Julia loves Sesame Street, despite having seen, at most, about 60 minutes of the show. (Even the piercing liberal rays of PBS broadcasting can't reach our house, down in a bowl-shaped valley east of Northfield.) In addition to working through all of her SS books every day and watching a best-of DVD, she plays with her Sesame Street dolls - Bert, Ernie, Big Bird, and Oscar the Grouch - more often and with more intensity than any other toys. If she could answer the "what would you bring to a desert island" question, these "guys" would be her answer.
As she gets older, she comments more and more on the characters she doesn't have: "I don't have an Elmo or a Zoe or a Herry Monster or Cookie Monster." Sometimes, just to amplify the deafening roar of their absence, she adds, "I don't have those friends." It's all there - sentimentality, acquisitiveness, and innocence merged and compounded by her squeaky little voice.