Hooray for Lolo Read online

  But just then, they stopped doing what they were all doing because…

  “WAA! WAA! WAA!” went baby Bongi.

  “I’ll go and see to him,” said Mama.

  “He needs his diaper changed,” said Mama, coming back with baby Bongi.

  “Poo!” said Lolo.

  “Come and help me, Lolo,” said Mama.

  “No way!” said Lolo, holding her nose.

  “Go on,” said Gogo. “One day you’ll have your own baby and then you’ll know how to change a diaper.”

  Lolo followed Mama and the smelly baby into the lounge.

  Mama laid baby Bongi down on a towel.

  Then she removed his smelly diaper and dropped it into a plastic carrier bag.

  She sent Lolo off to fill a bowl with warm water to wipe baby Bongi’s bottom clean.

  “Powder please,” said Mama. And Lolo handed her the baby powder.

  “Clean diaper please,” said Mama.

  And Lolo handed her a clean diaper.

  “There!” said Mama. “Powder bottom! Now he’s happy!”

  Mama picked up baby Bongi and looked at Lolo.

  “Would you like to hold him?” asked Mama.

  “No way,” said Lolo, “I’ve got lots to do.”

  First, Lolo did her washing. Then she hung Nichelle’s ball gown on the line.

  Next, she opened her box of beads, but before she could string one…

  “WAA! WAA! WAA!”

  Mama said, “Lolo, will you pleeease help me? Baby Bongi needs a song.”

  So Gogo switched off the TV. And Mama showed Lolo how to hold baby Bongi safely on her lap.

  “Let’s sing Lala ‘baba’ to him,” said Gogo.

  “Lala ‘baba’ lala!

  Go to sleep baby boy!”

  After a while, Mama took sleepy baby Bongi from Lolo and settled him back in his buggy.

  Gogo went on watching TV. And Lolo went to check if Nichelle’s dress was drying on the line. It was dry, so she dressed Nichelle.

  “WAA! WAA! WAA!”

  This time baby Bongi was hungry.

  So Mama fed him and sat him on the floor with some puffy pillows.

  “Lolo,” asked Mama, “will you please play with baby Bongi? I have so many things still to do.”

  Well, Lolo also had lots of things to do, but she also liked to help Mama, so…

  She clapped hands with baby Bongi.

  She made funny faces for baby Bongi.

  She sang all her school songs for baby Bongi.

  She tickled baby Bongi.

  She even let baby Bongi hold Nichelle.

  And whenever he went “WAA! WAA! WAA!” Lolo did something to make him blow bubbles and giggle.

  By the time Aunty Albertina returned, Lolo was very, very tired from playing with baby Bongi.

  “Here’s a ‘thank you’ present for being such a good babysitter,” said Aunty Albertina, as she tied one of her beautiful beaded necklaces round Lolo’s neck.

  “Thank you,” said Lolo, with a BIG yawn.

  Mama looked at Gogo and said, “Oh dear, Lolo is too tired to come shopping with us today.”

  Yebo! Lolo’s eyes had started to close.

  Gogo giggled. “Eish! It looks as though the babysitter needs a babysitter,” she joked.

  So Gogo stayed at home…

  while Lolo slept…

  and slept…

    and slept.

  Niki Daly

  has won many awards for his work.

  His groundbreaking Not So Fast Songololo, winner of a US Parent’s Choice Award, paved the way for post-apartheid South African children’s books.

  Among his many books, Once Upon a Time was an Honor Winner in the US Children’s Africana Book Awards and Jamela’s Dress was chosen by the ALA as a Notable Children’s Book and by Booklist as one of the Top 10 African American Picture Books—it also won both the Children’s Literature Choice Award and the Parents’ Choice Silver Award. Niki wrote and illustrated the picture book Surprise! Surprise! for Otter-Barry Books.

  He lives with his wife, the author and illustrator Jude Daly, in South Africa.

  Also available in the Lolo series