The Shaggy Red Rug

 Sadly, I am sitting on the couch looking at my daughter in the monitor as she cuddles away with her stuffed Elmo that I am guilty of buying for her yesterday afternoon.  I say this because I can't stand Elmo. I don't know why? There really is no rhyme or reason for my dislike. I am just completely and utterly annoyed by him...his voice, his color, the way he looks...pretty much everything about him.  I feel about Elmo the way most feel about Barney. I actually don't mind Barney too much...oh, who am I kidding? He bothers me too, but the shaggy red rug bothers me more. I even made it a point to never allow my child to watch him on tv. Anytime we watched Sesame Street I would turn it off as soon as the red shaggy rug showed his face.  As much as I don't like Elmo, one would never think so by the attire in Presley's  bathroom.  Let's just say, options are limited when you are looking for a bath mat at target! Anyhow, a few weeks ago while we were shopping, we passed by a stuffed Elmo in Toys R US. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, my child yells out, "Elllmo." You can imagine the horror I felt as we passed by 10 stuffed Elmos in a row and all I could hear was, "elllmo, elllmo, elllmo" coming from the mouth of my sweet little girl. I was flabbergasted...WHERE, HOW, WHO? For 2 grueling weeks, I tried to find the culprit. Then, FINALLY, a few days ago while Sara was visiting I figured it out. I was in the middle of explaining my Elmo dilemma when all of a sudden I heard, "na-na-na-na...na-na-na..it's Elmo's world."  I swung my body around, only to find a tiny blue phone sitting all by itself in the middle of Presley's room. Presley loves phones and she loves to talk on them. If there's no phone in sight then she will make do with whatever is in her hand. Yesterday, she improvised and used a french fry to do her phoning on. So, WHO is the culprit that snuck this shaggy red rug into my house? Great Granddad and Barb...they are the ones that are guilty of giving my sweet little girl this fancy little talking Elmo phone last year for Christmas. grrrr. Be afraid....be very afraid!

Fast forward to today. I broke down and bought my child an Elmo yesterday afternoon....for reasons I will discuss one day, but not today! ;o) Last Sunday we had our "Home Team" Christmas party. When we picked up Presley from the babysitter's house she was sitting on the couch watching an Elmo movie. The babysitter said that Elmo was the ONLY thing that got her to stop crying! WHAT? This can not be! ugggg. Then, on Thursday, while we were checking out at the grocery store Presley looked up and saw a huge Elmo balloon hanging above the cashier lane. My daughter kept repeating herself saying, "Elllmo, Elllmo, Elllmo." The cashier looked at me and I looked at him because neither one of us saw an Elmo...great, no there's Elmos running around in her head. Finally, we both looked up and saw a huge Elmo floating above the register. grrrrr.  So like I said, I bought Presley an Elmo yesterday afternoon. She does everything with it...she eats with it, feeds it, slides with it, and now (much to my dismay) she sleeps with it! I even woke up to the sounds of my darling daughter calling out, "elllmo, elllmo, elllmo" over the baby monitor this morning. This evening she dropped "bear bear" (her lovey) on the floor and picked up Elmo to sleep with! AND NOW, sadly, SHE IS CUDDLING with him. ;-( My fault...'tis true. ;-( Oh well, "my name is Becca and I'm an elmophobic."

...who wouldnt' be? just look at the photo of him above! How is that NOT scary to little kids...he's frightening!