The boy's a shoe-in!

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

AT ALL of 17 months old, Yele is officially a shoe-in. Not a shoo-in, mind you, as Obama may just be looking for a second term in office or Bolt is for Sportsman of the Year 2012 or Sizzla was for top of the heap in the recent Arthur Guinness celebratory concert. Nah, this lad is a shoe-in, in any shoes that he can lay his teeny trodders on.

And that means all shoes, from heels belonging to 'Mama' to Daddy's boots, from slippers belonging to anyone to 'outside shoes' that he steps in and says 'Aunty'. Y'see, Yele does not just step into shoes and clop around in them, he attributes them to their owner. I remember his sisters having their share of shoe-in time and I wonder what it is about footwear that gets tots going. Is it that the shoe is the full piece of adult attire to their all-seeing eyes? Or is it that they are attracted to the sound, which is so different from their often bare feet? Or (and this one seems most likely to me) is it that shoes are the item that they see adults take off most often?

It must be amazing, from a baby's perspective, to see big peeps take these things off their feet - some high, some low, some light and delicate, some clunky and heavy - and toss them aside. Especially when they either wear shoes infrequently or have a 'one or two boot', cause it does not make sense to buy them too many when they are growing at the exponential baby rate. It must be well nigh irresistible to try the adults shoes on, 'cause I know lots of kids do this.

So it's pretty humorous to see Yele handling his heels (well, at this age. Little more it would not be anything funny at all), feet well down in the flattish part at the front and all of the rise behind him. When he tries on boots his legs are swallowed to the mid-shin. With push-toe slippers, though, he learnt where the toes go early enough. Which was pretty good - and taken as a sign of being smart. Y'know how parents and those around a particular baby are - everything is taken as a sign of intelligence. The baby know their nose - what a baby bright eh? The baby knows where this bag is - what a baby bright eh? The baby can answer a telephone - what a baby bright eh? The baby identifies his diaper by the Elmo character (as Yele does) - what a baby bright eh?

It goes on and on and on and on.

Many times these days you hear Ayele coming before you see him and there is a mini guessing game about just what he is wearing before he comes into sight. The clump of boots is easy to tell, but when there is a shuffle it is guessing time.

Speaking about guessing, there is many a guessing and searching for shoes, now that Yele is in the shoe-in phase. Because when he gets his tiny foot into a pair of shoes, he does not necessarily put them (or, more often, one foot) back where he got it from. There is many a search and, what gets funny, the query "where is the shoe Yele?" That never gets the right answer.

But who a shoe belongs to does, when he is not wearing it. Many a time Yele trots around the corner, your shoe in hand, and says "shoosh, shoosh". He does the same thing with phones, too. I take it as a sign of being responsible. He is pretty happy when he gets a smile - but he is always happy when he gets a smile. What a bway love attention and praise! "Look!" is one of his favourite requests - well, a command, actually, when he is doing something. A couple days ago I heard "Daddy, look" and there he was, waiting for me to look his way before he started dancing and grinning.

Ah bway. W notes that his preferred skanking music is dancehall and she sighs and tuts away. I wonder where he got that dancehall love from? Is who used to follow Silverhawk and Stone Love and go House of Leo on Thursdays and every session at Students' Union?

I guess that would be me. Will the kid be a shoo-in for the old man? We shall see.

Dads, we wamt to hear from yu. Send your stories to lifestyle@gleanerjm.com