Bridget seems to be putting all her developmental energy into her hands and arms, and almost none into anything that might lead to crawling. So, on the one hand she sits with perfect stability, and rolls as well as ever, and can now deliberately rotate on the spot, but there's no sign of her pushing her bottom up with her knees or anything. In other words: very little change in leg-use and mobility in the last few weeks.

But her hands! She can pick up bits of rice-cake smaller than a pea between thumb and forefinger, pretty consistently, and transfer them to her mouth. She can pick up slippy mango chunks. She grabs and opens the flaps in her baby pop-up book. She can pick up books and other large objects and rotate them. She reaches out instantly, directly, and without fumbling for the furry or fuzzy or scritchy patches in her 'That's not my lion' book.* She picks things up at furthest stretch, and (with a bit of trial and error) can often jiggle towards herself things which are at far fingertip distance. She can consistently pick up, hold, tip (and drink from) her cup - unless rotational symmetry gets the better of her, in which case she can suck good and hard at a well-tipped, perfectly positioned, but deeply unyielding cup-edge.

It seems like most of this is new over the last two to three weeks - a sudden explosion of dexterity.

*One of a fantastic series of books. We have 'That's not my lion', '...my train' and '...my dinosaur'. Each page has a picture of a lion (train, dinosaur) being rejected by a tiny mouse, because something's not quite right. ('Its paws are too rough': picture of lion with velcro sections set into the paws. 'Its tail is too fluffy': picture of lion with lovely fur patch stuck onto tail. You get the idea.) Then, of course, one lion (train, dinosaur) which is just right ('Its mane is so shaggy'). We'd had the lion and train ones a while, and Bridget had learnt to reach for the special patch on each page - and then we got the dinosaur one, and Bridget amazed both of us by reaching direct and unfumbling for the special patch on each page on only the second read-through. Sorry this sounds so much like baby-boasting (though in my defence I have absolutely no idea whether other babies her age can do the same). I'm just bowled over by how quickly she learns!

Looking into Bridget's mouth on Wednesday (her eighth-months-old day), I noticed that she had managed to bite her tongue. This seemed surprising given the well-known lack of sharp edges in gums. A closer look over the last couple of days has revealed the presence of a thin line of tooth on her lower gum! Our daughter has finally cut her first tooth and, in the end, with very little fuss. (Of course, it's difficult to tell what crabbiness is down to teething and what to chicken pox.) It remains to be seen whether she'll be keen on biting Mummy while feeding. In the meantime, Mike owes me a box of Thorntons.

So far, chickenpox has not been too bad. Bridget has about 20 spots, mostly on her back and on the back of her head; they started as red welts, then developed small central blisters ('dew drops on rose petals' being the lyrical official description), which 'crusted over' within a day of appearing (a slightly less lyrical description). The red welts have vanished, and we are left with the subsiding and shrinking - but eminently scratchable - crusts. One or two new spots have appeared whilst the others have been shrinking, and we could (apparently) be in for a complete second cycle, but so far the signs are good. Bridget has been, perhaps, a tiny bit (a smidgen or ha'p'orth, to get technical) less cheerful than normal, and has made some attempts to scratch the back of her head. (She hasn't tried to scratch her back; we suspect she simply doesn't realise that's possible, or have any idea how to go about such a thing.) The hardest thing has been quarantine: staying away from playgroup and swimming. But it looks like the disease itself will be over soon, and we'll be on course for lifting quarantine in a fortnight.

Yesterday evening, when we were putting Bridget to bed, we noticed a few red blotches on her back. We thought that they might just be a heat rash, and decided to check again in the morning. By breakfast time they had spread over most of her upper back, so we whisked her off to the doctor, to be told that she has chicken pox. Bridget seems remarkably cheerful and is playing pretty much as normal, although isn't eating very well. We're hoping that she'll come through with a mild case over the next few days, but it's going to mean no playgroup and no swimming for three weeks. Sounds like a lot of entertaining for Mummy to do. At least the weather's nice!

Updates to come if there's anything really exciting to say.