Mammals, Reptiles, Insects and Muppets

It occurred to me this evening while singing the forty-third round of Old McDonald with Ella that she thinks Ernie is just another creature in our universe. He’s just as real to her as the elephants in her picture books. Ernie is on her pillow case and in her puzzle and on TV and so are monkeys and tigers and chickens and horsies. She very possibly thinks that the animal kingdom is split up into Fish, Birds, Mammals, Reptiles, Insects and Muppets.

Let me show you the path my brain took to this theory. Ella and I were singing… “And on that farm he had a…?…” and Ella would say “Kitty!” and on we’d go “with a meow-meow here and a meow-meow there…” so again I say “On that farm he had a…?...” and Ella says “Ernie!” So I go with it… “With a cccchhhheee* cccchhhheee here and a cccchhhheee cccchhhheee there…”

(How in the world do you SPELL Ernie’s laugh).