‘Elmo’ is fighting words

Random memory. When Lumpy came to stay with us, his mother sent him an Elmo toy she insisted was his favorite.

Them’s fighting words, but abused kid. We dutifully gave him the toy, tucked it into bed with him and watched him utterly ignore the toy and disregard his mother’s projections. He had no interest in Elmo at all.

But fighting words is fighting words. As we poured out love and attention on Lumpy, I taught him to enjoy music. So it was that day, I knew the effort was paying off when he broke into “Elmo’s Song”:

Fa la la, fa la la.
Elmo stink!