Just as we planned, the kid adopted one of my mother's flannel blankets with a hand-crocheted edge for her snuggly comforting thing. I say planned, because we kind of pushed it, because they were always right at hand, and we had an inexhaustible supply of them, so we would never face the nightmare of a lost blankie. [That was the theory, anyway; the reality was, the kid kind of latched on to one particular blue blanket--and matching burp cloth, for the road--and has stuck with it for four years.]
We'd hoped to set K2 on the same path; she got her own stack of blankets, and rubbing a little cloth on her cheek does help her calm down sometimes. But even more than that, she's gravitated towards a random plush giraffe we bought in a random toy store in BF Japan back in 2004. She snuggles herself to sleep with that thing like nobody's business. So now we have to get spares.
The giraffe is by Early Learning Centre, a British toy store chain. It appears from this 2004 website celebrating ELC's 30th anniversary that the giraffe's name is Custard--and that it might have been just a limited-time product.
ELC's main site doesn't show the thing, and remarkably, there is no way to contact them via email. For anything. All their "Contact" links go to a series of pre-packaged FAQ's. So if anyone has any leads on this thing, or what it's name or SKU is, so I can search for it, I'd be much obliged.
The photo above comes from eBay Ireland, where a slightly used giraffe was sold for about $3.50. The price is right, but I'd rather pay retail and get the Other Kid's Slobber-free version.
A company without a contact e-mail in their website? Hmmm that's strange. They only have provided a phone number in case you want to contact them.
But I'd like to have that giraffe too for my son---then again, I'll probably the one who'll end up snuggling it. lol!
you could go old-school and try calling them:
08705 352 352
Sorry, I've no leads, but loads of sympathy. A couple of months ago, my son latched onto a toy which we'd bought in London, at the Oxford Street Disney store. It has to go *everywhere* with him, so I live in perpetual fear that "Schmusebaer" will disappear. I have searched online (disney store, ebay, whatever), and found *nothing* like it. I've been to several Disney stores here, and none of the staff have every seen anything even remotely like it, nevermind this exact toy.
Is there a rule that babies must choose the single-most irreplaceable toy to become their best friend??
I agree with Melanie that there seems to be some rule about kids latching onto the least-easy-to-replace object. Our daughter became especially attached to a Walgreens yellow bear bought at Easter-time several years ago. We ended up finding a replacement on ebay and bought it immediately just in case. Now we've got a spare in the closet. We even periodically swap them out while laundering them.
Oh, I thought that I was being SO smart about this sort of thing. I went to Ikea and bought the Blund bear -- $1.99 and safe from O+. I bought 4 right away: gave two away since they always have them in the store. So we have one and a spare (and then they changed the color, so no chance of getting more). And he figures out that one looks different from the other -- it's got an extra stitch in the muzzle which makes it look "smiley-er." Aarg. Now they look completely different because one has been loved much more than the other. Oh well, at least he's 4.5 and on to other things (mostly).