Elmo is a Four-Letter Word

We've mentioned in a number of posts, I think, that Nicholas has become obsessed with Sesame Street, but it's really amazing each time we discover just how deeply embedded those furry Muppets have gotten into his brain.

For example, when he was an infant, he would wake up in the morning cooing, maybe crying a little bit, and that eventually morphed into calling for us.  Each morning Sarah and I would wake up and listen very carefully to whether Nicholas was calling out "ommy" or "dada" to find out who was getting up to get him, and who got an extra half-hour of sleep.  Then he woke up too early one morning (meaning before 5:30), and to soothe him when all else failed, we (probably me) put on Sesame Street, at a moment when it was clear he wasn't going back to sleep, but before I was capable of enough cognitive function to chase him around.  Since then, his body clock has mysteriously adjusted, and he's been waking up between 5:15 and 5:30, not calling out "ommy" or "dada," but "Elmo!"

The first time, I will admit, it was funny.  But it really seems the last few weeks like he's decided that he needs to get up at 5:30 in order to watch Sesame Street.  I'd say it was a phantom of our imaginations, but the boy is too much like me in so many ways that it seems totally reasonable that he wakes up on a clock (even though there is none in his room) rather than to the sun or to when his body is fully rested.

He also can be a bit manipulative about Elmo.  Just this morning while we were getting ready, he was jumping around and fell, landing on his butt but hitting his head against the molding of a door frame, enough that it looked like it actually hurt.  So I picked him and told him he'd be alright, and asked if he wanted his "boo-boo buddy" (a Cookie Monster-shaped ice pack), and he said no.  Through the tears, though, he managed an "Elmo!" as if that would solve the pain in his head.  You should know that in this case I stood firm, since it was obviously so totally unnecessary.

I think part of the problem is that Sesame Street, deservedly or not, is in our parenting heads as "safe" TV.  It's rarely flashy, it has good lessons, the characters are obviously likable (just as Nicholas, he'll name all of them!), and so on.  And it's easy to give into the temptation of TV-as-babysitter, though we do try our best to avoid that, even if it doesn't always seem like it.  On the other hand, we're not supposed to be showing him any TV whatsoever until he's 2, but I get the feeling the people who came up with that recommendation have never had a sick child or one who woke up in the middle of the night.

Of course, they probably also didn't have free episodes on demand, which makes it easier to relent.  Which brings it all back to being my fault, since I was the proponent of cable TV.  Oh well.  Too late now.  There's no stuffing that genie back in the bottle (though it does bring to mind a mini-episode of "Abby's Flying Fairy School" that I've seen too many times ... oh dear).