I'll Be Seeing You

You know that sappy, but oh so popular, love song, "I'll be seeing you?" Wether you sing it in your head using the Liberace, Bing Crosby or The Carpenters version, you no doubt know its lyrics spell out a requiem of love in which the lovers -- now parting -- are saying commonplace things will remind them of each other.
Mason has a love affair. Not a LOVE-love affair. But an attachment. He is mad for Elmo. I think this happens to every young toddler. It's an easy name to say. Elmo is red, has bright, distinguishable features (undeniably huge eyes and a hideous orange nose), and an infectious laugh. We have an Elmo figure, a tickle-me Elmo, Elmo slippers, an Elmo costume, and yes, Elmo canvas slip-on shoes. Not to mention the coloring books, notebooks, sticker books, and even crackers with Elmo's face on them. Every time Mas sees Elmo he squeals with Elmo elation! He's usually spot on when he "recognizes" his friend big E. But every once in a while he mistake a stray eyes/nose piece from the Mr. Potato Heads as Elmo. By far the best mistaken Elmo sighting we've had to date was today in the Home Depot parking lot. Home Depot was feeling festive and had tied orange and white balloons to pylons in its parking lot. Most of the clusters were mostly orange -- for obvious reasons. But one cluster had just three balloons, an orange and two whites [thus looking like Elmo's obvious features). Mason spotted it a mile away and screamed, "Elmo!"
PS -- If you have a pre-k/preschooler on the edge of reading, introduce them to the Flip-a-Word books from Yukiko Kido. In just a few days Cooper has gone from having a high interest in letters and numbers to actually sounding out three-letter words. Do it, you won't be sorry. Then if those are a hit, move onto the BOB series.
PHOTO NOTE: Random, old -- but card-carrying hilarious photos of Mason that I don't think I've posted before. Then a couple shots of Coop in the Elmo costume, Halloween 2006.