Melmo

Lilly is obsessed with "Melmo."  A translation for all of you normal folks: "Melmo" = Elmo.  And I guess I should note that recently, L has gotten really good at pronouncing his name correctly, but the added "m" at the beginning is so cute that I can't let it go.

I am not sure really when this obsession started, especially since Lilly doesn't watch too much TV.  If I'm being honest, there have been MANY times when I have sat her in front of the TV and turned on "Sesame Street" and sincerely wished that L would sit still for longer than the opening song so that I could have 30 seconds to myself to go to the bathroom in peace.  She barely makes it through the song before she's into something new, so I can't figure out how she even sees "Melmo" enough to love him so much.  Perhaps it's because he's red and fluffy and cute?  

I made the mistake a while back of letting L watch an Elmo video on my iPhone when she was having a car seat meltdown, and now every time one of our phones or the iPad is anywhere in her sight, she walks around saying, "Melmo?  Melmo?  Melmo?"  In the past week or so, I've started letting her watch a few Elmo videos after bath, before books and bed.  She really likes it, and it gives us all a chance to wind down.  If I'm being honest, Mommy and Daddy don't really mind the videos, because really who knew that so many celebs have done Sesame Street?  Added bonus: L cuddles with me while we're watching the videos.  I'm pretty sure this only happens because she is so engrossed that she doesn't realize she's cuddling, but I love every single second and am always sad to have to say, "OK no more, time for books!"  As I mentioned before, in terms of actual episodes, L only really likes the opening song, but I am pretty sure she would sit and watch the music videos for hours if we'd let her.  I like that the songs are versions of songs that the artists already sing, and they're pretty entertaining.

If you are a parent with an Elmo-loving child, here are a few of my Lilly's favorites, straight from the Sesame Street Youtube Channel: 

• Elmo's Song
• What I am featuring Will.i.am.
• Don't Give Up featuring Bruno Mars
• Hot N Cold featuring Katy Perry
• Belly Breathe featuring Colbie Caillat and Common
• Five By featuring Train
• 1,2,3,4 featuring Feist
• Outdoors featuring Jason Mraz  
• Time to Say Goodnight featuring Andrea Bocelli 

You can thank me later.  When I was linking these up, I discovered a lot more that I Lilly will have to check out (NSYNC, Garth Brooks, and Sugarland to name a few!).  If you find any must-sees that I've missed, do me Lilly a favor and holler at me, ya hear?

In keeping with the Elmo theme, I'll close with a few recent pictures of L and her favorite person/creature:

Posing with the huge stuffed version of Elmo at the neighbors' house.

Two weekends ago, the weather was glorious, so Lilly and I had a picnic lunch in the back yard (no judgment zone that she was still in her favorite PJs at lunch time).

Seriously.  She LOVES these PJs.  She'll lift up her shirt so she can see and squeal, "ELMO!"

Dan got Lilly an Elmo balloon for her birthday (refresher: her birthday was January 24th).  That thing is STILL alive and kicking after almost 2 months.  It started to show some signs of deflating this week, so Daddy, being the sucker that he is, decided to take it back to the store to get it refilled.  He sent me this photo from the car this morning with the caption "Melmo?!?!?!"  I feel sure that he will be annoyed that I posted this photo, but I think it's cute that he's such a sap about his baby girl.  :-)

I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last posted, and even before then, my posts have been few and far between as of late.  I am trying to make myself get back into the routine of blogging so that I can (hopefully) continue to be good about documenting things this way, but it is HARD, y'all.  A lot of days when I finally get to bed I wish I had the energy to blog, and there's so much I need to catch up on, but I've been busy just living and cherishing every moment.  This is probably the 200th time I've said it, but I promise the birthday party post is coming soon, if for no other reason than because I'm waiting on that post to have "Year 1" printed into a book.    

Until next time (hopefully sooner than later)...and happy Wednesday!

Sarah