Pauline's Dad

Most of you already know, but some of you might not.

My dad died on Sat 2nd May 2009.

It was a massive heart attack and he died in his sleep and would not have been aware of it as we were told it was instant.

This has been a huge shock to everyone, as he was so active and vibrant. He played golf twice a week and was out every day with my mum and her friends having lunch. He won a golfing shield last month and the golf club were going to give him an award for best improved golfer for last year, next month. I think they're still planning on it and giving it to my mum.

I was going to post a photo, but I can't bring myself to look at them yet.

I was also going to say more, but I can't right now.

Making a poo

There are some concerns in our household about what ingredients Mummy puts in her cakes....
(Facebook viewers can see the full post at http://www.sandppics.blogspot.com/)

Who's disappeared this time?

Alice really enjoyed Grandpa helping Fraser bear to disappear. So she decided to give it a go herself. I'd ordered some new vests for her for the summer and of course she wanted to wear all of them and only them (and the hat)!!!! Also the park at the top of our street has had a make-over recently and so we went down to check it out. Thankfully the council had it ready for the Easter weekend. It was packed and they've added loads of new things to do. They've got an older kids section and a toddler section. There are some rabbits which live near the park and so Alice wanted to see them. We had to tell her they were asleep today, as they were nowhere in sight.

Plus of all the things Alice got for her birthday, can you guess which was the best present? Yes, you've guessed it, the box the trike came in!!!!

The last part of the video is Alice reading her new book to me. If you don't know "gosh a geeeze" (a squash and a squeeze), it's about an old lady who's house is a squash and a squeeze and she asks a wise old man to help her please. So he tells her to "take a hen" (take in your hen, goat, pig and cow) one at a time. Then at the end he tells her to take them all out again and her house is not a squash and squeeze any more. We think Alice is so funny reading the book because she is actually putting on the voice of the wise old man. Maybe there is a performing streak in there after all. The video is just over three minutes, just to warn you.

Hope you all have a great Easter weekend. Jesus is not on the cross, He is risen indeed.

Blogging again

I'm sure most of you reading this will already know that I haven't been all that well since the end of January. It seems that my sinuses are the culprits and so have been working along with osteopaths to help get them better. In the meantime I've had another sinus infection and a four day sinus headache. I have started to pick up a few times, only for something else to knock me back down again. Last week started to really pick up and it felt like my body was trying to recover. However, it's been a busy-ish weekend and so have been rather tired, but able to interact with everyone, which I couldn't do two weeks' ago. So am really hoping this is the start of a genuine recovery.

Stuart had three and a half weeks off work and we had his mum up for two weeks too. Then we needed to make a decision about who would care for Alice until I'm back on my feet. So we needed to find a child minder. We found a really great one round the corner and Alice has settled really well with her. So Alice is with Barbara every day and Stuart has gone part-time in the meantime.

I've put a few posts on to cover the past two months. It's mostly pictures and not a great deal of writing, so shouldn't take too long to go through.

Please continue to pray for a full recovery without any more set backs and thank you to all who are.

Alice's 2nd Birthday

Yesterday was Alice's 2nd birthday. Where have the past two years gone!!!!!??? This was Alice two years' ago yesterday, about half an hour after birth.
This was Alice on her first birthday.

What a difference a year makes.

Stuart's parents came up for the weekend and on Saturday morning we had a few friends round for about an hour. Alice really enjoyed tucking into her Daddy-baked carrot cake (which was really yummy, but under very close supervision by me).

So she opened her present from her friends.

Then on Monday we opened the rest of her presents. It took ages. We gave her the trike first, bad move, we should've let her open everything else first, as she just wanted to ride around on that. Eventually we got her to open them sitting on her trike. There's a parent pole that attaches to the back too.

The table is from Nanna and Grandpa and the chair from us. She thinks they're brilliant, just wants to sit at that as well. She can now do sticky pictures in the house rather than at her wee groups and hopefully not make as much mess. It's also a good place to have snacks now too.


We got her these cotton reels. She really enjoyed playing with that for ages making necklaces.

Stuart went to a local bakers (fantastic one round the corner from us) to get a cake, just a madeira cake, but so yummy. She really enjoyed tucking into that.

Nanny and Papa bought her this scribbler, which she really enjoyed drawing on too.

She was very excited to receive this new tea set from Nanna and Grandpa. She spent ages later on making us all cups of tea.

She also got a few books. One of her favourites from aunty Catherine, Simon, Lilly and Jasmine, which is "we're going on a bear hunt". She nearly knows it off by heart. We kept getting it out of the library and so thought she could have her own copy.

The video is Alice over the weekend. We gave her one of the boxes to play with before her birthday. She used it as a cot for Fraser bear. So she's putting Fraser to sleep and telling him she'll see him in the morning. Then when she takes him out she asks him if he wants calgel, which is her teething gel. At dinner time we asked her if she'd had a good birthday, she nodded and said yes. We asked her what she would like next year for her birthday and she said "cake" a small pause and then "candles". Easily pleased. Then she started singing Happy Birthday to Alice. We had a quiet, but good birthday weekend for Alice, thank you to all who helped make it special for her.

Fashion show

This is Alice middle of March when her summer clothes arrived from the Vertbaudet and Boden catalogues. She wanted to try the clothes on straight away and pose for us. This is telling Alice where to stand and she got Fraser bear and stood him with her and then we said smile.

These are a pair of Alice pyjamas for the summer. She wouldn't take them off afterwards.

So she put her summer coat on over her pyjamas and ran around the house like that.

Then sat and ate her snack wearing the pyjamas and coat. We asked if she wanted to take the hood down, a very vehement shake of the head and "no" was the response.

This is Alice posing in one of her summer dresses.

Then she had to try on her swimming costume, over her vest and tights. Then she ran and got her wellies and put them on too.

The next day we made the mistake of not putting the clothes away and so she wanted to wear the swimming costume again. This time no vest and no wellies and ran around the house for ages.

Alice, Daddy and the snow family

This photo was taken way back at the end of Jan. Alice and Stuart went round to visit the Cleases and Joe decided they would all make crowns. So Joe helped Alice make this crown, she still has it, not quite in this pristine state.

Then middle of Feb, the country was covered in snow and the only reason we got to hear about it was because London got snowed in that day too!!!

Alice and Stuart enjoyed their time together in the garden building a snow family. This was the most snow we've had here in about 5 years.

Alice very busy helping to build snow Daddy up.


They finished snow Daddy. They also built a snow Alice and a snow dog. Notice there was no snow Mummy, I was replaced by a dog!!! Alice enjoyed it so much she didn't want to come back in.


Alice and Stuart building the snow Daddy.

Scarf and Crying Kings

As it's been so cold this winter, I decided Alice needed a scarf to go along with her hat and gloves. So I went into the local wool shop and explained what I wanted to do and they chose colours fairly close to her hat. With advice from Marion (my mother-in-law) I knit one. It was far too short!!!!! So that now belongs to Alice's stuffed animals. Did another one and this time it was just the right length. Phew. It is quite satisfying when you hear people say to Alice, "I love your scarf, such beautiful colours", like this morning at Piccolo (actually two mothers said it today!!!, yes, yes, blowing my own trumpet). So I decided it needed tassels. I knit it about 6 weeks ago and only today put the tassels on. I think it finishes it off nicely.

This video is Alice's impression of the crying King of Miseryland in the book Little Miss Sunshine. The first few times it was read to her she just cried, because she is quite sensitive and found it upsetting all the people crying. Then we made the crying fun and now she laughs the whole way through it. She wouldn't do the crying until I told her she could see herself on the camera afterwards. That's why at the end of the clip she stops really quickly and says Alice, Alice, because she wants to look at herself on the video. How vain!!!! Some of the faces she pulls are hilarious, but trying to catch them on video are becoming more difficult.

Sleeping Bunnies

This is Alice's finished Advent Calendar. As you can see there's a bit of a crowd congregating on the right. We did the calendar after dinner each night and since it's been put away she's wanted to pray for it before bed time a few times.

We went to the park at the bottom of our street last Sunday (4th) and it was freeeeeeezing!!! We went just as it was getting dark (after Alice's nap), but we didn't stay long. We came back home again for hot drinks and sitting under the blanket watching In the Night Garden.

Alice got this farm for Christmas from her Nana and Grandpa. She is really starting to enjoy playing with it, I just don't think she knows what to do with it. So all the animals end up inside it along with the farmer and his wife, who we have yet to name.

Most afternoons Alice and I have to have a bit of a singing session. Generally many verses of sleeping bunnies and dingle dangle scarecrow. Then maybe wind the bobbin up, twinkle twinkle little start, the bear went over the mountain, my God is so big and more recently jingle bells. In fact a few nights ago I heard her in bed (through the monitor and whilst she was winding down to sleep) singing jingle bells. "jinga bays, jinga bays... away" then followed by a wee giggle. So yesterday (Saturday) Stuart had to join in too with Alice, doing the actions. No doubt as you watch there will be lots of "ahhhing" and "ooohhhing".

Added a wee video this time

This is a wee video of Alice over Christmas. First part is her with Nanny. She sat all afternoon cuddling up to Nanny. Then a few openings. In the Night Garden book. She enjoys pressing the theme tune and dancing to it. The Bilibo, she's sitting on it thinking it's a potty. Just after this she stood up and had a look inside it, thinking she'd done a wee. Then giving Amy the rag doll a cuddle and kiss.

Christmas 2008

We had a really great Christmas with Pauline's parents. Alice really enjoyed spending time with them. "Nanny/Pappa" was all we heard while they were here.

Before they arrived Stuart, Alice and I went to the beach, the tide was on the way in, but it was lots of fun. Alice really enjoyed watching the dogs running in and out of the sea.


Alice really enjoyed cuddling with her Nanny and spent a whole afternoon doing that. We had just gone to the beach again and she had just sat in the sea; got completely soaked. So we had to come home straight away and put her in the bath.
We all got lots of really fun things on Christmas Day. A few highlights were this "My Quiet Book", which has been hand made by a woman in Northern Ireland (www.fun-2-learn.com). It has a different activity on each page and will hopefully last her for years. She also got this Bilibo. Is it a seat, is it a hat? No, Alice thought it was a potty. She sat in it and said "wee, wee" and then stood up and looked in it. We kept telling her it wasn't a potty. It's whatever her imagination lets it be.

On Boxing Day we went to the beach again. It was freezing, can you tell? We all wished we'd put more layers on.


Another Christmas over. What a difference from last year. At least Alice wasn't really ill this year and really enjoyed opening all her presents herself.

We hope you all had a great Christmas and look forward to a new year and that 2009 will bring you lots of happiness.

That's Christmas

I heard about this on the Today programme (Stuart - not Pauline) today. We have a morning ritual where Alice and I sit down to have breakfast and listen to Radio 4. After the 8am interview, we discuss the issues of the day, e.g. the financial crisis or current political scandal. Alice doesn't input too much just yet, but she will.

Anyway, it's a great explanation of the true meaning of Christmas in just less than 10 minutes. It's been produced by a large Church of England church in London (St Helen's, Bishops Gate). Either view below or visit direct at http://www.st-helens.org.uk/xmas/


That's Christmas! from andy pearce on Vimeo.