Sitting pretty

August has been another busy month in Saskia's life, which has seen sitting as the most notable running theme. That's sitting as in Sas beginning to sit up, but also sitting in her baby rucksack, sitting in her new high chair, and not to mention being babysat again by Pat!

It all started with an exciting week on holiday in the Dolomites in North Italy with the Weiss side of the family. Sas is of course a travel veteran after her trip to Corsica, so the whole flight experience was fairly straightforward. This time round she was transfixed by the safety demonstration and info card - a model passenger! Having brought our own car seat this time (rather than risk ending up with another one looking like it was from 1970s East Germany) the drive from Milan to Völs am Schlern was hot but comfy for Sas.

Once there we soon settled into our rented villa and got into a healthy daily routine of walks in and around Völs and the nearby Völser Weiher lake, balanced out by a decidedly unhealthy intake of Eiskaffees and apple strudel.

Highlights included:

• Sas showing off her swimming skills to an admiring public in the lake
  
• getting lost on the way to see frescos in a pretty old church
  
• walking across the rather windy Seiseralm meadow with a grumpy Sas in tow wearing her mum's top as improvised trousers to keep warm


• taking a cable car up to the spectacular Geislergruppe peaks, and then getting attacked by a herd of cows as we ate our lunch.

Most of this saw Sas perched in her newly-acquired baby rucksack - which was basically successful until whenever she started dropping off, when she'd usually wake herself up with a start as she bumped against Daddy's shoulder.

After a sunny week it was all over too soon and we were back in the disaster-zone of Gloucestershire to sympathise (probably rather unconvincingly) as we heard of the plight of all our friends who hadn't been able to wash or drink for two weeks without having to go up the hill to fetch a pail of water first. Auntie Di and Uncle Matt came to visit for long weekend to help us collect water from bowsers, and in return we took them to Stratford to see Henry IV (pt 2) while Pat came round in Mary Poppins mode to babysit.

Saskia saw quite a lot more of her friends and family through the rest of the month. Alise, Matt, Amelie and Isaac dropped by for a picnic from their nearby holiday home in the Malverns. Two of Sas' contemporaries had parties of one sort or another - we went for a day trip to Jack Worrell's christening in Watford, and at the end of the month joined in little Joe Crawley's naming ceremony in Hitchin. Sas saw her grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins over the bank holiday weekend, squeezing in time in both Herts and Cambs. We also went for lunch in Cambridge with Sophie and Dan, and met baby Phoebe for the first time. Sas always gets very over-excited when she sees other babies now, and enjoyed meeting and man-handling Phoebe too.

Finally, August saw the delivery of a spanking new high chair with a grinning yellow teddy bear face on the seat. Sas sits happily in the chair, looking fascinatedly at her shadow on the floor and occasionally even eating what she's offered - now an increasingly diverse menu ranging from puréed veg to lumpy beef stew!