Eli's Little Red Friend
Will somebody please explain to me the toddler obsession with Elmo?
I don't get it. Eli has liked Elmo even before he saw the "living" version of the muppet. It all started with his Elmo book. Then he had a couple of bath toys, and most recently we bought him an Elmo cell phone. In the package with the cell phone was a free 20 minute Elmo DVD about music. Eli has been hooked ever since. Elmo is the first thing he asks for when he wakes up in the morning and the most common word in his vocabulary. And apparently Eli is not the only toddler with this "problem", as evidenced by the release of T.M.X, the 10th version of Tickle Me Elmo, that is being released this month and the fact that "Elmo's World" fills the last 20 minutes of every episode of Sesame Street.
It was not until last night that I realized the strength of Elmo's hold over Eli (WARNING: a long, seemingly unrelated story is coming. Bear with me). We went to Kansas City for a night as a mini-vacation, and I will describe the trip in more detail in another post, but for now know that we stayed in a hotel and did not get a crib for Eli. We stayed at this hotel a couple of months ago and their "crib" is actually a pack-n-play with no sheets, covers, or anything bed-like about it, so we opted to put him in the other bed in the room. Afraid that he would fall out of bed in the middle of the night, we pulled the mattress onto the floor with the bottom and one side against walls and half of the other side against the "naked" box spring mattress. Eli was more restless than usual and somehow managed to wiggle down to the bottom of the bed and fall off the side next to the box spring. This really startled him, and Eli cried inconsolably for 7 or 8 minutes. All of a sudden, in the middle of a wail, he cries out, "Elmo!" Not daddy, not grandma, not auntie, but Elmo. Because the muppet with the falsetto voice is going to make everything all better.
At least he has enough sense to dislike The Wiggles.
I don't get it. Eli has liked Elmo even before he saw the "living" version of the muppet. It all started with his Elmo book. Then he had a couple of bath toys, and most recently we bought him an Elmo cell phone. In the package with the cell phone was a free 20 minute Elmo DVD about music. Eli has been hooked ever since. Elmo is the first thing he asks for when he wakes up in the morning and the most common word in his vocabulary. And apparently Eli is not the only toddler with this "problem", as evidenced by the release of T.M.X, the 10th version of Tickle Me Elmo, that is being released this month and the fact that "Elmo's World" fills the last 20 minutes of every episode of Sesame Street.
It was not until last night that I realized the strength of Elmo's hold over Eli (WARNING: a long, seemingly unrelated story is coming. Bear with me). We went to Kansas City for a night as a mini-vacation, and I will describe the trip in more detail in another post, but for now know that we stayed in a hotel and did not get a crib for Eli. We stayed at this hotel a couple of months ago and their "crib" is actually a pack-n-play with no sheets, covers, or anything bed-like about it, so we opted to put him in the other bed in the room. Afraid that he would fall out of bed in the middle of the night, we pulled the mattress onto the floor with the bottom and one side against walls and half of the other side against the "naked" box spring mattress. Eli was more restless than usual and somehow managed to wiggle down to the bottom of the bed and fall off the side next to the box spring. This really startled him, and Eli cried inconsolably for 7 or 8 minutes. All of a sudden, in the middle of a wail, he cries out, "Elmo!" Not daddy, not grandma, not auntie, but Elmo. Because the muppet with the falsetto voice is going to make everything all better.
At least he has enough sense to dislike The Wiggles.
posted by Stephanie at
7:31 PM
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