Horatio...and no, not Kane

Every child has fears and small children can even have fears that are fairly odd.  We knew very early on that Eden would never be a lover of characters.  We came to that realization one night when we went to what was a seemingly safe environment at the nearby family-friendly Chick-fil-A.  To our delight, the Chick-fil-A cow was making an appearance and we were excited to see what then, 18month old Eden would think of him.  We would soon discover her fear of characters.  She shrieked, cried, shook, and wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.  Never mind touching him or talking to him, she went into convulsions of fear when he was spotted inside the restaurant at ALL.  After a few attempts at smoothing over their first meeting, the nice Chick-fil-A staff realized the terror and quickly escorted him into 'hiding'.  


Isla hasn't really had an opportunity to see characters yet, but being 22 months old, I figured we'd find out sooner or later what fears she might have.   For the last several months she's become a huge fan of Sesame Street.  It started with an affection for Elmo specifically and in the last couple months she's begun paying attention to the tv...only Sesame Street.  Eden was always more interested in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse when she was this age, so Sesame Street was rather new to me as an adult.  We've recently cut the cable off and opted for Wii Netflix.  It's fabulous, in that you can get tons of episodes of kids shows like Sesame Street.  


About a month ago we began noticing that Isla would have episodes of running to the gate between the living room and kitchen screaming and crying.  Unfortunately for Eden, this was also around the time that Eden began to noticeably irritate/annoy her little sister.  The first couple of times it happened, we got on to Eden saying "Eden what happened? Please remember to be nice to your sister."  Eden always seemed to not know what we were talking about and would insist "she just started crying!"  Poor Eden.  lol

Finally, we realized it was Horatio.  Horatio is a large elephant character on Sesame Street.  No, it's not Snuffalupagous (sp?).  He's gray and rather unattractive and for some unknown reason walks on his back two legs like a person.  He has a weird squeaky voice too that's rather unpleasant.  He usually only has a few seconds worth of appearance, but for those seconds, Isla runs in terror away from the tv.  She's even now able to say "Eeeeh-pant" (Elephant) with a frown as she screeches and points at the tv and frowns.  She immediately resorts to sucking her two middle fingers after we've rescued her into our arms.  After his stint is over she always asks "Eeeh-pant aw done?" I usually wave bye-bye at the tv and tell her "Yeah, the Elephant's all done.  He's gone bye-bye."  She'll then usually crawl out of my arms and go back to dancing happily with the rest of the show.  


Not every episode includes Mr. Horatio.  What a cruel trick, Sesame Street.  The other day I turned on Elmo for the girls and decided I could sneak in a quick shower.  I got to the top of the stairs only to hear horrific shrieking from the living room.  I came barreling down the stairs to find that darn elephant in a pink tutu dancing all around.  Poor Isla.  


Mean parents would probably invite others to watch her terror, as it is slightly hilarious how worked up she gets.  OK, I admit it - I only did that with Aunt Alex.  Someone had to witness it.  No one would truly believe how funny she is unless they saw it for themselves right?  *hangs head in shame*  


Dear Sesame Street - please remove Horatio the ugly elephant from your show. 


See for yourself...towards the end of this clip, there you'll see that ugly elephant.  LOL