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.

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.