E.L.M.O.

This weekend the weather was PERFECT. We had a lovely lazy weekend... so lazy that I did not take any pictures. Ooops. Since I have no pictures, I offer you this news about what's going on in Vita's world. Vita loves Elmo, and I am pretty strong in resisting many children's characters but I am no match for Elmo. First of all, I don't even know how Vita learned about Elmo. We never had any Elmo stuff, nor had Vita ever seen any Sesame Street in her entire life. One day, in Target, Vita points and screams ELMO! I asked around at her daycare and they didn't introduce Elmo either. Where on earth did she learn about Elmo? I'm convinced they put something in the prenatal vitamins that programs children to be drawn to Elmo. Now that she knows and loves Elmo, he's everywhere. You can't get down any aisle at Target without encountering him. There are Elmo clothes, Elmo toothbrushes, Elmo crackers, etc. Ernie and I started to give in a couple of months ago, and we now have an Elmo puppet, some books, etc. But any time we talk about something that Vita will want right away (like bubbles, grapes, and other fun stuff) we use the age old method of spelling things out. Here's where the evil genius of the Sesame Street marketing team knocked me off my feet. I asked Ernie where the E. L. M. O. book was, spelling out the word... and Vita looked up and shouted ELMO! At first I thought Vita had perhaps already memorized the spelling of that word... but then I realized that when you spell Elmo, it sounds the same as saying Elmo, especially if you spell it quickly. (Try it, you'll see.) Wow - the Sesame Street marketing team is so much smarter than me, I am completely out of my league, but I will not surrender. I'm fighting back against Elmo by bringing back some of the classics from my pre-Elmo childhood like good old fashioned wooden toys, and charactors that don't refer to themselves in the third person (like the Muppets). Take that!