Zaky
Firstly – I should mention that this is not a photo of Lily.
It’s a photo of a baby modeling the Zaky Infant Pillow — “The Zaky is an ergonomic infant pillow designed by a mom to mimic the size, weight, touch, and feel of her hand and forearm to help her baby with comfort, support, protection, and development. The Zaky can help calm your baby and help your baby sleep better through the night.”
I put it here because, while part of me thinks these weird cushion hands designed to comfort babies look extremely creepy, there is another (sleep deprived) part of me screaming “Oh what a brilliant idea! Where can I get a pair?” When Amelia was just a little bit older than the age Lily is now we were considering the idea of robots and monkeys helping us out in the middle of the night to sooth a seemingly unsoothable baby. A pair of strange muppet like hands seems quite reasonable in comparison.
But you know, if we did go ahead and invest in a Zaky hand, it would be almost guaranteed that Lily would form a long lasting, loving, security-blanket-style relationship with it.
Could I stand walking into the lounge room to see her curled up on the beanbag watching Sesame Street cuddling her big limp arm?
I can imagine the horror (the horror!) on the faces of the other children on her first day of kinder when she drags her weird, old, stained soft arm into class.
And then even worse is thinking ahead in years to her first school camp when she will want to take her Zaky hand hidden away in her suitcase and I can see it tumbling out at the most inopportune time leading to years of counselling.
It’s all too much! No Zaky Hands for us.
I remember those days of no sleep all too well. I had the unsleepingest baby in all the land…here’s to hoping Lily lets you sleep soon!
You made me laugh so hard with you Zaky story and illo. Too funny!
Me being me, I’d probably get one just because of the potential for such future entertainment.
I’m strange like that…:D
As a new mom myself (Charlotte is 7 weeks today), I too had the reaction: brilliant! But your predictions of future problems with scary security arm will probably keep my from Zaky, too. Thanks!
What will they think of next?
Gotta be cheaper than a Night Nanny though, right? (http://www.nightnannies.com.au/Parents/Services.aspx)
The Zakys worked for our baby that was born 3 months early at 13 ounces. They are designed to help little babies primarily. Yes, they are creepy but they work wonders! Just ask all of our nurses in the NICU where are baby was for 5.5 months.
First of all: Best wishes and congratulation! I follow your blog since a few months and admire your illustration style!We are 4 Women here in the office (we are located in Cologne, Germany) and had to laugh a lot this morning about this weird hand-pillow. Thanks for sharing and your great illo!
too, too funny! And of course everything you say would certainly happen! Great drawings!
Oh that is funny! The way you have described the ‘future’ with the Zaky hand is hilarious!!
It’s scary how sleep deprivation can make these ideas sound perfectly normal as you search for the magical solution!! Lucky you thought this one through and had a glimpse of what the future may have held with a ‘Zaky’.
Hee hee! That’s hilarious. What a strange photo at first glance, with the weird hands leading to nowhere. I love your illustration though; very unexpected and funny. Thanks!
ahahaha! too funny and oh so true! like you said it’s really a weird and cool product at the same time.
That was hysterical!
You’re just a little tired. 😉 That Zaky is wacky. (Yeah, okay, I’m tired too.)
That is TOTALLY creepy!
lol! that just made my friday morning!
This post gave me a good laugh! During all those sleepless nights I also thought it would be wonderful to have some sort of contraption to hold and snuggle the baby. But somehow those hands freak me out! Your illustration is HILARIOUS!
My husband and I both roared with laughter when we read this and saw your illustration– too hilarious!
I have a 10-month-old, so I remember those days of sleep deprivation all too well. Okay, who am I kidding? She still wakes me up *at least* once a night. And after about a week of very little shut-eye, you do get desperate enough to consider prosthetic hands (or an IV drip of coffee); so I can definitely sympathize.
Enjoy your two girls, and have a wonderful weekend!
Rebecca
ROFL!
Good luck on the sleep deprivation – oh, how i knew it well. hopefully it will pass before you know it.
Too funny! I love it. I think your idea to pass on the Zaky hands is a good one. have you ever heard of the Amby Baby bed?
Oh my! That IS creepy, isn’t it! There are so much more going on with a mother’s touch that just the feel of her hands. I wonder how well it actually works 🙂
OMLAWD! that is too funny… I can understand the temptation but the ‘stinky bunny blanky’ we have to carry around with us to day care and the likes is bad enough.. agreed on the No Zaky hands 😀
Perhaps it speaks to Jim Henson’s influence on my mentality… but when I saw those hands, I imagined a giant Muppet picking up that baby and eating it.
It’s all very disturbing.
Hee, Claire you made me laugh! Imagining the future with Lily and her old, stained, limp hand! Eerie yes, but a good laugh!
That is hilarious. I think you’re right. Giant stuffed hands are just a world of trouble.
Firstly, a big congratulations to the birth of your beautiful baby girl!Secondly, I love your drawing and post they really tickled my funny bone. Here is to sleep deprivation and a sense of humor.
too funny… maybe there’s an opportunity here – patchwork hands? needle felted hands? knitted hands? all in fun, cute colors and patterns?
I think that baby in the picture is faking it! LOLIt seems like a good idea, but babies are creatures of habit and they get attached to things too quickly. Try reasoning with a 12-month-old thats not ready to give up breastfeeding… Do they have a boob pillow as well?
awww…now i wish i had a Zaky hand to grow up with!
there’s got to be a way to make those that isn’t so creepy looking:) hilarious!
I can’t stop laughing, that is hysterical. I have to call my husband in to read this. Good luck with the peanut!
Thanks for the belly laugh! Those hands are too funny… and a tad bit too bizarre.
That is so funny! They would be so disgusting when they got dirty…yuck.
Oh well, back to the monkeys then*L*
What a great idea, and if you made them out of pretty flannel fabric or crazy stripy fabric who’d know. I know that is a wild idea ‚Ķ but hey if it works I am all for a good nights sleep.
My youngest son was diagnosed with Autism at age three. He was hard to settle in the car and found it hard to just sit still. We were given a “freddy” for him to use to settle down. It was simply made from a big footy sock, in his favourite Bulldogs colours of course, and filled with rice and lentils. It was pretty heavy and he would sit it on his lap or around is shoulders and it would instantly calm him. I believe it’s to do with the weight of if. Anyway as odd as it looked …. it worked.
Creepy looking Zak may turn out to be the prince you have been looking for to save you from those sleepless nights.
I just had to laugh out loud at this! So funny and so true to life. Kids always fall in love with the things parents wish they wouldn’t; slinky nightgowns and Barney come to mind. Two of my kids each have a Snoedel. They worked well when we needed them, and they’re cute and more socially acceptable than taking mommy’s silk camisole to church or the grocery, never mind a disembodied arm and hand! LOL! Still laughing at the picture you painted with words, and the actual illustration. Thank you.
Too funny! At least sleep hasn’t deprved you of your sense of humour. Glad to see you back posting.
Thanks for the belly laugh – a rare treat!
how funny! I see all your points–just what we they think of next to market to us unsuspecting despairate mamas?Your drawing is splendid!
I thought the hand looked a little unusual, but hey if it works ;)Good to see a new picture!
That is the best laught I have had in along time. I love the drawing of kid Lily with the creepy muppet arm.
Take care and try to get some rest!
Robots don’t sound too far fetched to me. I mean they have automatic rockers for cradles and the shakers fro cribs, really that is only one step away from ronot hands petting the baby to sleep.
Oh my goodness… this made me laugh out loud! Wonderful.
the kinder fantasy does have a Wednesday Addams ring to it, doesn’t it? I guess it depends on how gothic your sense of humour is (personally, mine is very dark indeed, so I think it’s a scream).
I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to explain to my husband or older children how calming it is to put your hands on the baby EXACTLY LIKE IN THAT PICTURE. Oh what a relief it would be to have a little Zaky help once in a while when my babies were that age. Seriously. I’d buy it in a heartbeat if my baby was only a few weeks old and I was incredibly sleep deprived.
Others have mentioned, and I agree, that it could be a little less creepy in a cool fabric, or if you just could make or find similar sized and weighted pillows. But the hands are very Addams Family.
I thought that was TOO funny. You’re so right.
Hope you get some sleep soon.
I don’t know why there isn’t already a prosthetic booby with lap attachment on the market. The booby, I know, would have been a godsend most nights.
It is so good to see you illustrating again. There is light at the end of that sleep deprivation tunnel
It looks cute but yeah, creepy. Those are manhands–not that it’s a bad thing, but they’re just so huge!
My 8-month-old girl would hold on to this for dear life, though.
i wonder why they arent made from au naturelle materials such as organic cotton or hemp? polyester lining seems a tad too harsh for little bairns!?!maybe the futuristic deluxe model will come with wireless technology: “real time”, audio relay, etc .
do the hands come in beige only??!!!
It’s really weird but very practical. The chinese use a rectangular pillow filled with rice or bean. Like a tiny beanbag and would place it across the child’s belly or chest for comfort. I guess it does feel like you’re forever held.
Ya know’ I’ve been seeing that product around for about 3 months now. At first, it was creepy, but now… It’s sort of grown me. I find it strangely reassuring….
Plus the point you brought up of the future of the “hand” is so odd and Addams family-ish it makes me love it all the more. Can’t you imagine your darling child leaving it in bed with you when you were sick to make you feel better? 🙂 ! AWESOME!!
I wonder if I could make one out of flannel…
I can’t stop laughing!
My first thought was what if the baby turned over and put its head in one of the hands. Would there be a potential suffocation problem?
Yikes! Those things would give my girls nightmares *Shudder*And how do you wash the soft, creepy hands? Cause they would definitely get all sorts of unsavoury bodyfluids on them. Wrong, just wrong!
How can child look from top that it is hand shaped thing.All she can feel, some cushiony touch, not human being presence.
Oh dear. Too funny. Spitting coffee on my monitor. Sigh. That was my first thought – my kids wanting to that that “thing” to church…to the grocery store…all mucky and full of slobber. Yep. maybe they could make them with a fun funky retro paisley fabric to mask the whole HAND thing lol.
um weird, ithink its all been said, but I wonder if it actually works! wouldn’t it have to smell like mum and breast milk too? Great to see and illustration, its fab!!!!
What will they think of next?
Gotta be cheaper than a Night Nanny though, right? (http://www.nightnannies.com.au/Parents/Services.aspx
Link didnt work so I added it in correctly.
Ugh! No, I’m sorry, even if it carried my baby all day AND made the dinner, I could NOT go there. It’s such a creepy pic because both my husband an I looked at it and went’aahhh (at the baby and then) Argh! (at the hands)’ The hands. The hands. Disembodied hands.
And the image of a two year old dragging this hand around is a scream. Actually it’s almost worth it for that.
Oh my god … that’s absolutely hilarious. Thanks for the good chuckle! 🙂 (Love the illustration too!)
My husband and I had a baby that was born 3 months early and she weighed only 13 ounces. We were given a pair of Zakys from the store where we bought our baby’s crib. I know they are creepy looking but our baby was in the hospital for 5.5 months and the Zakys were so beneficial for her. Even the nurses kept asking where we found them because they worked so well for the tiny tiny babies. Our baby is home now and we use the Zakys to help prop her from the side in a high chair because she is still on the small side. So please, don’t write them off! Not too creepy for us!
Unbelievable! But then again, the sleep deprivation will make us invent, buy, believe in bizzare things. I wonder what’ll be out there when I’m ready for baby #2? Here’s hoping it’s good!
This is cute and so funny to think of our daughter with her strange hand puppet at school. Who comes up with these strange ideas anyways…