Cuddly SCHMUDDLEY – NOO NOO (as it is called in our house!)

So I thought a kid relying on a cuddly was not the best idea in the world, because I didn’t want my girls to become reliant on something. It would just be another thing I would have to wean them off further down the track, so I was not about to make more work for myself! Then I read an article on the Huggies website (I think it was), where they said it is good to introduce a child to a cuddly because when mom is not around or they are dropped off at crèche and feeling a bit insecure, they can find some comfort in a cuddly. It is the one constant, if you will. Apparently studies have shown that kids with a cuddly adjust to change better than those without. Lil’sie was a very clingy baby so we found the cuddle was fantastic and helped her adjust to starting crèche. She used to carry it around all day and they could not pry it out her hands – who cares, if it makes her happy, and makes the “drop of” at crèche go without tears,  HAVE IT, is what I say! (Slightly off topic… it is the same as a Dummy. I remember my mom saying “I hope you are not going to give your babies dummies…” My answer..”It is not called a pacifier for nothing!”  If it shuts them up, they can have it. But as luck would have it, neither of my kids took to a dummy! I tried every trick in the book but they wouldn’t have a bar of it! Yip that’s about right, NO REST FOR THE WICKED!)      

Anyway… So Caitlyn and her Noo Noo are just as inseparable. It is actually quite funny to watch,  Caitlyn will be playing with something and will all of a sudden put whatever she was playing with down, pick up Noo Noo, sniff it (and get this glazed look of content on her face), then puts Noo Noo down and continue playing. This will go on all day. If for some reason she forgets where she put Noo Noo, she calls for it, “Noooo Noooo… Noooo Noooo where are youuuuu?” If only it were that simple and Noo Noo answered back… “here I am Caitlyn come and get me.” Normally she has put it in a bag, or a box, or the doll’s house, or the oven in her pretend kitchen, or the tea pot of her teas set, you know, somewhere not so obvious (Pfttt, that would be too easy!). Oh and washing Noo Noo is a No No! Caitlyn cries when I wash it because “it has no stink mommy”. You are right about that my angel IT DOES STINK!

So the other day I go to fetch Caitlyn from crèche and notice Caitlyn’s “appendage” was missing. I asked her where her Noo Noo was and she looked at me blankly! I asked the Carer, who too looked at me blankly – OK PEOPLE WHAT IS WITH THAT BLANK LOOK – NO SPEAKDA ENGRISH? READ MY LIPS “W H E R E   I S   N O O   N O O?”  I actually felt my heart climb up into my throat and felt tiny beads of sweat forming on my top lip, I kid you not, because I know how my night will pan out without Noo Noo and I was NOT prepared to go there! So like a woman possessed I start looking through the toy boxes, on top over every locker, under every locker (while this is going on, the young Carer stands there looking at me.  Let me just say BEEG MISTAKE.) I turn and say (with a quivering voice) “Don’t just stand there, LOOK for it.” Caitlyn at this point is laughing saying “mommy funny”. NOT FUNNY! Mommy just knows what is install for her if we don’t find Noo Noo. After looking for 35 minutes and every Carer in the centre now searching, I stop and demand they search every bin in the crèche. OK I didn’t quiet expect the Head Mistress to go down and climb waist deep into the wheelie bins to search for it, but hey while you are in there…!  With no luck, and in an attempt to calm me down, the young Carer came to me and said “I tell you what, Caitlyn can take Miss Honey home instead” and with that she handed me a grubby white teddy! I never said it, but it was on the tip of my tongue….OK LADY, YOU CAN TAKE YOUR GRUBBY WHITE TEDDY CALLED MISS HONEY AND SHOVE IT WHERE THERE AINT NO BEES! I gave a nervous giggle and said “That won’t do”. Don’t these people understand Caitlyn have NEVER spent a night (since she was 4 months old) without Noo Noo. I actually felt like I couldn’t breathe I was so upset!

Sadly I lost the battle and had to leave crèche without Noo. Caitlyn on the other hand was well chuffed that Miss Honey was coming to stay! YARR Right let’s see how that pans out!

As suspected it lasted till bed time when Caitlyn lost the plot. “I want my Noo Noo, I want my Noo Noo, Noo Noo where are youuuuuu”. It broke my heart listening to Caitlyn sobbing until after 11pm that night.  NO…. I never got off that lightly! She woke again at 3am and cried for Noo Noo until 5.30am when she fell asleep again.

LIVID and sleep deprived I marched into Crèche the next morning and said “CAITLYN WILL NOT BE COMING HOME WITHOUT NOO NOO TONIGHT, FIND IT!” One of the Carers plucked up the courage to ask how it went during the night. Really…. You wanna ask me that question right now? REALLY? I asked what time the Head Mistress would be in and said TELL HER TO EXPECT MY CALL!

As soon as I got to work I started ranting on Facebook about my ordeal! The people that know Noo Noo were horrified. Here are some of their comments:

“Omg!!!! Not good :((“

“I would not have left the creche. They would be on night duty with me.”

“So... not only do you have to pay out your arse in fees, but the place is also run by half-wits! I'm with you hun, I would too be peed off.”

“Litigation?”

“I would sue!”

“Oh my hearts Breaking for you all....”

“OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How thoughtless of them!”

10am I rang the Crèche and started ranting. The Head Mistress tried to interrupt me and I continued ….”and she has NEVER spent a night without Noo Noo so you can’t just palm a grubby bear on to me and say OH well take Miss….and then the Head Mistress interrupted me again (I was on a roll here!) “Mrs. Todd….we found Noo Noo”… I got full up with tears and said “You what?”. She said “We found Noo Noo, some kid in Caitlyn’s class took it home by mistake and recognized it, stopped her mom throwing it away and brought it back this morning”. I could not have been happier! That kid is marked… just for the record!  

Before I continue I am sure you are DYING to see a picture of Noo Noo and why the kids mom was about to throw it away:   

 

Once I posted pictures on Facebook people were like “err what the hell is that?” ERRR NOO NOO DURRR! It used my be my Pajama Top. When Caitlyn was 4 months old she was in hospital with a viral infection. They ran several tests over 4 days and every time they took blood, or inserted a catheter, or put a drip into Caitlyn, they would do it in the cot! OK NOT SO FREAKING CLEVER… When we got home from hospital and I tried to put Caitlyn in her cot, she screamed. (Obviously thinking something bad was going to happen. Another jab perhaps). When I took her out the cot and held her against me, she stopped screaming. Then I put her in the cot she screamed again. It was then that I looked down and it came to me. I put Caitlyn back in her cot and quickly took off my Pajama top and gave it to her. She sniffed it and rolled over and fell asleep! AND THAT… is how Noo Noo became, well, NOO NOO!   

(Lilly's Noo Noo is also called.... Noo Noo)