Friday was a sick day for our little guy–a steady fever, and general crankiness. (Much better now, thanks.) He’s now at the point where he grabs onto new words and phrases daily–pointing out an airplane and saying “airplane,” recognizing a number on an elevator button as it’s pressed. My wife keeps his favorite songs, including one by Kimmy Schwimmy called “I Like You,” loaded up on iTunes, and he now calls her laptop the I-like-you.

On Friday, however, he walked up to that machine, and he wasn’t looking for music. “Elmo?” he said, pointing. “Elmo?”

Well, wow. I have explained this before: Our child does not watch television. In his entire life, he’s experienced TV for maybe ten minutes. (Plus some YouTube clips of New York City buses, because buses are his very favorite things, and videos posted by amateur transit buffs are pretty innocuous stuff.) We are not viciously anti-TV; we just want to push it off as long as possible. He’ll get there soon enough.

So, a mystery: Where on earth did he pick this up? Day care? Other kids’ T-shirts? The generally pervasive Elmo-ness of toddler culture, where that red furry face appears on everything from diapers to card games? Unless my parents are sneaking him doses of Sesame Street when they baby-sit, I’m stumped.

Or maybe it was this guy.