Coconut came to us by way of my daughter's birthday party. We decided that it would be fun to have a Sock Monkey party, (this was way before they became cool again...)
Anyway I ordered the socks, and locked my Mother and Granny in a small dark room and put them to work constructing the parts and pieces that would become the "Party Favors" for the guests at my daughters 7th birthday party. We planned that the girls would get to sew on the eyes, ears, arms and tails. This would make each monkey unique and their own. Of course they all sort of looked alike in the end....but hey, we tried.
Coconut is, or was the "Test Monkey"
I made one to see how difficult it would be for the girls. This then became my sons. (We didn't want him to feel left out)
I am not sure exactly when it happened that Coconut took on such a large personality. He really just sprang to life out of necessity. You see, my son doesn't have a lot of real friends. He has more now, of course than he use to, but a while back he was pretty low on the number of people he could call friends. This Grumpy Monkey, became his confidant, his loyal companion, his supporter. The thing is he is not very nice. He insults my son and tells him things that we,(as the rest of the family are kind) find offensive. He once tried to steal silverware from a restaurant just because the waiter suggested we could take things home if we weren't done with them.... We decided that we should probably not allow Coconut to go places with us. This didn't work. My son insisted.
Now really you must be wondering if I have gone off my rocker....no. Well yes, but that is a different story.
So you can understand, I am Coconut. I do his voice I mean, I "talk Coconut". He is apparently my alter ego. How sad.
Anyway he became such a great friend to my son, I just couldn't stop. There were days at school when my son was so upset by the events that occurred we weren't sure if he would ever go back. Coconut was able to fix things. My son would tell Coconut all about the bad things that transpired during his day, and Coconut would offer to come to the school and beat up the kids who were causing problems. He offered to do the "Monkey Butt Dance" all over them. This of course had my son laughing but also had him thinking of things he hadn't considered before. He really didn't want his monkey to go down and beat these kids up. He would tell Coconut how to behave, and that it wasn't nice to hit people. He would calm his anger by seeing it in another.
Unfortunately these conversations were not just in the privacy of our home....Coconut came to hospitals and doctors appointments. He was quite rude to the nurses. He was always saying things....inappropriate things....
I am pretty sure the nurses thought I was crazy, but my son did not. He loved it. That is what mattered. Coconut had a way of making everything all right. He still does.
He had to have a soul transplant recently, because like all stuffed animals his original body just wore out. I have sewn him so many times that we were calling him FrankenCoconut. It was so upsetting to my son. It was upsetting to me as well. I will never forget that last tumble in the dryer that ended it for him. I was so mad at myself for letting him get so thread bear that I cried off and on the whole day. We, thankfully had other sock monkeys. I convinced my son that we needed to change out Coconut. He just wasn't going to make it in his old skin anymore. We both cried, and it took some time, but he finally accepted the new body as Coconut.
I have tried to be Coconut less and less as my son gets older. I really don't want to go to college with him. It is okay, though since my son does seem to need Coconut less and less these days.
We will keep him always. The original one that went through everything with my son has been packed away in a safe place. He is just as special to the family as he is to my son.
I will know always that my son improved in many ways because of Coconut Therapy. I highly recommend this to anyone. You just have to let your self esteem go and enjoy!
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