Baby Drago’s diary: ‘Beba mbao’ and other fun toys and cars

When I was a tiny baby, I could only cry ‘ngwee, ngweeee’ in my pram.

And wait for my mom to come and take me in her hands, and say ‘shhh, baby.’

Then I learnt to crawl. Then I learnt to walk. Then I learnt to run.

The fun thing about being a toddler of two years and eight months is that you do not have to just lean only on your limbs.

There are toys of things that grown-ups use to move themselves, everywhere in the world.

Baby Drago has a wooden jeep that he (me!) races all over the carpet.

I say ‘vroom vroom’ as my hand it holds jeep and moves it over the sand (carpet).

I also have a caterpillar.

Caterpillar is a plastic big earth mover truck, which even has a crane.

One day I bring stones and soil from outside in my pockets, and I pour them on the carpet.

I use my earth mover caterpillar toy to spread the stones and the dirt around the house.

But instead of Milan, my 8-year-old sister, seeing me as a future road contractor, she cry in horror for my ‘aunty’. "Alicia, kuja uonee ni kazi gani huyu mtoto Drago anafanya!"

As if even her she is not a baby like me!

In November, I had a toy chopper, but I pulled off the round wings on top.

Sadly, it stopped to fly, and Baby Drago cried.

But better than toys are the things I can ride on.

Like the tricycle my mom bought me when I turned two in April.

Or the toy car my daddy brought me back in August, after he come back from a country he call, ‘Pai Pai.’

When I ride on the car, I pretend that I am Uber driver carrying my momma (she likes to Uber).

I reach the ‘bed roon’ and tell her: ‘Mummy, lipa pesa ya Uber’ and she gives me an ashu (10 bob).

When I ride my bike, I pretend I am Simiyu or Wafula, the guys for the boda boda who call my dad ‘buda’, and who he likes to go with.

But best is the matatu that we sometimes use to go shoppie with my auntie Alicia.

When I come home, I go to my swinger and shout: ‘Beba mbao, BEBA mbao. Tao ni finje tu, mzito!’