OK, so when I was a youngster, back in the late 1970s, I had “Grover-fever” something fierce. I just loved Grover from “Sesame Street.” Everywhere I went, I would drag my Grover doll around with me.

So it excited me to no end when I went to Babies R Us with my mom last weekend, and we perused the toy aisle and saw a really nice Grover on the shelf. What a rarity that was. Usually, it’s all Elmo, all the time. In fact, I think they had about two dozen Elmo toys and just the one Grover doll. Oliver had a field day looking at all the toys. And with very little prompting (I swear), we let him pick out a new toy. And guess what? He picked the Grover!

Pretty cool, at least to me. And now it’s one of the three stuffed “animals” (or monsters – whatever!) that he drags around with him. (The other two are Elmo – of course – and what I call his Jesus Lamb.) We’ve already taken Grover around the neighborhood on walks, taken him to the store, etc.

We’ve recently started letting Oliver watch TV, though he’s probably only viewed about 10 hours total in his life to date. But one of the shows we, as his parents, can stand watching is “Sesame Street.” It really brings us back, and we like the fact that the show actually does research to prove that it helps children learn. I will say, however, that the show has changed quite a bit and it’s not all good from what I’ve seen so far. We’ll still give it a chance.

Anyway, I’m rambling and it’s late, so let me end with a really cute picture of Oliver clutching his new Grover doll. Enjoy: