Caleb slept with the animal as an infant and immediately started to only sleep in his crib when the fuzzy animal was with him. For some strange reason, Monica and I thought it was a cow. Looking back we feel like idiots for thinking this since he is yellow (like a giraffe) ,has small pointy ears (like a giraffe), and he probably came with a tag that said he was a giraffe (like a giraffe). Thinking he was a cow though, we started to call him a sound that our little son could say at a young age, "moo-moo". It was cute a first, but now Moo-Moo has turned into an obsession with young Caleb. At 6 years old, I can't think of one day that Caleb hasn't slept with Moo-Moo. He's taken Moo-Moo on road trips, to strangers' homes for comfort, to grandmas' houses, etc. Everywhere Caleb sleeps, Moo-Moo goes.
As Caleb got older, we, as parents, have had less ammunition to threaten Caleb during times of discipline. Put him in time out, he doesn't care. Spank his little butt, no big deal. Ground him from the TV or computer, he goes outside. And I knew we were messing with holy ground one day last week, when I threatened a sassy Caleb that I'd take away Moo-Moo for the night. He kept on misbehaving though and you can guess where this story is going. I reluctantly told Caleb that Moo-Moo wasn't going sleep with him that night. I'm pretty sure Caleb's eruption rivaled Mt. St. Helen's. The first thing Caleb did was beg for forgiveness, literally. Then he ran to his room and hid Moo-Moo so we couldn't get him. And when bed-time came, all hell broke loose. The screaming, crying, and sobbing lasted for hours. Caleb wouldn't stay in his bed, he kept coming down to the living room begging to see Moo-Moo again.
I played along for awhile. I even took Caleb and we tucked Moo-Moo into my bed. Then Caleb came downstairs again and he wanted just to look at pictures on the computer of Moo-Moo. He came down again asking what time he could wake up to get Moo-Moo back. He even came down asking me if it was morning yet! I finally told him to sleep on the couch by me so we both could have some peace. He feel asleep within a few minutes which allowed me to finally finish my episode of 'Man Vs. Wild'.
When Mon and I went to bed, we found out that Caleb had snuck in our room and made sure Moo Moo was comfortable. He had placed Moo-Moo on the chair, with Caleb's blanket keeping him warm, and a book propped up for Moo-Moo to read. How cute is that! The kid really cares about his buddy Moo-Moo, that's for sure.
