Lily loves Elmo.... NOT

We were lucky this past weekend, getting a visit from Gordon's parents. They came laden with treats for Lily including some items from Goo Ma (Gordon's Aunt on his Dad's side). One of these was a Tickle-Me Elmo - not the crazy new version, but a more basic one. Now before I go on I have to admit that I am not much of an Elmo fan. There's the basic annoyance factor of course, but I've also formed an aversion influenced by reading Buy, Buy, Baby - a book on how companies target marketing to babies and toddlers. I admit this book has made me slightly crazy. However, I also knew that it was just a matter of time before an Elmo entered Lily's life. And of course we love anything that comes from Goo Ma - she's wonderful and absolutely adores Lily.

Unfortunately Lily was not very taken with Elmo - in fact we all got the impression that he creeped her out somewhat. She was especially unhappy when he did his tickle-me bit. I, of course, was secretly pleased that she was not reacting to Elmo as the "evil marketers" hoped. So we put him in the toy bin and that was that. She didn't really interact with him again all weekend.

Fast forward to this morning. Lily and Gordon are home getting ready for daycare. Gordon sneaks into the bedroom to check email while Lily is playing in the living room. (I'm recounting what Gordon told me here - so it's all second hand!). G hears some commotion from the living room and then Lily comes stomping into the bedroom pointing furiously towards the living room. So G follows her in there. They get to the living room and Lily asks to be picked up. She then directs him to the toy box and points accusingly at the Elmo. G picks Elmo up - Lily yells No! He tries to put him back in the toy box - she says "no no no". Finally, he was able to find a home for Elmo that Lily approved of:

Help Me - I'm not all that bad!

So Elmo will go find a home with cousin Sera (who LOVES Elmo) until Lily is more accepting. The best part of the whole thing is that my smug, "my kid is impervious to this stuff" smile was wiped right off my face tonight during a visit to the potty. Lily loves paging through the Parenting magazine while she sits there. I usually point out stuff as we go along "baby, Mommy, girl, car", etc. Tonight I open to an ad for a video of everyone's favorite purple dinosaur. I say "dinosaur". Lily looks at me, looks at the ad and yells "BARNEY!" Clear as a bell. She then keeps repeating it over and over in case I didn't hear her. Still in denial, I call in Gordon and ask him what she said. He says "uh.. Barney?" We're both dumbfounded since our home is totally Barney-free. hmmmm what happens at day care stays at day care?

Can I get some privacy around here?