The Story of Zoe

Do you know who Zoe is? Do you know who Elmo is? When was the last time you watched Sesame Street??? Zoe is the female equivalent to Elmo - the little red dude on Sesame Street. (As background - my youngest ("Y") sucked her thumb almost from the get go. Usually the left one. She also had a huge silk fetish. I would leave my closet door open only to find Y sitting in it, thumb in mouth, one of my silk shirts in hand rubbing it between the thumb & fingers of her other hand. I couldn't even walk through a lingere department without finding her hiding in the racks fondling the silk pj's!!!)

When Y was 11 months old it was Christmas time. In her stocking was a soft, orange Zoe doll with little silk ribbons in her hair. This doll quickly became the sleeping toy of choice. It was everything she needed: a stuffy, cute and had silk. To suplement the silk she had also taken to carrying around one of hubby's silk "poofs" you remember the things a guy stuck in suit pocket. Hubby had a turqoise one, purple and red I think (swears he never actually bought them). These all found their way to Y's room. Soon Zoe and silk were inspearable. At daycare one of the older kids tied the "silk" around Zoe's neck and "Super Zoe" was born. Great thing, silks no longer went missing... All the kids at daycare knew just how special Zoe was to Y. If Zoe went missing, the entire place went into lockdown till Zoe was found.

By the time Y had reached her 2nd birthday Zoe was starting to look pretty worn. A replacement was found, but it was a little bigger, had stiffer legs and just wasn't the same. Hubby put Y down for her nap on the day of her 2 year old birthday party. Gave her "new" Zoe and told her old Zoe would just sit on the shelf now, kissed her and closed the door. All was quiet for a few moments and then suddenly the pitter patter of little feet - Y's door flew open and new Zoe landed in the hallway. Door closed again and pitter patter went the feet back to bed. Needless to say new Zoe went on the shelf and old Zoe hung around for another 11 months.

Just by shear luck I happened upon another Zoe exactly the same as the original in the mall one day. I managed to sneak it past the watching eyes of the kids, with the clerk as an accomplice. On Christmas Y was very excited and said old Zoe could go on the shelf with what was now known as "big" Zoe.

All this time Y was still sucking her thumb. As she appraoched her 3rd birthday hubby would talk to her about "no more thumb" once she was 3. They talked about it almost every night for about 2 months. Her 3rd birthday came and went, every night she would go downstairs to say good night to daddy and ask if she could still suck her thumb. Every night he said yes. One day, he said no. Resolutley she came to me and told me - no thumb tonight. So I tucked her and Zoe in. Looked into those big doe eyes and wished her luck. I wasn't sure what she would do. But - when I went to check on her about an hour later I found she had worked it out for herself. Picture this: Y on the bed, Zoe - discarded on the floor. Y is on her stomach facing toward the right, left hand with offending thumb is pushed to the left no where near her mouth. She went cold turkey - no more thumb sucking... what a kid. All three Zoe's stayed on the shelf for a long time, till the association between thumb sucking, silk rubbing and Zoe hugging were just a distant memory.

Y is now 11, still sleeps with a stuffy, though she picks her own now, the old ones graduate to the shelf.