My boys have discovered Elmo. When Sesame Street comes on the TV, all I hear is "Elmo, Elmo, Elmo" for about 10 minutes, accompanied with crazed pointing and pleas for my attention. I'm honestly not sure what it is about Elmo that is so appealing to little kids. I find I like Grover and Cookie Monster the best. Elmo is quite cute though.
I wondered why my boys picked up "Elmo" as a vocabulary word when I can't even get them to say "milk". It didn't take me long to figure it out. Elmo speaks in the 3rd person. His grammar is awful (so is Cookie Monster's, but I give him a pass). We criticize athletes like Rickey Henderson, Bo Jackson, Chad Johnson and others for referring to themselves in the 3rd person, but Elmo, an educational character, is loved by children and parents alike. I don't get it. Except that he's so cuddly. Howie likes Elmo.