The month started with a welcome few days away down in Devon with our friends the Steeles, including Sassy's fellow 11-month-old Elsie. We stayed at a lovely cottage on a farm, out in the middle of nowhere, about an hour's drive from Exmoor. Sassy spent the first evening unpacking her bags, before we settled into a slightly ad-hoc few days of trying to fit in an hour or two out and about in between random naps and mealtimes, and before it got dark...
We did manage a few walks though, and Sassy was notably better behaved in her rucksack than when we were in the Dolomites in the summer. She even posed for a photo with Elsie.
We followed this with two successive weekends visiting our families. Firstly we were off again to Cambridge for Naomi's birthday. After the usual feast on Saturday night, we went to walk it off on Sunday morning at Wimpole Hall.
The next weekend we went across to Kent to stay with the Butchers for the night. The weather wasn't great so instead of doing something outdoors we risked our sanity at the nearby Fun Drum, where a friend of James was having his birthday party. While the older kids rampaged around the main play area, Saskia and Ryan took shelter in the toddlers' section. Despite being barged off a few toys by older children (welcome to the real world) Sas still seemed to have a grand time.
Back in Cheltenham, Saskia started to spend longer days at nursery with a full 9-5 stint on Wednesdays, allowing her mum to prepare for her upcoming translation exam - and to clear up after Sas! As you can see in the picture at the Fun Drum, she has also steadily been pulling herself up to standing, although still for now clinging on to the sofa/bed/Daddy's legs for dear life.
Towards the end of November, Tim took a week off work and had the opportunity to go and watch Wendy and (in particular) Sas swimming at her lesson on Tuesday afternoon. After months of hearing "round in a circle and UP in the air" whenever we ventured near water, it was edifying to see the rhyme in context as Saskia and her fellow water babies enjoyed their various ducking and diving maneouvres. Needless to say, Sas was so distracted playing up to Daddy and his camera that she seemed to forget most of her carefully-crafted moves - but we'll give her the benefit of the doubt.
From there on it was a steady countdown to Christmas, starting with the Nelson Thornes kiddy Xmas party early in December. Sas enjoyed crawling through ball pools and watching puppet shows - and stared at Father Chris(Powley)mas suspiciously, even when he gave her a present.
There was still time to have some more friends to stay before Xmas itself, and Pete, Clare, Sarah and Simone (and their son Leo) obliged by coming for a festive reunion with obligatory big Sunday slap-up lunch at the Horse & Groom in Upper Oddington.
Sas meanwhile gained an early Christmas present in her own beanbag armchair which matches her bedrom curtains (fittingly given they're in different rooms). She's been showing more and more interest in bedtime stories - so now has the ideal place to catch up on her reading!
And so Christmas itself came, which saw us in Cambridge on the 24th and 25th this year, so Sas could get her first taste of the Weiss Xmas Tree decoration ritual, before the traditional bingeing on food, not to mention masses of presents. She got lots of lovely gifts to play with - although by mid-afternoon she'd had enough of the whole thing and conked out on her Mum's lap.
The next day we decamped to Hitchin to join forces with Butchers, Larsens and Drivers-to-be for another blow-out meal. Saskia got into the spirit with paper hat and all at lunchtime, before tearing through her second wave of Xmas presents, and running amok round West Hill with her two cousins.
A few days later came Sas' birthday and the end of a very exciting first year! We were still at the Larsens, and our daughter was able to enjoy her third round of presents within a week. Pride of place went to a brilliant walker-come-car from Granny and Grandpa which Sassy has since been enthusiastically pushing round the house, wobbling along behind it as she gets used to the idea of life on two feet.
We finally made it back in one piece (and substantially overfed) to Cheltenham. The last knees-up of the season came on New Year's Eve, when Edmund, Em and Hannah came to see in 2008 with us. We made it out on New Year's Day to the Races at long last, where Tim lost all his bets, Wendy won most of hers, and Sassy spent all day studying the form guide.
Here's hoping we all have a lucky 2008!
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