Each night we have to spend about three hours distracting Eli from his eye patch. Most of the time he wears it like a champ. But we have to do something "fun" as soon as it goes over his eye. Sometimes it's swimming in the inflatable pool with his big sister. Sometimes it's eating dinner. (Yes, Eli thinks eating is pretty much the best thing ever.) Last night it was a trip to Home Depot.
As we were finally leaving Home Depot, Eli started yelling, "Momo! Momo!" Which translated means: "Elmo."
Sometimes he says this for no reason. He's bonded so strongly to the character that he only wants to watch "Momo" while eating his breakfast. Heaven forbid we should forget to turn on Momo in the morning! So when he started yelling "Momo" I didn't really think anything of it. That is until he started trying to jump out of my arms.
"Momo!" the cries went.
Still clueless I tried to put him in his carseat.
"Momo! Momo! MOMO!"
By this time Eli was using his freakish strength to prevent me from buckling his car seat. That's when Heather pointed out that there was an Elmo doll in the backseat of the car next to us. And I had foolishly walked past it. Worse, Eli thought it was his Momo! And because Eli runs on a strict "no toy left behind" policy, he wasn't going to leave Momo stranded in someone else's locked car.
So it was up to Dad to buckle him in and try and explain property rights as they've existed since Thomas Hobbes helped to articulate that vision in the 17th century.
But Eli wasn't interested.
In fact, I'm pretty sure this is a faithful recreation of that conversation:
Eli may have forgiven me, but he hasn't forgotten, as no one is allowed to touch Momo this morning.
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| Momo with a place of honor for breakfast |
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