Ellie and Sophie

When Ellie was born our friends, Rich, Jess and Ben, sent her this really cute gift pack. It included a number of toys that their little boy loved. Along with that they had written a little bit about each item and why Ben loved it. What a great idea! (In fact, I may have to steal it for future friend’s babies.)

One of the items was Sophie the Giraffe by Vulli. Little did the gift giver know that giraffe’s are one of Nick’s favorite zoo animals, so it was an instant hit with Ellie’s Mom and Dad.

This toy is the greatest! For such a small, simple looking toy it covers all the bases with the baby’s senses:

Sight: the dark and light colors are great for a little baby to recognize from the beginning.

Taste: Sophie is flexible and has lots of parts that fit into a baby’s mouth, without causing the baby to choke. Parts like ears, legs, nose/mouth (which happens to be Ellie’s favorite part to “kiss”). Sophie is also soft enough that she doesn’t hurt the baby and rubber so it is easy for Mom and Dad to clean off.

Touch: the legs and neck are perfect for little baby fingers to grasp and are flexible to squeeze.
Smell: well, it smells like rubber. But since it is super easy to clean off (unlike other stuffed toys), it doesn’t smell like baby spit up!

Sound: Sophie squeaks, which gets the attention of small child. Unfortunately for us, it also gets the attention of a very playful brown Cooper dog. Thanks to a protective Mommy and Daddy, Cooper has only been able to play with Sophie once (he made it into the bedroom he is not supposed to be in, jumped on the bed he is not supposed to get on and grabbed the toy he is not supposed to touch). But, since Sophie is so durable and easy to clean off, even a dog’s mouth didn’t matter!

I would also like to note that Sophie made her debut on my favorite soap opera, The Young and the Restless. I was watching it on-line, spotted her and had to pause it so Ellie and Nick could see. She must be an awesome toy if she made it on TV!

The best part is that Ellie loves Sophie even more than I do! When we bring Sophie out for Ellie to play with she gets an instant grin on her face; she has also been known to take Sophie with her everywhere (to church, car rides, visits to friend's houses, she even tried to take her to day-care the other day). Want proof of just how cool Sophie is:
So there it is. A little bit about Ellie’s current favorite toy, and why I love it so much too. Thanks Rich and Jess!