SHE stands in the bedroom doorway, her tiny hands balled into little fists at her sides.
“Daddy, baby shark! Daddy, baby shark!”
“Daddy will put on baby shark tomorrow,” he says.
It’s a quick retort.
“Okaaaaaay,” she says.
The clock creeps another few seconds closer to midnight.
“Daddy, Barney! Daddy, Barney!” she says.
And then: “Dinosaur, dinosaur.”
Impeccably pronounced…
“I love you, you love me, we a happy family…” they sing together, and then he brings her back down to earth with a thud.
“Daddy will put on Barney tomorrow, when you wake up.”
“Okaaaaaay,” she says.
He thinks about the star-shaped white chocolate he placed into her hand earlier that evening.
His heart swelling with pride when she said: “Thank you.”
And then: “Daddy, star! Daddy, star!”
He wonders how he got so lucky…
And then he’s jabbed back into the present.
She moves closer to where he stands, looking in a bedroom mirror – the crayon stains creeping ever higher as she sprouts towards her third birthday.
He scoops her up.
“My baby is the best, the best there ever was …” he sings, changing the lyrics from one of her favourite songs about daddy being the best.
She holds him tighter. And in that moment the need for words fade.
Baby shark can wait.
She falls asleep in daddy’s arms, sparking a thousands dreams in his heart of what she will be.
*’In My Shoes’ is a regular feature in The Namibian, giving readers a peak into the everyday lives of the ordinary people around them.
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