Dancing, Baking and some delayed snowy pics

Here is our poor wonky snowman. From the previous post, he stayed like this for nearly two weeks.

We did have so much snow, then one night it got a bit warmer and the next day it was nearly all gone.

This is the bowling green at the top of our street.

Alice did enjoy the snow, lots, but it was soooo cold.


I have never walked on snow that has been compacted to create pitted ice, then it snows on top of that and you are walking on layers of ice and snow. Horrible. It was actually OK whilst there was snow to walk on, when the thaw happened, it was horrible because it was so icy. You couldn't actually walk on it at all. Snowing again today though, I doubt we've seen the last of the snow for this winter.

I have started picking Alice up in the afternoons now. I am really enjoying spending more time with her and she seems to be enjoying spending more time with me too. She is just a joy to be with (most of the time) and is very funny. She just gets funnier and funnier. She makes up wee songs about things, makes up her own language (does anyone else know what a Stebby bebby is?) is really getting into singing a lot. Recent favourites are; Twinkle, Twinkle and The Grand Old Duke of York.

The video is pretty self-explanatory. The vacuum cleaner was a Christmas present by Great-aunty Gillian. It comes out quite frequently, when she has made some mess or other. The giraffe she is dancing with is Jenny, who she sleeps with.

Welcome 2010

Happy New Year to all who reads our blog. Hope that this year brings all that you hope for.

Alice was very excited that it was Christmas time, as most children are. However, at 2 and 3/4 you are never quite sure how much they understand or are taking in. On the day that Nana and Grandpa were arriving we asked her if she could guess who was coming to visit. She initially looked a bit sheepish and then said "Father Christmas?". We said "No, Nana and Grandpa". Not sure if she was disappointed or not. She does get very overwhelmed when they visit because she's so excited to see them. Stuart's parents arrived on Tuesday 22nd Dec. We didn't tell Alice which day was Christmas Day as we wanted to get some sleep that night.

Stuart got her up as normal and gave her breakfast and we had put all the presents under the tree the night before and Alice nearly missed them all. Then was very excited to see them all as she has been asking for presents all week. Then they came up and woke me up and Father Christmas had left Alice a stocking in our bedroom. I guess he didn't want to wake Alice up in the middle of the night!!! FC brought Alice the Jungle Book DVD (wondering how long it will be before I can quote the whole film, as we are watching it rather a lot), In the Night Garden 2010 Annual (how does that work, when you are buying it when 2010 hasn't happened yet?) and The Christmas Journey by Susie Poole, a book which starts at creation and then works its way to the birth of Jesus and why He was born. A very good book. A bit too much writing in it for Alice, think she will want to read it more next year.

Then we were all downstairs washed and dressed and having a mid morning snack of Christmas morning muffins. A bit of a tradition in our house now. Stuart makes them and they are yummy, with cranberries in.
Then it was on to opening the presents. Alice had more presents than the rest of us put together. She has told us that her favourite present was the pram bought by Nana and Grandpa. She hasn't stopped playing with it.

As you know, none of my family was particularly looking forward to Christmas this year. We all seemed to get through Christmas, but I found the post Christmas lull very difficult. On Boxing Day we normally go for a walk on the beach and that is when the last photograph of my Dad was taken last year, by me. So I just couldn't face going for the walk. So everyone else went and I stayed in and watched the Strictly Christmas Day special. This is Alice on Boxing Day at the beach.

Just a sweet photo of Ian and Alice. He kept singing Twinkle Twinkle little bat, how I wonder what you're at... from Alice in Wonderland. Alice thought it was hilarious and laughed and laughed, now we're not allowed to sing it because Grandpa sings it. I had a rhinitis flare up for a few days which made me feel really wiped out, so wasn't up to much for a few days after that. Then Ian and Marion left the frozen north to go home to warmer climbs.

Stuart and I stayed in New Year's Eve, not really much else to do when most of your friends have got children and baby sitters are at a premium that night. We saw in the New Year with Jools Holland's Hootenany. I was quite surprised that I felt like I was leaving my dad in 2009 too and saying goodbye to the year was like saying goodbye to him and I didn't really want it to end. Not sure anyone else has felt like that, but it felt really strange and sad.

Woke up on 1st January to this winter scene. Three inches of snow. So what better way to spend the afternoon than build a snowman.



We could actually have built one twice the size of this as this was about a third of the snow from the garden. Alice really enjoyed throwing snow at Stuart and I, but wasn't quite so keen to have it thrown at her.


Later that afternoon the weather warmed up a bit and the snowman started to melt. As he was melting and tipping over it got really cold, snowed again and he froze in this position. The leaning snowman of North Tyneside. We then went round to good friends later in the afternoon and had a good time with them before they have number two baby (due any day really) then fly out to start new lives in Romania. You will be missed Mike, Vicky, Joshua and Chutney.

Alice seemed to enjoy putting the Christmas tree away with us and kept hugging the tree and kissing it and saying goodbye. We then asked her how old she will be next Christmas she said "3"!!! Then started saying it was her birthday next. Who teaches them that?

We cut and cooked up the apples from the tree. We had to do it in two batches as we got two massive pots full. So Alice and I made a crumble. When I say we both did it, Alice had no intention of actually making the crumble. Rather she would put her fingers in the butter "I eat some" "No Alice, it's just butter, I need to add flour to it". Add flour to butter and start to rub. Alice shoves her hands in and lifts out a huge blob of floury butter "I try it", whilst laughing lots. "No Alice, we need to rub it together" and that's kind of how it went on. Her shoving her hands in and putting it straight in her mouth and laughing lots. Then adding the sugar and coconut and Alice shoving the big spoon in and trying to fill it and get it into her mouth before I tapped everything off the spoon. It was very funny. She's absolutely no help whatsoever when baking, as her sole reason for doing it is to get as much in her mouth as possible, whilst pretending to help!!!! If you click on the photo, you get a larger version and can see more of the stuff round her chops.
Just a sweet wee picture to end on. On Christmas Eve we went to a family service at one of the local Baptist churches. The service was earlier in the afternoon and for young children. The pastor got all the children on stage to be the different characters. We asked Alice what she wanted to be an angel or a shepherd. She wanted to be an angel, so went up to the front on her own got the piece of tinsel from the box and then one of the lambs from another box (not sure she'd quite grasped that she was being one and not both characters), then went and sat on the stage. I sat on the floor with the rest of the parents. She did get a bid bored after about 10 mins and went for a wander. So this photo was taken on Stuart's mobile from a distance away, hence not great quality.

We are hoping for a better 2010 than 2009, the subsidence is obviously ongoing and no doubt will continue to miss my Dad every day and carry that grief. However, on a more positive note I am going to start picking Alice up at lunch time from next week onwards. So we'll see how that goes and we hope my energy levels will deal with it.

First visit. Subsidence and some good news for once!!!!

We made the very brave decision to drive for six hours to Stuart's parents in Essex. Alice did very well on the journey, was very bored with about an hour to go and said she wanted to go home. However, that wasn't an option. She gets very excited when she sees Nanna and Grandpa.


Aunty Catherine, Uncle Simon and one of Simon's daughters, Jasmine (Lily was at her best friend's birthday party) also came for a couple of days. They kindly bought her this fairy outfit and wings. Alice has been asking for wings ever since she saw the Red Arrows flying over for the end of the Great North Run. So was very happy to receive them.


A funny photo of Nanna wearing Alice's hat.

Alice and Fraser bear watching In the Night Garden.

Alice and Grandpa at the park.

We then drove the six and a half hours home again and again Alice did very well on the journey.
She really enjoyed seeing everyone where Nanna and Grandpa live.

Alice drew this picture. She drew the large shape on the left and said "lady", then drew the smaller shape on the right and said "man". Her drawing abilities are already better than Stuart's and mine.

Whilst I was putting the tree together, Alice and Stuart made this garland for the tree. It gave her something to do whilst I was pulling out all the branches (no we don't have a real one).

Alice was really impressed with her new large "sock" and so took hers off and put this on both feet. Not particularly effective if you want to get around. She's sulking about something or other here.
She really enjoyed helping to put the baubles and little glow in the dark angels we had made together on the tree.

Regarding the subsidence. It's all a bit sensitive, since we have had it proved that the trees in the council owned playing fields behind us are the cause of the subsidence. So can't say too much about it right now, particularly on a public forum like this. It is moving along and I need to contact the insurance company this week to find out what happens next.

I also had the most wonderful news the other day. As most of you know I go twice a year for a blood check for the thyroid cancer which I was diagnosed with 8 years ago. One of the levels has been stubbornly remaining just above the level they deem me cured at. However, it has dropped dramatically below that level and so they now deem me cured!!!!!!! We had actually resigned ourselves to this never happening and had discussed in June what would happen if it never went below 100. It had actually started to creep up a bit and they said if it rose again I would have to have a challenge scan, which means coming off thyroxine and going on a no-iodine diet (no dairy or anything with salt in it) again. So that is what we were expecting, when I rang the nurse the other day for my blood results, that they had risen again and I would be going for that scan. I have my appointment in clinic next week, so will see what they want to do next. They will probably call me back in 6 six months to make sure it is staying below 100 and then hopefully move me to yearly appointments. We could not be happier. We cracked open a bottle of bouvrage to celebrate (a sparkling Scottish raspberry drink, our favourite) and tonight we are having a celebratory take-away. After this horrible year, it was just wonderful to speak to the family with some good news for a change.

Been a while since the last post

As I haven't posted in a while, there are quite a few photos.

The first couple are of my (Pauline's) friend Helen's hen-do in September. My chocolate fountain was requested and there were loads of yumminess to be eaten too, not just the chocolate being sucked through a straw. It was a really fun day.


We bought Alice her winter clothes and when they arrive (as I order them all online from Vertbaudet, being a French company their clothes sizes tend to be smaller and therefore fit Alice better), she loves trying them on and giving us a fashion show.

My birthday this year was very difficult and particularly so as it was two days after my parents' wedding anniversary. Stuart and Alice tried their best to make it as special as possible. So they made scrumptious cupcakes and decorated them beautifully too. I think when you have the death of someone very close to you, the anticipation of these occasions is worse than the event itself. I didn't feel as bad as I thought I was going to feel, however, I did still feel very sad indeed.


We had some visitors a few weeks ago. Oliver and Alice. Alice is one of our god-daughters and it was lovely to see them all, as the family have moved out of the area now.

As Alice's hair is so curly, it is difficult sometimes to realise just how long her hair actually is. When I was plaiting it, it just kept going and going. This was for her first birthday party at a soft play centre. She really enjoyed it, although it was too late in the day for her and she was just exhausted by the end of it. She also kept the bow in for the whole party!!!!

Yesterday was Helen's wedding (from the Hen-do photos at the top). This was the outfit Alice wore. Trying to get Alice a wee dress that had sleeves and was pretty, was very difficult indeed. We found this and had to have it altered as it was huge on her. Alice did very well during the service, to sit and play with her puzzles. We did manage to get half a service out of her until she exclaimed to everyone "I'm fed up", much to the amusement of everyone sitting in front of us. She then lost it a bit and Stuart had to take her to the car for the rest of the service.
Helen's mum, Helen, Simon, Simon's mum and Simon's dad. It was a beautiful service, the highlight being, just after the vows, Helen was asked to go and sit down as Simon had a few words for her. He crossed the church, picked up a microphone, the piano was struck up and he sang her a song that his mother used to sing to him when he was a child!!! It really was a very touching moment.

Back at the village hall for the reception and there was a wee play room upstairs. Alice really enjoyed playing and went straight for this polar bear suit, saying "I love bears". She wouldn't put the head on, as there was only a small hole for her face and she didn't like that very much. We were glad of this room, because otherwise we would've been taking it in turns to stand outside as she walked up and down the steps in the rain. What is it with toddlers and steps??!!

Today we decided it was harvest time. So we went outside and picked all the apples from the tree. Alice has been asking to do this for months. So today she got to do it. She really enjoyed picking the ones she could and then holding the ladder for Stuart for the ones she couldn't.



We haven't had any apples from this tree for about 3 years, so it was great to have so many this year. This is the second lot from this tree, quite a few fell off at the beginning of October in the wind, so all in all we've had about 120 apples this year. Alice then made her first crumble (or scrumble, as she kept calling it). She was very good at rubbing the flour and butter together between her fingers with her thumb. She was also very patient waiting to eat it after dinner too.

There are quite a few different things in this video. The first, is one of Alice's tantrums. Amazing how they turn from this wonderful wee placid thing into this monster trying to assert their personalities. Really hoping this phase doesn't last too long, but realise that it could go on for quite some time yet!!! I thought about cutting the tea party short, but I liked the whole clip. The bridge is in one of favourite places, Plessey Woods. She starts by chucking a twig over the bridge, because we had been doing Pooh-sticks at a bridge earlier on. The song Alice is singing is Mousey Brown. He doesn't "roast" at the top, the song is about a mouse climbing to the top of a wooden candlestick and he couldn't get down, it is actually a very odd song indeed. Ending with the apple picking from today.



Think I will update on the subsidence in a separate post another day. Just to say that the investigations have been done, the holes dug and the samples sent off to the lab. It'll take about two weeks for the results to come back and our engineer to write the reports to send off to our insurance company.

update on the subsidence

Just to let you know that our insurance company got the report today from the bloke who came out nearly three weeks ago. They are accepting that it is a genuine claim for subsidence and they are happy to pay for everything that needs to be done from now on. They are also happy for us to use our own structural engineer.

So it looks like next Thursday I'll have some builders in and they'll be digging big holes around my house to do site pit investigations!!! So hopefully not too long after that to find out what the cause is!!!

Obviously keep you posted.

Alice playing and subsidence stuff

Alice got this farm at Christmas and has been playing with it a lot recently. It's like her imagination has just taken off and all the characters have wee chats, they all stand really close together and go in and out of the farm house.

Alice decided that she would fit herself into the sheep pen. She had to curl her toes under to fit in, but she managed it and closed the gate behind too!!!!

We weren't quite sure why all her toys were being tipped out of the toy box. It soon dawned on us though as she was making room for herself.
Regarding the subsidence issue. We had the insurance bloke here last Monday. We are still waiting for his report to come through to us. He said the movement at the back is likely to be due to clay soil shrinkage and most likely cause of that are the trees. So agreeing with our structural engineer. Anyway, we have noticed quite a few cracks around the front of the house too now. He said they were all due to thermal movement at this time of year. However, Stuart and I are not convinced. The temperature hadn't started to change when all this started. So we're going to get our structural engineer out to have a look at the front of the house too and get his opinion on that.

This photograph is the outside of the house. The is where the extension "joins" the original house. The grey stuff running down the middle of the gap is some kind of foam, which you can just pull away. It isn't doing anything structural and if you were to take it away you would see the full extent of the gap behind it. The extension isn't attached in any way to the original house.
We are now just waiting for this report to go to our insurer and for them to decide whether they are going to accept the claim for subsidence. Once they do that, we can get on to our structural engineer and start the site tests. Then we'll know if it is the trees and also which tree is causing the problem. I think I'm going to have many head-aches over this over the next year or so.

The insurers are being a pain too. When I phoned them yesterday to find out where this report is, I was told to send in the report from our structural engineer. I told her I asked if we needed to send it in three weeks ago when I contacted them originally and I was told no. Their right arm does not know what their left arm is doing at all!!! Anyway, we are just waiting at the moment.