Hey Elmo...hip, dancing, Chris Brown-befriending Elmo.

Three days each week, I spend time building train stations under furniture, and filling up my pockets with dirty Kleenexes that aren't mine. But, no, I don't have a secret "choo-choo" world underneath my bed, and I rarely walk around insisting strangers blow into a tissue and then hand it over. I do, however, follow a runny-nosed 2-year-old around every week when I go to his house to babysit him. While Brady is the cutest, silliest, perfect-ist toddler I've ever watched, he wakes up from his nap every day each day, and precedes to have a mini-temper-tantrum until we watch a few minutes of his favorite furry red puppet...Elmo. Unfortunately, as much as I wish it were possible, Elmo can't be on the TV at any given moment of the day - he's pretty busy - so, when I hear post-nap Brady down the hall, I turn on the computer for a little YouTube Elmo. Brady's current obsession: a music video Elmo did with (pre-girlfriend beating) Chris Brown called "Signs."

Like lots of music that originates or uses characters from Sesame Street, "Signs" is intended to teach the excited, bouncing toddler something. In this case, "Signs" is about just that, signs. While Elmo and Brown take a be-bopping stroll down a fantasy city street, signs overwhelm them. Mail, market, house and school...and repeat. Brown even puzzlingly questions Elmo, "Did you ever see so many signs!?" When I'm not singing along or dancing with the cat, as Brady hops up and down next to me, I notice the very urban world that Elmo is walking around in, and realize that he's not exactly singing to those of us that grew up (or are growing up) in the 'burbs. Did I ever ever go to a laundromat with my mom? Nope. But Brady, who lives in a bustling downtown neighborhood does. Did I ever go to a corner market? Maybe a few times, but I mostly remember being pushed in a cart through a giant Rainbow Foods. However, Brady and his parents walk down to the local food co-op every weekend. The reoccurring city-scapes are meant to appeal to the kids that are constantly surrounded by these towering buildings, not for the sheltered kids in suburbia who are shuttled to generally not-impressively-tall buildings in a mini-van.

I'm equally thankful and impressed that "Signs" cures Brady's wake-up crabbiness, but also taught him to shout "Mail!" when we walk by a blue box on the sidewalk.