He Who Shan't Be Named

Ok, I know it probably seems like I throw the term “obsessed” around fairly loosely but I am not really exaggerating when I say that Ellie gets obsessed with things. Her obsession with dogs and buses and babies, as I have reported in the past, are all completely legitimate and I am not confusing “obsessed” with “really likes.” Or at least I thought that was the case until a few weeks ago week when we really learned about what it means to be obsessed.

Yes, Ellie has an obsession, a real obsession, and it is completely out of control. It runs deeper than anything we could have imagined and her love of dogs, buses and babies pales in comparison to her new fixation. We refer to him as “our little red friend” or “he who shan’t be named” (because we have to speak in code so as not to arouse an all out frenzy) but she simply refers to him as ELMO. And she refers to him a lot. As I said, she is obsessed.

It started with a book we have that I mentioned before called Hide & Seek that features Elmo and Grover hiding ‘Where’s Waldo’ style (thanks a lot Aaron and Kate!). She loves this book so much that she would sit there and flip through its six pages over and over again until the end of time if we let her. This is amazing in itself considering that she won’t sit still to do anything else for more than 5 seconds. As soon as we get to the end of the book, she says “more?” and back to the beginning we go. On every page she points out “ELMO!” (or sometimes "Hiding!") with equal enthusiasm as though it was the first time she ever noticed him hiding behind that painting. On several occasions, we have actually resorted to hiding the book or elaborate trickery to get her to stop reading it. It’s not that we’re not thrilled that she wants to read, of course, it’s just that the book has six pages. Unfortunately we do not share the same unbridled enthusiasm for finding Elmo in the same six places again and again (at this point it could be done with closed eyes in the next room) It gets old.

Elmo is not just in this book. As it turns out, Elmo is everywhere. You seriously can’t hide from him, even if you wanted to. He’s like this omnipresent creepy little red stalker. We’re walking down the street…she points out that there’s Elmo on the poster in the bus shelter. In the grocery store…look it’s Elmo on a balloon. At daycare…Elmo on that kids lunch box. In our cabinet...there’s Elmo on that box of crackers. Oh look, there’s Elmo right on her diaper. Of course Marty and I never notice. Ellie will scream “ELMO” in whatever setting we are in and we will spend the next minute trying to figure out if she’s hallucinating or if there is actually an Elmo somewhere that she’s pointing out to us. And there’s always an Elmo. That book has made her VERY efficient at finding him, even in the most hidden and remote places.

But the obsession reached new and terrifying heights last week. We put Ellie to bed, as usual, after reading the (six paged) Elmo book for 20 minutes. About 15 minutes after we put her down, she started hysterically crying in bloodcurdling screams. This is not typical behavior in the least. She usually goes to sleep with not much more than a whine or two every night. So, naturally, the hysteria was worrisome and I went into her room right away. She must have fallen out of her crib or gotten her leg mangled in the bars or something, right? Nope, she was standing in her crib looking completely fine, so I quickly picked her up and started inspecting her body for open wounds or blood. No blood, no wounds. She looked at me with this sad devastated little face and sobbed through her tear-streaked face “ELMO!” Seriously. That’s why she was crying hysterically. She missed Elmo. Seriously. Now if that’s not obsession I don’t know what is.

P.S. Yes, we caved (well, her Oma and Opa did) and got her an Elmo doll. I know, I know, we're just enabling her obsession, but really what choice did we have? She doesn't wake up screaming anymore, that's for sure. And you should see how much she loves this thing. Urgh.