A boy and his..er..giraffe

Chase has had a giraffe "thing" for quite a while - his favorite toy off his play mat was a giraffe, and we used to make sure it came with us everywhere. Then someone gave us a second play mat giraffe and that lived on the dining table for a while. And who can forget the giraffe costume at Hallowe'en time?

But the giraffe of all giraffes came to us at Chase's birthday, courtesy of his paternal grandmother. At first, I was a bit skeptical; Chase has many stuffed toys and barely pays attention to any of them. Plus, this one was HUGE. OK , it could have been bigger - we saw one at Goodnight Room that came up to my chin. But still, I admit thinking, "What are we going to do with this??"

Then one morning - and I have no idea why - I decided to make the giraffe talk to Chase. I took hold of it under the "chin", wiggled it's head, and said, "Good morning, Chase. How are you today?" What a smile the giraffe got in response! I couldn't stop. "It's so nice to see you today," the giraffe said. "Can I give you nuzzles?" And the giraffe rubbed his face against Chase's. More smiles!

I've done this for a few weeks now, though not every day. Chase now smiles when the giraffe turns to face him, and I've seen him pet it once or twice. Today, though...well, today, he actually PLAYED with the giraffe.

He pulled it's feet. He rubbed it's tummy.

And he even lay down on it as though to go to sleep.

The trick was on me, though, when I took this position to mean he was ready for a nap. No, my guess is he just wanted to love on this special giraffe a little bit more. Sometimes giraffe "kisses" trump mama kisses, even if they both come from the same place.