Lesson Learned: Life-Sized Elmo is a Terrible Idea

My sweet little bug turned two over the weekend and while I spent many months trying to determine the best way to entertain him and his friends for his second birthday - I made the decision to pitch the traveling petting zoo (which I REALLY wanted) and instead went ahead and booked Elmo to come sing and dance. That was a HUGE mistake.

Let’s just put it this way, Elmo is best left to television and books when you’re two years old.

Not sure why this didn’t even occur to me since I’m a worst-case scenario kind of gal, but in the hectic days leading up to his party I was more focused on food, guests, gifts, etc… and didn’t think for a second Elmo would be so despised.

Elmo arrived and my little guy promptly ran to the other side of the yard and hid behind the tent. Neither myself nor my mother could get him to come out. He wanted NO part of this six foot plus tall red, furry character with a microphone and a handler singing to him, getting him to dance or anything of the sort.

My best friend’s 12-year-old daughter even tried to help, agreeing to sit next to Elmo to show him that Elmo would in fact not eat him up or take him away to Sesame Street - but no dice. (Thanks again Nicole for trying)

Even when his little friends were dancing to Elmo’s singing or taking a balloon from the red monster, my sweet, usually accepting of all people and things, little boy would have absolutely NO part of it.

So while the original plan was to have Elmo perform for an hour and stay to help with singing Happy Birthday and giving my son his cake - I sent Elmo packing early so my son could at least enjoy the rest of his party.

He did give Elmo a high-five on his way out - he was THAT grateful to see him leave.