Creepy crawly

September and October have rolled on by, as what there was of summer drizzled its way into autumn. Saskia has also moved on during this time - literally, as she has finally worked out how to crawl around the house, leaving her parents desperately playing catch-up to stop her climbing into the washing machine or anywhere else equally unsuitable. She has also at long last got some teeth!

At nursery, Sas has started spending three mornings a week with her new pals in the Baby Suite. This means that Tim can take her into Circus on the way to work - a very convenient way to get into the educational mindset before arriving at the office! She seems to have taken to the extra time there very well, in fact seems much happier there now she actually has a chance of recognising the place from one visit to the next. She's getting all sorts of opportunities to show off her creativity and has brought home several works of art already - quite abstract in style it has to be said, but there's no denying the quality.

Sas has still been going swimming weekly, albeit in a different pool while the normal location has been out of action following the flood. As this new pool isn't warm enough, the babies have had to wear mini-wetsuits. Very fetching too, even if they make them so buoyant that swimming underwater is even more of a challenge than usual.

She was able to show her swimming off again when we went for a luxurious short break for Wendy's birthday to Calcot Manor in Tetbury - not far away but still far enough for us to get hideously lost on the way there and almost run out of petrol! After this seamless start, the hotel soon lived up to its reputation as blissfully baby-friendly, with a fully-trained crèche staff and a baby-listening service to allow you to have your dinner in peace. We made the most of both with a slap-up birthday meal followed by a relaxing morning in the spa while Sas made some new acquaintances in the crèche.

At the end of September Saskia had her nine-month check which confirmed that everything was in fine working order - she is bang on average weight, although in the top 25% for height: not sure where she gets this from... To celebrate we went to have a lovely lunch near Oxford with Weiss grandparents, Naomi and her new boyfriend Sam.

In amidst all this, Sas has steadily been perfecting her crawling technique. She started off with what we affectionately call the "wounded soldier" move, where she drags herself across the floor at quite a pace but without moving her legs much. This has now developed into a fully-fledged crawl on all fours, so the time has come to bolt everything down and baby-proof Laventie!

October saw us catching up with several friends with new (or relatively new) babies. We went down to Surrey to stay with the Taylors first, to meet little Isaac and see how Annabel and Alastair are finding parenthood. Sas showed them what to expect nine months down the line by crawling merrily around their living room and delighting in opening and shutting the doors.

Then just a week later Sophie, Dan and Phoebe came to see us in Cheltenham - so we took the opportunity to have several pub lunches nearby, with both babies winning over nearby diners with their best butter-wouldn't-melt expressions. Dan and I also babysat the two while Soph and Wendy went shopping - OK, OK, so there was the football and rugby on in the background, but this was of course just happy coincidence...

Last but not least surrogate Aunties Caroline and Ems Vaudrey popped in for a cup of tea en route to see their own Auntie. Sas was a bit shy after just waking up but soon obligingly sat on laps and posed for photos - she's getting quite used to this now!

And finally, the last guest appearance these two months has been from Saskia's first two teeth. She's been showing all the right kind of symptoms to suggest these were on their way for ages, so we were relieved to see the evidence at last. We've immediately (of course) started brushing her teeth now that they're there, which Sas finds pretty amusing and quite tasty too - not sure whether she's got the point here just yet... So she's now got a cheerful big grin with her lone two teeth: surely the perfect look for Halloween!