Giggly Elmo

Big day! Elmo's been in town and we dropped in for a visit. A big Australian department store is running a 3 week long promotion called "3 Weeks in New York" and has filled their shops with American stuff. This includes goodies like American food and visits from Sesame Street stars like Elmo. It's only at the city center store in each city, so lucky us we're just across the river and can pop over anytime to see what's going on.

Friday FFM and I went over to see Elmo. Now, FFM has ONE Elmo toy that he only got because it literally fell into his lap one day when we were shopping. It cracked us both up so much that I decided he had to come home with us. It's now one of FFM's favorite toys, he lights up whenever the Giggly Elmo comes out.

Giggle Elmo works by shaking him. He's got some sort of sensor in him and when his mouth flops open he giggles, talks, sings, it's SO funny. Especially since it catches like a DJ scratching a record for as long as you shake it. El-el-el-el-mo's SO giggly! Now FFM tries to shake any Elmo that he comes across, to see if he can make it talk and is always a bit puzzled at the ones that don't.

So I with this in mind I wondered how he would react to a life size fuzzy red guy. Turns out just fine. He LOVED it. This kid positively vibrated with joy and excitement. He was so excited he forgot to kick and flap at first...and then got into the groove and kicked and flapped like mad. Which made Elmo all excited, too :) I can't even begin to describe the noises FFM was making, but I guess it was sort of a low pitched oooooohhhh and aahhhhhhh.

Travis had to see it for himself, so we went back again today. Just a quick visit this time, since it's Saturday the crowd was much bigger. Yesterday we pretty much had Elmo to ourselves, just one other family. Zoe was there, too, she's another Sesame Street character, but FFM really wasn't interested in her at all. She came over to say hello and FFM kept lunging for Elmo. Kid's got a single track mind at the moment.On a totally separate note the Brisbane auditions for Australian Idol are today and tomorrow literally across the street from us. There are scruffy guys and scantily clad young ladies humming and singing all over the place. We only get to hear them practicing, they are staging them in the amphitheater across the street but the actual tryouts must be in a room inside the amphitheater somewhere, we didn't get to see any of the judges or anything. Lots of milling about but none of the hoopla you would expect. Ho hum, oh well.