RIP Sophie

I sat on the bed in the nursery with Lil' J. We were playing with some of her toys for the first time. I dug them out of her toybox. A rattle, a soft block, and Sophie the Giraffe.

I only took Sophie out periodically to show it to her but my daughter never really showed much interest. She's a fancy squeaky chew toy for babies, created in Europe, sold like crazy in the US to almost every green-fanatic mom I know. You know, the moms who shop at Whole Paycheck Foods. A line of moms in our yoga class each had one out during class. They're in high demand lately because the toy in hand-painted with "natural-food-paint" and "natural rubber."

I got my Sophie toy in exchange for writing this post and was so excited for Lil' J to play with it. I was also excited to get it for free since $25 seems like a lot for a toy.

As we played on the bed, and I squeaked it at her, and kissed Sophie to her nose. Snoop watched with excitement outside the room. He's not allowed in the nursery so he knows to stay on the other side of the threshold. But out of excitement when I was squeaking the toy he ran in and jumped on the bed. I yelled at him and my husband yelled at me saying I was teasing him. Ok, so maybe I was. Not intentionally, but I did hope that by watching, he'd see that it was her toy, not his.

That was the last time I saw that little giraffe. 

A few weeks ago Lil' J stared grabbing things--Everything--and putting it in her mouth. Last week at yoga I saw the line of giraffes and made a mental note to bring it next week. But when I went back in her nursery it wasn't there.

I looked all over. Under the bed, under the crib, in her toy box. She's gone.

I think she died, and I know who killed her.
I can't prove it. I haven't found any giraffe remnants but I wouldn't put it past him to have devoured the whole thing. I considered examining some Snoop poop but decided since it was made of "natural rubber" it probably was just reabsorbed into his body or something.

You'd think I'd let it go, but every time I'm out I see this toy everywhere. I live in the Whole Foods Mecca and it's haunting me. So I just ordered another one on eBay.

I hope she is mesmerized cause $17 is a heckovalot of money for a baby chew toy which can easily be mistaken for a Snoop toy. But this time I'm putting that thing on lock-down!