It's An Elmo's World For Us

Cameron LOVES him some Elmo. Consider the following examples:

• Cameron has started to categorize and label items as "Elmo" or "Not Elmo." If Elmo's not in the opening sketch of "Sesame Street" long enough for his liking, he will furiously shake his head and say, "Not Elmo, not Elmo, not Elmo!" Mike and I like to think these terms are synonymous with good versus bad, so we've started to give each other topics like gun control and the legalization of drugs and ask, "Elmo or Not Elmo?"
  


• Last week, we realized we had created a monster. Mike likes his Lucky Charms and he would occasionally give Cameron a few of the cereal pieces. That turned into a few of the marshmallows and before you knew it, we had a marshmallow addict on our hands. If you gave him a small bowl, he would only pick out the marshmallows to eat and then ask for more. Anyways, Cameron woke up angry one day last week, and he was insistent on eating marshmallows - and just marshmallows - for breakfast. When Mike refused to give him any, he threw a temper tantrum that involved throwing things across the kitchen and banging his head on the floor. The only thing that could console him was - you guessed it, Elmo. Mike turned on Elmo's World, and Cameron was able to talk himself down. Thank goodness for Elmo.
  


• Yesterday, we took our family portraits. I knew it would be more challenging to wrangle Cameron this year, so my dad came along to help. In order to get Cam to look in the general direction of the camera, my dad had to hold up my phone while it played an Elmo video. He did a really good job, and I can't wait to see how the pictures turned out.


• It was Wear Your PJs to School Day at daycare on Friday, so Cameron got to wear his Elmo jammies and slippers to school, which he LOVES. He looked fairly ridiculous but definitely very cute. All he needed to complete his head-to-toe Elmo look is a furry Elmo hat. I'm sure Heidi, Michael, and Nina would all agree that this look is too matchy-matchy and over-styled, but I think he looks monster fierce.

If you're not sure who Elmo is, I thought I'd include one of Cameron's favorite videos below so you could see why he is so beloved. There are over 8.25 million views, and I think the Graves household is responsible for at least 100 of them. (By the way, I noticed that there are 715 dislikes - who is feeling strongly enough about this video to dislike it?!?) Watch the very end for Adam Sandler's awkward and hilarious goodbye.