Treasure: déglingos

I’m running out of names.  Now that Little Friend is building attachments to stuffed animals at a speed that rivals the gestational period of drosophilas, I’m flummoxed.  She’s not speaking enough to name her own current fling, so it falls to me to come up with…something.  The somethings started wittily enough: “Thumkin” for her favorite thumb-sucking doll.  Then came Princess Cordelia, Francis the Pig, and Mutton the Sleep Lamb.  Things started to go downhill when we got to a stuffed cat named Faithy Paul (christened for my aunt and uncle who were behind the gift.)  I was really on a downhill roll when I came up with Little Dog for a tiny, stuffed canine.  Most recently, at my lowest point, the best I could do was “Little Girl with the Cat and Backpack.”  Ugh.  I need some name inspiration.

If only all stuffed animals could be Déglingos inspirations.  Les Déglingos is a quirky, non-traditional collection of stuffed animals that brings a smile to my face and a spring to my step.  The French company that somehow dreamed up this rag tag bunch of animals pledges high quality and stringent safety in all of their products.  The product lines include bath toys, games, baby toys, and slippers.  I fell in love with Déglingos at first sight as I peeked through the plate glass window of a charming toy store in France.  One look into the lazy eyes of Molos, the Lobster, and I was a goner.

While I fell hard for a lobster with a polka dotted chest, tail, and feelers (I think lobsters have feelers of some sort, right?), the final decision on which stuffed animal to buy for Little Friend was not at all easy.  How could I turn down the fluttery fabric spikes of Pikos the Hedgehog?  How could life be complete without Jambonos, the vegetarian Pig?  I’m usually a fairly decisive shopper:  In.  Buy.  Out.  Not this time.  Since I couldn’t take home the entire troop of Deglingos, as I would have preferred, I made multiple trips to consider and reconsider my final decision.  If I had been on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, I would have been booed off the show.

Molos the Lobster.  Final answer.

I pretend that I bought Molos for Little Friend, but in the interest of full disclosure, I have to confess, the Lobster’s really for me.  I was that kid with an actual trash can full of stuffed animals because no toy chest was large enough to accommodate my collection of favorites.  I guess my love of Déglingos shows that I never stopped being a kid.  And why should I?  As an adult, I can appreciate fully how well-made Les Déglingos stuffed animals are—hand made in appearance but actually quite rugged and sturdy.  I can relish the quirky departure in materials, design, and marketing that Les Déglingos takes from other more traditional toy manufacturers.  And I can chuckle along as I read the back stories created for each stuffed animal.  For example, here’s the story of Milkos, the Cow:

“Such a Deglingo I am! Some even call me Mad Cow! But bonkers or not, I’m a bovine with my head over the moonos and my hooves seldom on the ground. To relaxos, I love to play the bagpipes with my udder. Isn’t it the unexpected things that make life beautiful?”

If stuffed animals aren’t quite your thing, Déglingos can deck out an entire childhood in uber-soft, ultra-quirky toys.  Starting with adorable, plush cordouroy baby blankies, moving onto rattles, filling the tub with bath toys, and rounding out the day with baby shoes, Les Déglingos offers a world of designer toys that invites the whimsy and humor of child-like imagination to take center stage.  And the best part? Les Déglingos stuffed animals come pre-named.  Take that, Little Girl with the Cat and Backpack.

Pittsburghers can fall in love with Deglingos in person at Divertido, a unique gift boutique in Lawrenceville.  To shop from home, browse Les Déglingos to get a head start on your personal selection.  Which Déglingos will be your Déglingos?  After much debate and wavering, perhaps you too will have a final answer.