They call her ‘Saskia Two Teeth’…

'Saskia Two Teeth'

As promised then, I thought I’d update you on Saskia’s latest news, and share a few more photos.

So as the title of this post suggests, it turns out that while we thought she was just growing one tooth, she was secretly growing a second ‘stealth tooth’. Only a few days after the first appeared, we noticed another one in there, quietly sat alongside. Clearly now she has started, she is keen to get going.

Of course, being the proud owner of teeth also comes with immense responsibility – namely, teeth brushing. We were relieved to discover that this is an activity she actually seems to quite enjoy (I wonder if the same can be said for the cat? I am yet to take the vet’s advice and attempt to brush his teeth, mainly because I anticipate losing a significant amount of my own blood).

Saskia continues on her intrepid journey into food exploration, broadening further her culinary horizons. We are still yet to discover anything that she won’t actually eat, although we suspect that she might not be that keen on egg (Daddy says just wait until you try your first scotch egg… mmmm… scotch egg…). Spaghetti carbonara was a recent highlight, in terms of taste for her, and comedy value for us.

'The Spaghetti Incident?'

Beyond teeth, her other big news is that in the last week or so she has mastered the art of sitting upright unaided. She has always been quite physical, chucking herself around left, right and centre, which never really lent itself to sitting – but she now seems to have got the hang of it. We think maybe being in disposable nappies for a few days might have made a difference, giving her a more stable ‘platform’ (or to put it another way, ‘arse’) – as opposed to the round and bulky reusables she normally wears.

This new found skill has opened up exciting new interactions with us, her toys and her surroundings – which has been fascinating to watch.

Sitting pretty

She is still agonisingly close to crawling, but not quite there yet. She continues to get on her hands and knees, or hands and feet, and rocks back and forth – clearly raring to go. We don’t think it will be long before she makes that final connection, and we have to make an emergency dash to Mothercare to buy stair gates.

Despite not quite crawling she is still fairly mobile – place her in the middle of the room, on her playmat with lots of toys, walk away for two minutes, and when you come back there is a strong chance you will find her on the doormat in the corner of the room chewing a shoe.

"Hi, Oncology? I need to talk about my Daddy..."

She has also been making good progress at her weekly swimming class. She will now hold on to the ‘noodles’ (long cylindrical floats), with one under each arm, and float all by herself, without being held by an adult. Most weeks I go along to swimming and watch, although I missed it this time – hopefully next week I will go.

Right, that’s about it for now, other than to reiterate what I said in my first ‘Saskia’ post – which is that while I dearly wish the circumstances were different, I am thoroughly enjoying having the opportunity to spend so much time with her and Sally as a family. Seeing her grow and develop is such an amazing experience, and she contributes no end to keeping me positive and in good spirits each day.

One more photo for you (followed by a postscript)…

Saskia with Daddy

P.S. A few posts ago I mentioned Sally’s phone was broken – she now has a replacement (similar to Saskia’s model in the picture above actually – it has wheels and Sally pulls it around by a piece of red string). So she is now fully contactable again via her usual mobile number.