June 28, 2013

Give away - Win a French Market Basket

It must be time for a give away, I haven't had one for ages and it is the end of the financial year and my little business has made it through :-)


So, to celebrate, the winner will be drawn on Monday morning 1st July 2013 at 9am AEST (I will announce the winner here on the blog).

One lucky person will win their very own French Market Basket (Style 3a)


To enter you must do the following




or

1, 2 & 3 - if you aren't on Facebook, blog about this give away (leave a link for the post in your comment)

4. Leave a comment on this post making sure I know who you are so I can contact you if you win :-)

(Give away open to Australian Residents only)


Good luck and have a great weekend

xx

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Jack is 5 months Old

This last month has been an interesting one, 


Sleeping - last month I celebrated that you slept through the night for 12 hours straight, unfortunately you decided that after a week of that you would regress (in a big way) and you started waking up 2 or three times a night :-( 
Day sleeps also became a challenge with you happily sleeping in my arms but in your own space you would only sleep for one sleep cycle of 30 - 40 mins. Waking up happy but only staying that way for an hour or so until tiredness would hit and you would need extra attention.
I am pleased to say that this last week your day sleeps have improved and you are once again having two 2 - 3 hour sleeps a day :-)
Your night sleep is improving and last night you only had me up once at 4.30 am and I am pleased to say I feel so much better after getting 6 hours straight sleep.


Growing - after a visit to the midwife on Tuesday I am pleased to say you have had a growth spurt (which could explain the extra waking and feeding at night), you now weigh 8.2 kgs (moved from 75% on the graph to 90%) and you are 68.5 cm long a big 3.5 cm more than a month ago.


Playing - you love the jolly jumper and are happy to bounce away for 30 mins or more at a time. You are not as happy left alone on your mat, where once you would amuse yourself for hours under the play gym it is now not interesting enough and I think you are getting bored easily with the same things. Once you get a bit more mobile and independent  I think this will change. You are smiling more (mainly at people you know well) and are laughing more, especially at me. It seems that if you are in the right mood almost anything can make you giggle, however the hiccups start soon after and you struggle to really chuckle :-)


Movement - you can roll over but you don't attempt to very often at all. You are starting to get up on your knees but your arms aren't quite strong enough to raise your upper body off the ground. You love to be stood up on your feet and you are able to sit alone for very short bursts, before you loose balance and topple over.


Voice - you sing when you are happy, when you wake up in the cot (we moved you into your cot 3 weeks ago), when you are having a bath, when you are jumping in the jolly jumper, when you are playing with a toy. 
I am trying to teach you to say mum, but you just laugh every time I say it. I'm not sure what you find funny about it.

Food - you enjoy sitting in your Bumbo at the table with us. We have started giving you a rusk while we eat, you weren't sure what to do with it at first but now you have worked out how to make a big mess with it :-) We have given you tastes of rice cereal but you aren't very impressed. 


Personality - you are still a very studious, serious baby, you love to see everything around you, enjoy going for walks in the pram with the dog and you love watching people who talk with their hands. 

Love you Jack

xx


Friday, June 21, 2013

Winter table setting

I am really loving my table setting at the moment it is a little rustic with a little bling and looks perfect on the table at this time of the year.

The beauty of owning a home wares store is I can make use of all those lovely goodies and I have managed to sneak a few into this arrangement to mix it up a bit.


The last of my roses lived out the rest of their life in my vintage silver coffee pot (which needs a good clean) along with the Silver Glass Candle Holder with Diamontes and the small silver glass candle holder with diamontes. I sat them all into my silver cocktail tray and added some scattered diamonds. <3 i="">


 
Once the roses died :-( I swapped the coffee pot for the Silver Conical Vase popped in some twigs spray painted white and some hand made tags. This look is so easy, just head outside, find a tree, find some branches that suit your vase, right size and shape. Cut the branches off (if it's not your tree you might like to seek permission first) and grab a can of spray paint (I used white but you can be adventurous, try red, aqua, yellow or you can try glitter or metallic the possibilities are endless) apply as many coats of paint as you like to achieve the finish you are after. I bought the tags many moons ago on etsy and I still love them, I customised them by adding some quotes on the back of some and some bling (stick on gems) onto the front of some.


Then my latest delivery for my store came in I was so excited that I had to swap the candles for some gorgeous bottles, the Large Costolato Glass Bottle is just divine and the Smaller Rubbed Mercury Glass Bottle complements it perfectly.



 I think I need a bigger tray so I can add the candles back to the display, I do love lighting them in the evenings.

Do you switch your decor around for the seasons?

xx




Friday, June 14, 2013

Before and after Kitchen Stool

I haven't shared a before and after for way too long. I typically forget to take before photos until I am half way through, Doh!

before

Anyway just a quick one today, picture this. I was walking our big dog and pushing the pram when I spotted this cute stool in the council clean up (hard rubbish) pile. 

before

Fortunately I was only a few houses away from home and the pram is easy to push and the dog is kind of obediant so I picked up the stool and juggled all three as I made my way home. Hopefully the thought of that sight made you smile :-) It was worth it!

after

I gave the chair a quick clean, recovered the seat and added some extra padding and voila, it is the perfect height for sitting Jack on it in his bumbo.

after

Total cost $0, I already had the fabric left over from my recovered footstool and I had some padding from another project. 

Love quick, easy and free projects, they are the best! What do you think?
xx

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Beautiful bird cages and large drink dispensers

I have been a busy bee adding new items to the store over the last week 


here a just a few of the goodies I have available




You can find them all in my store now





www.mccarthydesigns.com.au


I still have a few new things to list so please remember to check back regularly.

xx

Thursday, May 30, 2013

4 months old

Jack, you are four months old already.

You are still a very serious and studious little boy, carefully watching everything around you.


You are becoming more alert and that makes it hard to be out and about during nap time, you much rather watch what is happening all around you.

You have continued to sleep very well over night though and have started sleeping 11 - 12 hours without waking for a feed or for comfort :-) (lets hope that lasts)


You have discovered some new sounds with the most recent being a growl, that you enjoy testing out often.

You love nappy free time and bath time, such a huge contrast to when you were first born.


We have bought you a jolly jumper and you worked out how it works quite quickly and you enjoy spending time in it.

You are learning how your fingers work and spend quite a long time staring intently at them as you move each one.

You are dribbling.... 
lots
in fact I am not sure who is worse, you or the dog.

You are growing well and still sitting on the 75th percentile, 65 cm long and your weight is 7.39 kg


You still enjoy playing with the jungle gym however you are getting frustrated faster with it and ready for more.

You are just starting to roll from you back to your front.

You enjoy sitting in the bumbo and watching as I make Nicholas lunch in the morning or you sit with us at the dining table as we eat, in fact I am sure you wish you could join in sometimes.


You are a delightful little boy who is loved so much and we just enjoy you so much 

xx

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Mothers Day 2013

My first Mothers Day with Jack was just wonderful. 

It started with cuddles and coffee in bed with Jack 


 then Eggs Benedict for breakfast made by my big boy Nicholas and hubby Nick.



We had the extended family over for Mothers Day lunch and both big boys  looked after it all. 


They made Irish Stew that was slow cooked in the wood fired oven



served with freshly baked bread also cooked outside in the wood fired oven


All of the boys took care of the serving and the clean up so us ladies were really spoilt.

The weather was lovely and all in all a fantastic Mothers Day.


If you're a mum I hope your day was just as lovely.

xx