Baby Elephant Playdate and Sleepover

A few nights before we left Cleveland, we took the kids to a local park. Tralee ran up to the triangle dome apparatus (do you know what playground equipment I'm talking about?) and said something to the effect of,

"Oh look! Mommy and baby elephant! Oh, Mommy elephant goes bye bye. I get baby elephant." The thing is, as Tralee said this I watched her eyes follow the mommy elephant (that was privy to Tralee's eyes only) out of the park before she went to rescue the baby pachyderm.

We watched as our pig-tailed daughter climbed inside the triangle dome apparatus, pet the air where the (invisible-to-her-parents'-eyes) baby elephant was, and then scoop him up in her arms. She carried Baby Elephant (we asked what his name was and we were told "Baby Elephant") over to the swings and sat down with the baby in one arm, while holding onto the chain with the other. Baby Elephant and Tralee swung together for a few minutes. Tralee said sweet nothings in his ear while Jim and I watched with smirks on our faces. Hunter was oblivious to it all, and happily picked up rocks, sand, sticks, and other boy things while running around our legs.

Jim and I waited a few minutes more before we decided to see how real this Baby Elephant was to our three-year-old. I told Jim to go take Baby Elephant away from Tralee to see what would happen. Jim went over and said, "Let me see Baby Elephant." He mimed taking our daughter's new friend out of her arms, and then tossed it into the air. Tralee screamed, ran over to Jim while keeping her eyes in the sky, and promptly caught her big-eared baby.

I also attempted to remove Baby Elephant from Tralee's grasp, and put him in a swing by himself. Tralee aloud it for a minute, but felt better if Baby Elephant was securely in her grasp.

We watched Tralee, Hunter, and Baby Elephant play for a bit more before announcing it was time to leave. I asked, "Tralee, is Baby Elephant going to stay here, or come home with us?"

"Come home wif us."

And he did. Tralee held Baby Elephant close to her chest all the way back to my parents' house. She played with him the rest of the night. She tucked Baby Elephant in next to her at bedtime. She fed him breakfast, and then took him in the car when she rode along with her Daddy to drop Grammy Char Char off at work.

I wasn't there when it happened, but Jim said on the way home from their morning car drive, Tralee said goodbye to Baby Elephant while throwing him out the car window. I guess he could fly like Dumbo, because Tralee waved goodbye to the sky as her little friend flew away.

We haven't heard from him since, but we hope he's back with his Mommy.