A Visitor

For the last week or so, Makena has had a giraffe in her room.

The first night, it was dark. I think she had called me back to her room after we had already put her to bed. When I asked her what was wrong, she said, "There's a giraffe in my room." "A giraffe?" "Yeah, he's right there," she said pointing across the room. She wasn't alarmed, just matter-of-fact. So, I wasn't sure if it was a good giraffe or a bad giraffe; I certainly didn't want to assume. "What's he doing?" I asked. "He's standing there." "Ahhh, he's looking after you, is he?" "No, he wants to eat my tooties." "Noooo, don't be silly. He wants to kiss your tooties, like this," I kiss her neck as a giraffe would, I'm sure. She's not exactly buying it. She tells me that he needs to go home, back to the zoo. "Oh okay, you know, I think he just left." "No, he's still standing there." I believe Mark entered at this point. (The story is a bit hazy as it was only days, maybe just hours after we returned from Australia). I think I went back to our room so Mark could have a go. Not too much later, they both arrived and hopped into bed. We avoided the subject for a bit. Then Makena asserted again that the giraffe needed to go back to the zoo. We all agreed. Then, with alarm, Makena exclaims, "Oh no, he's going to take mommy's car and go back to the zoo!!" I believe Mark convinced her at this point that the giraffe would take a bus or call a cab or something and Makena did go back to her room.

She's mentioned the giraffe nearly every night since. We get past it pretty easily. Tonight we were in our room winding down as we usually do before bedtime. She stated again that the giraffe is in her room. We did some small talk around it. Then Mark asked, "What's the giraffe's name?" We both would have bet on "Puppy Giraffe", but to our surprise, its name is Ephaphant (Elephant) Giraffe.

No wonder he doesn't want to go back to the zoo!!!