The Buckingham Blog

We've had a really busy week.  Now that Kory is at nursery, I get to do lots of cool things.  On Monday morning Mummy took me to a place called Rambo's.  She said Kory used to go there when he was my age.  We met Matthew and his Mummy Katy there.  I really enjoyed myself playing with the ball pool and there were some really high up chutes.  I am very brave though and go up all by myself.  Mummy kept calling me 'Fearless Freddie' !   In the afternoon Mummy took us to the shoes shop to get some new winter shoes.  We both had bigger feet this time and both got boots.  Mummy nearly feinted when the lady told her how much they cost! 

On Tuesday morning we saw Matthew and Katy again, at their house this time for a coffee morning they were having for the NCT.  It was fun to play with Matthew's toys, but we didn't get to stay long as we had to go back to get Kory.  When we got back home, our Gran phoned and told Mummy she would buy our shoes for us.  Mummy is very grateful and we think it was very nice of her to do that.  In the afternoon we went to collect one of Mummy's dresses.  Kory was a very naughty boy at the lady's house, and Mummy got cross at him.  But I was good!  Daddy put us to bed that night as Mummy went to Asda to buy food.  I hate shopping so am glad I didn't have to go with her.

Yesterday morning, me and Mummy were Cleaning Queens - we did hoovering, dusting, polishing, cleaning walls, cleaning floors, tidying and cleaning the downstairs toilet, all while Kory was in nursery.   I was really sleepy and had a big long sleep.  When I got up, Mummy's friend Gillian was here with baby Lucie.  I was a bit scared of her, she moves!!   After a while though, I was getting her toys and giving her kisses.  She didn't want to play with me though.  She stayed here while Gillian went to get her brother from his nursery.   When Matthew (another one) came back, we all played outside while Lucie slept inside.  It was good fun, until I fell on the chute and burst my lip open.  That hurt a lot but I tried to be a brave princess. 

Today we were meant to do more cleaning, but Mummy didn't shower last night and had to do it this morning, so we didn't have time to clean.  So first Mummy got out some red and blue squidgy stuff.  She called in Playdoh and it's the first time I've been allowed to play with it myself.  We made animal shapes, a ball and a bridge and I just squished it around.  It felt funny on my fingers.  Next Mummy had her shower while I had my snack and then we read some books.  I surprised Mummy with lots of new words when I point at things in the Colours book.

This afternoon we went to a place called the beach.  It's near where Rambo's is and I got all excited.  Kory had his bike with him so he cycled for a while and we met Jessica, Sophie and Leanne.  They had their doll buggies with them.  We walked for a while, it was very windy and my hair went all over the place!  After that we went to the shoe shop near there to get Kory some gym shoes for nursery (his ones he had keep falling off) and then to the pet shop next door and saw some rabbits, guinea pigs and fish. 

I think I'm getting a cold and have been a bit grumpy so I hope having a big sleep helps me.  Night night.

Krystal
xxxxxxx

Her photo appears in the gallery on this website 4 photos down as I write this. 

I loved Coral's "Itsa" so much on holiday I was noseying on their site when we got back at what other colours they have.  I saw the gallery and sent in the photo of her on it.  I exchanged a few emails with the owner (the one who appeared on Dragons Den if anyone watches it!) and kind of forgot about it again until tonight, while watching the Dragons.  So I just went for a nosey and found her looking back at me!

How cool!

Julie.xx

As the last post mentioned, we've had Laura and her new man Gary here this weekend.  They came up mainly to babysit for us on Saturday night so we could get to Suzanne's wedding, but they decided to make a weekend of it and stayed at a hotel in town on Friday night and go out in town. 

On Saturday afternoon we went to the park near our house.  There isn't a lot to say about it, the photos will tell all once I get to add them!

In the evening James and I got ready to go out.  We put Krystal to her bed, but Kory got to stay up, and obviously wanted involved in the photo taking that was going on!! 

The reception was lovely, I'd never been in the venue before, and was very surprised.  All the others from Baby Group were there so that was lovely to have a catch up with the ones I see less often.  Also Hannah & Ian were there as Hannah knows Suzanne through another playgroup.  We got a nice photo of us together which was good as we've not been out dressed up together for years!

Suzanne, the bride was gorgeous, she really suited her dress.  The men all looked lovely too in their kilts, not least their son (who is ages with Kory)  He was a wee stunner, but looked a bit bewildered by the whole thing.  I didn't manage to get photos of any of that though, oops!

I had a lovely evening, only made better by there actually being a veggie option for the buffet, so I had veggie stovies, YUM!! 

Today was just a lazy day in the house, with us all playing shops with Kory.  Gary even got involved after a bit of 3 year old bullying!!

Julie.xx

To say the past 7-10 days has been diffcult is an understatement.  First of all last Tuesday our car (yep, the one we just got back) decided it was going to die/overheat.  After speaking to dad and having a mechanic friend look over it, we decided it would do more harm than good to be driving it.  That evening we heard about James' Uncle Fred dying.  On the Wednesday I had to go about hiring a car as we had to go to Lisa's wedding in Glasgow. 

The drive down was awful as I mentioned in the other post & I really wasn't very well.  So we get back up, the Monday was fairly normal, then the Tuesday Kory started nursery.  In the afternoon we had to brave driving the car down to trade it in!!  On Wednesday James left for work as normal and was heading to London straight from work.  During the day, the electricity started going wonky and I discovered it was the tumble drier short circuiting the whole house.  ARGH!!  Just what I need coming into winter and on day 1 of being a single parent for 3 days!! 

That evening Krystal was nappy free and got a sore tummy and "went" all over the cream hall carpet!  The phone was ringing, the door was going, both kids were crying & it was way past their bedtime.  Chaos!

Laura and Gary arrived on Friday night about 30 mins before James got home then they headed into town.  Then on Saturday morning we went to collect our new car (a silver Astra).  When we got home we realised that we had no phone connection and therefore no internet.  Everything keeps going wrong!! 

Then we have a wedding dance at night.  It was Suzanne & Scott who I know through baby group. I'm pleased to say it went well and I'll do another post about the weekend with Laura & Gary and the wedding.

Somewhere in all that I had a sore leg, by sore I mean a HUGE lump which I am pretty sure is/was an infected hair follicle thing.  It was agony for a few days and making me feel a bit rough.

Hopefully this week will be better.  We won't be stuck in the house as we have a car now and I'm going to try and spend some time with Krystal while Kory is in nursery, doing things I feel she's missed out on a bit.  So tomorrow morning, Rambo's here we come!

Julie.xx

Just a short post as a little goodbye to James' Uncle Fred whose funeral it is today.  On the few occassions I met Fred, he was a lovely, welcoming man & always the joker in the group.  Undoubtedly he will be missed by many people including his wife Janet and grown up children Debbie, Kim & Darren.   

James is attending the funeral with Coral and Chad, but for obvious reasons myself and the kids couldn't be there, so I wanted to mention it here.

Goodbye Fred

Julie.xx

Today Kory started school nursery.  It's something we've been building him up for since his visit back in June, and it seems that it worked!  Instead of the expected tears, he got out of bed as high as a kite.  Normally it takes him until about 10am to come alive, but this morning he was a flying horse (apparently!) at 7:30am!!  He was hyper all morning.  James had taken the day off work to come with him and to look after Krystal as I had to stay with him today.

He waved to James outside quite the thing, and in we went!  He found his peg, put his wee bag on it and his jacket.  Then off he went to play while I filled in forms.  I thought he might be a bit funny, but he wasn't.  He knew a few people already, Holly was there, and 2 of the boys from the old "baby group", a boy from our street, an old neighbour and a couple of kids from the playgroup we went to.  They recognised him which was nice.  Later in the week, Daniel, Jessica & Sophie will join him there.

By the time we had to go, he didn't want to, and made the teacher promise he could come back tomorrow!  So he's going in alone tomorrow, yippee!  I am so surprised how he's been about it all, given how cried at his 2's group before it ended!!

Where did my wee baby go?!

Julie.xx

P.S.  While we were in nursery, James took Krystal to the park.

We've been away this weekend for my little cousin Lisa's wedding.  We travelled down on Thursday by car and the journey was awful.  Firstly there was flash flooding, I ended up pulling over as I actually couldn't see in front of me even with wipers on full blast.  I was scared!  We heard on the radio once we got a bit further down, that they were recommending people don't go that route as it was dangerous on the road. 

Then as we approached Dundee, I didn't feel well, like really not well.  Every light was at red and I was all panicky.  After a brief stop at the big Tesco, we were on our way again.  We got as far as Stirling and came to a total standstill under the castle.  We turned the engine off we'd been there that long. 

We finally arrived at mums house, we had a chinese and got the kids to bed about 10pm.  I was feeling loads better, so James and I went to pub with Laura & Gary.  When we got home, I suddenly felt ill again, went cold, shakey and sweaty.  I was up almost all night, each time I started to nod off, I was not well again.  I think I got about 2 hours sleep before the kids woke up.  This was the day of the wedding!

I got myself up and showered and felt a bit better, got my hair done, fascinator in and drove to Glasgow to dads house.  By the time we got there, it was a mad dash before the taxi arrived to get into our wedding kit and to the National Piping Center in Glasgow City.  I wore a black dress accessorised with cerise pink.

On arrival I realised that the bridal colours were.....you guessed it, black kilts, black jackets, pink cravattes, pink flowers, pink bridesmaids.  Oooops!  The ceremony was lovely.  To keep everyone happy on both sides of the family, they had a humanist service.  It's probably the nicest wedding I've been to in terms of wording and stuff. 

After that, there was a champagne reception in the museum area, and photo's outside.  The bride and groom went off to get photos taken somewhere else (Botanic Gardens I think) and we sat outside in the bar next door.  The meal was really nice, melon to start, chicken with haggis for the main (not for me obviously, I had some veggie thing that was yum!) and chocolate cake for pudding.

Then to the best bit.....the ceilidh.  As most of you know I am not a dancer.  In fact I would go as far as to say i hate dancing.  On a night out, it gets my back up when people go on and on about me going on the dancefloor the drunker they get.  I prefer to watch.  However, I love ceilidh's.  Maybe as there is a set thing to do, everyone is doing it! 

One thing I was shocked and delighted by was the evening reception food - instead of the usual stovies/lasagne or sandwiches and chicken drummers, they had put on bacon rolls, sausage rolls (as in square sausage in a glasgow roll) and potato scones in a roll.  There were big bowls of brown sauce and ketchup.  BRILLIANT!

Lisa was dancing the night away with her new hubby Chris, while we sat getting slowly drunk...Laura more than the rest of us (sorry Laura!)  By the end of the night I was exhausted.  The taxi back to dads at 1:30am was interesting with Laura gassing like a budgie.

I woke up the yesterday with no hangover, just feeling very sore and pretty tired.  My arms are covered in bruises from all the dancing and my legs are killing me!  After a fry up, we headed back down to mums and the kids.  They had been as good as gold (apparently) and weren't even that bothered to see us. 

Later on we took them to Pirate Pete's which they absolutely loved.  Krystal is a little daredevil!  I nipped to Asda at night with mum while Tom was out in the taxi, otherwise it was a quiet one! 

Today we got up, sorted stuff out and drove home.  The journey was much nicer than the one down there!  Both kids slept which was nice, and the weather was good too!  I think it's safe to say a good weekend was had by all and it was lovely to see my family, especially some cousins, aunts & uncles I've not seen in a long time! 

All the best to Lisa & Chris for their future.

Julie.xx

                 6th April 2008                                                                    16th Aug 2008

Julie.xx

Here are some photos from my camera.  I've been asking Mummy for weeks to take the photos from it to her "pacooter" and she finally did it for me today. 

Love
Kory
xxxx

Krystal says quite a few things now, and I realised we didn't have any video of her, so here she is saying hiya and bye bye.  When you walk in a room she says "hi" or "hiya" which is cute.  She says "bye bye" so like me it's scary, more like buh-byeeee where Kory says a proper bye-bye.  Anyway here you go!

Julie.xx

P.S.  The increased amount of videos is because I can put them on easily while photos are a different ballgame!  James assures me that it's "work in progress" though!