Subsidence Issue

As some of you may know we have discovered this week that we have subsidence on the house. The back of the house has moved about 2 cm in about 2 weeks. The back extension (which is about 30 years old) is not actually attached in any way to the original house. I got out a structural engineer who confirmed movement in the house and suggested the culprits are more than likely to be the trees at the bottom of our garden which are owned by the council!!!! So we have contacted our insurance and they are sending out some of their people to do an initial inspection and then hopefully we can continue to use the structural engineer we have employed (the insurers have said we can). So he will then do a pile of tests, which will involve digging a huge whole down about 6 feet outside the house at the back. This will determine whether it is the trees which are the problem.

Basically he reckons that with having a dry winter and spring the trees have needed to get moisture for the roots somehow and so take it from the ground. Our soil is basically clay and so with the dry whether it is already contracted and taking more moisture out of it contracts the soil further, resulting in our house moving.

If he can prove the trees and the soil are the problem, then it will mean going to the council (via the insurers) to get them to do something about them. I have been to the four neighbours either side of me and they are noticing different things in their houses too, from new cracks to doors not closing properly etc... (all within the last two weeks). If the council don't want to do anything then we will need to underpin the house around the roots. None of us want to lose the trees, but another solution is taking all trees down and then putting other trees in place which won't be as bad e.g. silver birches.

Here are a couple of photos.

This one is the extension at the back of the house, just outside the kitchen. The gap goes the whole way through to the outside, this gap is about 1 cm, but it is about 2 cm on the outside.

This is the ceiling at the back of the house, you can see it looks like the back wall has moved away from the ceiling and the ceiling has remained in place.

This is the other side of the back window (on the left looking into the garden), the gap on this side is not as wide as the other side.

The whole thing is going to take about a year, as they need to monitor how the house is moving over the winter with more and less moisture in the soil. What a pain, but hopefully it will get resolved without too much of a legal wrangling with the council!!!! Will keep you informed.

August Bank Holiday

A couple of weeks ago we took Alice into Newcastle to buy new shoes. So she now has beautiful new red shoes. £32 for new shoes every three months or so is a lot of money. Why do children's shoes cost more than adults' shoes?

The new shoes.

Monday was a bank holiday. So Stuart and Alice made crumpets for lunch. Stuart had never made them before and so we weren't too sure how they were going to turn out. They were so yummy, really soft and light and not heavy like shop-bought. Very impressive indeed.

Alice is giving the crumpets the "thumbs up". She did eat 4 and a half of them!!!!!!!

After her nap we went to Tynemouth Metro station, where there is sometimes a farmers' market. On Monday they had a Green Seaside Day at the Station. We walked past this lady making balloon shapes quite a few times and then we stopped to wait in the queue to get Alice one. She watched the lady very patiently, for ages and then asked "can I have one too please?". She hadn't realised we were in the queue to get her one. So I said, "Alice, for asking so politely, of course you can have one". So she chose the bear from all the different shapes and animals. It was amazing to watch her make it.


Alice was so pleased with her new bear.

He rode in the pram the whole way home. She wanted him to meet Fraser bear and when we got home, she introduced them and they sat and had a chat. However, last night one of the arms starting deflating. This morning Alice said it had a funny arm and looked all disappointed with the bear and wanted us to take it back to the lady to mend it.

When we got home Alice and I did a bit of sticking. I've been putting together bits here and there for a wee making basket. So we got out the yellow crepe paper, a loo roll, the pritt stick etc. Alice spent ages sticking on the yellow feathers the whole way round the roll.

It took her about half an hour to stick the feathers on. She just sat patiently sticking away.

Here is the finished chick!!! Art is not my strong point, but Alice liked it and she really enjoyed making it. Must get on some websites for some inspiration and instructions.

This video is of Alice being able to ride her trike for the first time. She got it for her birthday, but her legs are now long enough to do a full cycle round on the pedals. The rest are just funny wee videos of her playing.

What a big girl!!!!

About three weekends ago we decided that Alice's room was finally Alice-proof. After putting locks on her drawers and a make shift stopper on her under cot drawer, covering all the plug sockets, we were ready to put Alice in her bed!!!!

Here she is pretending to be asleep in her cot. She pretends to snore, which is what she is doing here.

Alice's last time in a cot!!!

Thankfully we had a cotbed and so all we had to do was take off the sides and lower the bottom end and she was all ready. With a new pillow and duvet she was all set to see how she would fair in her bed.
This wasn't her first attempt at escaping which resulted in terrible injuries. She was trying to get off the bed hands first and did a full tumble off the bed. She wasn't too sure at first, but when I just laughed and laughed, she did too. We do have a bed guard which clips on (you can see it leaning up against the wall in the photo above. She's had no problems sleeping in it and actually seems to be sleeping better in it and seems to like having a pillow.

Last weekend was the kite festival. We went along with some friends and Alice had her first taste of ice cream. "Nice"!!!!

Alice had her first ride on a merry-go-round. I think Daddy was feeling a little bit sick as he doesn't too well with being on things that move. She kind of enjoyed it.

On Sunday we had some visitors from Manchester. Mark, Janette and Sam were up our way for a wedding over the weekend and called in to see us too. Stuart and Mark are friends from Essex, so it was great to catch up with them.

We also had Aunty Catherine and Uncle Simon visiting on Monday. They are on holiday near-ish where we live. Alice enjoyed aunty Catherine reading her new book, which they bought for her. Then it was off to the beach.

The weather had been quite cold in the morning and so we thought it was going to be windy and cold at the beach. Nope, it was beautiful and hot too. Aunty Catherine made a little trail for Alice to follow in the sand and at the end there was lots of cheering.

Then some circles were drawn in the sand for Alice to jump into. Alice loves jumping!!!

Alice, aunty Catherine and uncle Simon enjoying the sea, all wishing we'd brought a towel with us, so that we could all go paddling.

Alice really enjoyed having them visit and particularly uncle Simon hiding behind the door when she was having her bath later.

Just a little video of Alice singing to Old McDonald (the book was bought as a present for Alice's thanksgiving service, so the batteries have lasted nearly two years!!!) and then jumping with aunty Catherine and uncle Simon.

What a beautiful voice!!!

This is Alice singing a few different songs. The first one is one I made up; not the best lyricist in the world, but Alice likes it. Some nights she could eat us out of house and home, with the amount she puts away. So I call her a hungry bunny. She wanted me to make up a song about her being a hungry bunny. The song is: Alice is a hungry bunny (repeat twice, not the hundred times Alice does it), then I put my hands up to my mouth and shout, where does all the food go? In her tummeeeeee. The next one is "round and round the garden", then "My God is so big". She really does look very pleased with herself.

Edinburgh Holiday

We're back from our much needed holiday. We spent a week just south of Edinburgh. The weather wasn't great, the cottage could've been better, I didn't feel all that great, but we still managed to have fun and a good time anyway. This is the view outside Alice's bedroom window.

This is the cottage we stayed in.

As you know (from our previous posts) Alice likes to jump. Well she realised that she can jump off things too. We spent the afternoon in Peebles, and spent most of it in this courtyard, which was part of the council buildings. She enjoyed running around and needed to run off some of the sugar in the lemon cake she'd just had.

Alice jumped a lot!!!She spent quite a long time jumping off this curb!!!

There was also this bar to swing from. Maybe she's going to be a gymnast.

As you also know she has a very cute curl at the back of her head. This is how long her hair would be if it was straight!!!

We went to some gardens in Balerno and all Alice was interested in was jumping off the grass!!!!

We also went to this fab place in Dalkeith Country Park. It was a huge wooden play area with a slide about 10 metres high!!!! Alice wasn't interested in that, but she did enjoy this wee toddler tree house thingy. She walked round and round for ages, unfortunately there was nothing to jump from.

Alice sitting in the tree house thingy.

We met up with our niece Alexandra. Alex studied in Edinburgh and has lived there now for five years. She took us to this wee cafe in Portobello which had a soft play area in it. Alex wasn't a 100% sure how to get there, so had to phone her friend to get directions. Whilst on the phone she said she was in the car with her aunt, uncle and cousin. Stuart laughed, because he has acquired a lot of nieces and nephews since marrying me. I think he still finds it strange that he's an uncle and particularly to adults in their 20s. Alice was really looking forward to seeing "cousin Alex" and really enjoyed their time together. Love this picture of them.

Stuart said he was struck at how much they looked liked each other. Maybe it's the matching outfits!! Also (Alex, you'll like this) Stuart was struck at how blue Alex's eyes are!!!!! It was great to meet up, it was far too short and obviously last time we saw each other was under incredibly sad circumstances at my Dad's funeral. So it was lovely to meet up under better circumstances.

All in all, we had a good week. Laura, we now have a new catchphrase in our house. Out is good, but home is best!!!

Birds, Jumping and Chocolate

As you can see Alice is enjoying her slice of home-made chocolate cake. Mummy and Daddy also enjoyed the chocolate cake.

On Saturday morning we took the opportunity that the beautiful weather gave to us and visited the birds at Washington Wetlands Centre. For those of you who live in or around Newcastle and haven't been, it really is a fantastic place to visit. Alice really enjoyed walking round and seeing all the different birds.

At the end of circular walk they have an activity playground. You can play with water and there were ropes and slides etc to jump, climb and slide on.

Alice didn't really like this platform which moved, she wanted off it immediately it started moving. We also got to see lots of wee baby ducks, we thought Alice would be really impressed with them, but she wasn't.

A little video of Alice at Washington. I think her walk here is very reminiscent of the ducks. It wasn't meant to be, just how she walks when she's walking fast. Then Alice and Stuart working the waterwheel. Alice loves to jump. Today she tried to jump over Stuart's roll for his back. As you see she is giving it a good go, but doesn't quite manage it. Kank, the Kangaroo (and Kong the Joey, the names she's given them) jumps rather well too. She is given rather a lot of assistance from Alice though.

More Maisy and running around

Here is a little bit of video of Alice meeting Maisy. She is saying hello to Maisy, you just can't hear her very well. Also, our kitchen backs onto our back room. Very excitingly, you can run the whole way round from the back room, to the hall and into the kitchen in a circuit. Alice just realised this for the first time yesterday, we normally have something blocking her way from the back of the back room, because that's where the book cases are!!!! Initially Stuart was chasing her round and round and hiding from her and then catching her. Then she wanted him to run with her. Think Stuart was just about keeping up with her!!

For those who haven't seen them there are new photos below.

Alice meets a friend

Alice doesn't get pocket money (what would a 2 year old spend it on and they wouldn't know how to spend it either), but we make sure she earns her keep. Very useful little person to have around, or at least she will be when she can reach the sink properly.

This box is Alice's best birthday present. Fraserbear (who is her best friend and I'm sure you've met before) sleeps in this every night with one of Alice's baby blankets. She got the box out and put Fraser in it and then sat on him to read him a story. Little Miss Contrary, which actually suits Alice at the moment, and probably most two year olds.

Alice trying on Mummy's flip flops. We can't get any her size, shame.

One of the frogs from the pond had a wee day trip to the apple tree. It sat under it for quite a while. Alice wasn't too impressed, but took her squirty fish back to her paddling pool to fill it up and then was running back to the frog to give it a good squirt when we stopped her in her cunning plan. Didn't think the frog would like that very much.

Newcastle has a place called Seven Stories. This weekend was Maisy weekend. It is a place of seven stories(floors) (plus they reckon there are only ever seven stories that you can write about) and is for children to interact with books. They have reading rooms, craft rooms, writing rooms, story telling rooms, exhibitions (particularly on The Gruffalo as the writer is from this region) a book shop and the obligatory cafe. It really is a fantastic place. We've been without Alice before she was born, this was her first trip. If you don't know Maisy, she's a mouse with different animal friends. Alice loves the books. She's always asking us to draw Maisy. Here she is colouring in the Maisy mask.

Then the most exciting part of the trip, a chance to meet Maisy herself. We wondered whether Alice would be a bit freaked out, but she was more than happy to go and say hello. Even had a wee excited smile on her face as she was saying hello.

Every time Maisy turned away from Alice, she went up to her and stroked her trousers or touched her jumper, to get her attention.

Alice listening to one of the stories. We had a really great time there and she also loved running around shouting "run, run as fast you can", from the gingerbread man story.