With Simone, Frieda and Jack

I knew this would be another full day, but fortunately everything went to plan. I picked Simone up at 8 a.m., leaving a rather bleary-eyed Jack to take Frieda to school on his way to work. S had been restless in the night, and had a couple of catch-up naps during the day (Jack, of course, not having that luxury).
S and I had a companionable day. Talking is what she wants to do most of all, so that's what we did: meandering around the house, playing with various toys, and keeping up a stream of chat all the while. Today's top word was 'book', largely with a silent k in Simone's rendering. However, she made her meaning absolutely unambiguous, selecting various 'boos' for some story-reading interludes.
Later we went to pick up Frieda from after-school club. S got a bit fed up with being confined in the car seat in all the slow traffic, so I resorted to singing various nursery rhymes to distract her; luckily she's not old enough yet to detect how out-of-tune my singing is :-)
Then it was wind-down time at Jack's, with pizzas to share and some quiet playtime for Frieda while Jack put Simone to bed.
Richard got home from N Ireland at the end of the evening, after a particularly tiring drive from Birkenhead. The Snake Pass between here and Manchester is closed for repairs, which meant a series of time-consuming diversions in the dark.