baby elephant fever.

I. love. elephants.
No, really. I love them.
A LOT.

And I’ve been waiting all year for Rose-Tu’s baby. ALL YEAR. When the newspaper ran this, I FREAKED.

Listen. At 2:20 am on November 30th, 2012 I crawled back into bed to return to Sleepland. I woke up needing a glass of water, and when I checked my phone right before I got in bed it was 2:20 am. You cannot even imagine the emotions that I experienced when, a few hours later, I read that Rose-Tu gave birth to a baby girl at 2:17 am. Around the time I woke up. My heart just knew a baby girl elephant was born.

I looked at the picture of her and I said… her name should be Ellie. Like… elephant. Packy, the rockstar of the zoo, is a name that clearly comes from pachyderm, the scientific name for elephant. Packy the pachyderm and Ellie the elephant? Please.

The zoo keepers presented the public with 5 names they’d come up with for the baby. Ellie wasn’t on the list… but Lily was.

How much closer could you get? I mean, really.

She was named Lily, and a few days later she was ready to meet the public.

Obviously my dad and I went 30 minutes before viewing started. We were about the 38th people in line.

Everyone at the zoo had been talking about how much energy she has, how she runs and runs and has a big personality. And I saw it with my own eyes. She wouldn’t stand still.

As we were leaving the viewing area, she curled her trunk in her mouth and walked around like that for awhile. It was so cute I’m pretty sure it stole a few years of my life.

I am so glad to live so close to a zoo with such a great elephant program.

In case there are no baby elephants for you to go visit, I’ve compiled you a list of adorable baby elephant videos from YouTube.

around 1:33 when the baby steps on its trunk… that’s my favorite part.

The Oregon Zoo has asian elephants, so I’m not used to seeing those huuuuge ears flop around… but oh my gosh.

and bringing it home… Samudra, now a 4-year-old big brother, back in the day.

baby Lily, meeting Samudra… he’s grown a little bit since the last video 🙂

Lily’s first trip outside. 

…and I’m just going to stop there because I have things to do.

What is your favorite (baby) animal??