A Day in the Life of Elmo

A word of advise: you are no match for Elmo. Via your child, he will break you down and become omnipresent in your life. You may choose to fight, but you will lose. He is Elmo and resistance is futile.

Let's step through a typical day in the Dryden household and count the ways Elmo has infiltrated our lives...

4:45 am. Clara wakes up. She stands up in her crib, clutching the same "Baby Elmo" she held all night long, and politely requests to get in bed with her parents. Baby Elmo comes with.

6:00 am. Clara sees Dada's computer on the kitchen table. She begins the familiar chant, "Elmo, Elmo, Elmo." He obliges, logging on to the Sesame Street website, letting Clara feed the need.

7:15 am. Clara eats breakfast. Elmo must eat with her.

9:00 am. Clara wants to play hide-and-seek. This means hiding each of her three Elmo dolls and helping her find them.

10:30 am. We're playing with Clara outside, drawing on the sidewalk with chalk. What should we draw, we ask. Elmo, she says.

Noon. Lunch time. Clara insists that "Big Elmo" sit in her chair. Rather than eating herself, she will feed him.

1:30 pm. Nap time. Clara clutches Elmo the entire time.

3.00 pm. Clara wakes up from nap. We ask her what she dreamed about. "Elmo," she responds.

4.00 pm. Clara wants to play with her truck. Should we push you, we ask. No, she replies. Elmo.

5.00 pm. Play-dohing. Clara asks us to make Elmo. We make Elmo.

6.00 pm. Story time. Clara picks from her growing library of Elmo volumes.

7.30 pm. Night-night time. We place Clara in the crib. She thrusts Baby Elmo into our hands, saying "night-night." This means, sing Elmo to sleep. We oblige and then place Elmo belly-down in the crib. Clara is satisfied. She plops on her own belly, with an arm stretched over Elmo, and goes night-night herself.

Clara at 18 Months

Clara marks her 18-month milestone on Dona's (Paul's mom) 71st birthday. Happy birthday to Mom and 1/2 birthday to Clara!

One year ago we logged our fascinations with Clara's utterings ("ba-ba," "ma-ma," and the occasional"da-da"), anticipated her first crawl, watched her transition to solid foods, and lamented six months of touch-and-go sleep habits.

Our gawking tendencies remain, though the object of our affection has morphed from that simple-needs baby with nary a hair on her scalp to an independent-minded toddler with ever more sophisticated vocabulary, capable of expressing her clear and ever growing demands. Her crawling has given way to running, crawling, climbing, and jumping. Bottles are a distant memory, as are rice cereal and other forms of mush. An 18-month old's diet is remarkably like an adult's. And, oh yes, she sports a beautiful mullet on a head once barren and bald.

These transitions have made our life with Clara exponentially more complex and even more entertaining. Being her parent remains an absolute joy.

Yesterday we brought Clara to the pediatrician for her 18-month check-up. She weighed in at 23 1/4 pounds, heighted in at 2 feet, 8 1/2 inches, and noggined in at 49 1/2 cm. That remains 95 percentile for head circumference, for which the doctor continues blaming her thick headed father.

The Elmo fascination doesn't abate, and her collection of things bearing his likeness continues to grow (though not a single one comes from her parents). We are not without guilt, however, as we did make the unfortunate discovery -- in a moment of weakness where a distraction was an emergency requirement -- that he exists on the Sesame Street website. Which means any time she sees her father's laptop, the "Elmo, Elmo, Elmo" chant begins. (Though we must confess, many of the videos aren't half bad. Our favorite is Ricky Gervais's guest appearance performing a celebrity lullaby to help Elmo sleep. Of course you'll want the link to that one, right? Okay, click here, suckers.)

Happy 18 months Clara!

Buena Vista Drop-In

We broke up the trip home with a quick stop in Virginia to visit with Paul's brothers, John and Brent, and their families.

Here, Clara was given the gift of a life size Elmo doll from her cousin Sadie Kay. She calls it "Big," and it joins "Baby" Elmo (the smallest) and "Mama" Elmo (oddly enough, the one wearing a diaper).

Jeep Girl in Pee-Ay

We made a quick trip up to Lock Haven this week to get some relief from the southern heat. Clara enjoyed her time with Grandma (a word she's nearer to pronouncing) and Pap-paw, loved swimming in the Susquehanna River, and loved driving the Jeep most of all.

She is already buttering up Grandma to ask for those keys in another 14 1/2 years (20 1/2 if her father has anything to do with it).

Clara the Self-Dresser

Clara has long been fascinated by the idea of dressing herself, but she's only recently becoming coordinated enough to work on it herself. Small, early successes have turned her obsessive.