With Frieda

A mostly quiet day with Frieda. She's got a cold, and so has mainly wanted to relax with stories, cuddles and low-key playtimes. In this image, she's looking through a book inside the play tent in her bedroom.

I looked after her at Jack and Marianna's in the morning, as they had a routine home visit appointment with the health visitor. Sitting in on Marianna's conversation with her brought back all sorts of memories from when Jack and Ruth were tiny. I always found the health visitors to be helpful and approachable; in those days, they didn't have to 'target' (or prioritise) their visits so much, the universal provision was more generous.  Today we managed, between us,  to avoid any hesitations about the weighing and measuring requirements by asking Frieda to weigh and measure her largest teddy first. She likes to be in charge :-)

Then we came over to our house for the afternoon. Frieda was really very tired, but unwilling to accept the idea of a nap. And then we heard Richard tuning his guitar and starting to play something that I didn't recognise. Frieda and I went to sit with him, while he played something that she clearly found very soothing.  She relaxed on my knee, and fell fast asleep as he played. This was a lovely, lovely moment. After a while, I laid her down on the sofa and she slept on for an hour or so, until Marianna arrived.
Later I discovered that Richard had been using a non-standard guitar tuning, which explained the novel (to me) sound. Marianna asked if she could book him for regular 5 a.m. sleep sessions...