Camdyn and Her Elephants

I don't know when it exactly happened, but somewhere around 15 -18 months, Camdyn fell desperately in love with elephants. We took her to Busch Gardens around this time, and it may have been viewing the elephants in all their size and splendor that did it, or the purchase of Dumbo (the movie) that peaked Camdyn's interest. Regardless, Camdyn has been talking, playing, and thinking about elephants non stop for, well, about 2 years.

The Easter Bunny gave Camdyn an almost life-like stuffed Elephant from FAO Schwartz. It has wire legs that are bendable and stands like a real elephant. It's rather cute and is her favorite toy (for now). When we went to Orlando in June, we forgot to pack a movie for our DVD player and ended up buying Camdyn a Japanese produced animated movie titled "The Blue Elephant" at the local Wal-Mart. Martin Short is the voice of the main character, and it is an alright movie, except it has an elephant fight scene in it which I could do without. However, it has a ton of brightly colored and interesting elephants, so Cam loves it. Anyway, the main character (the blue elephant) is called Khan-Kuay in the movie. So, naturally, Camdyn now refers to her stuffed elephant as Khan-Kuay.

Fast forward a few weeks and we are at Whole Foods and as we are buying our groceries the clerk says to Camdyn, "I like your elephant, does he have a name?" Camdyn in her 3 1/2 year old, squeaky, not quite clear voice replies, "Khan-Kuay." Naturally, the clerk says, "What was that, sweetie?" Camdyn repeats herself and the woman looks at me for interpretation. I said, "The elephant's name is Khan-Kuay. He's an Asian Elephant and has an Asian name." The clerk looked at Camdyn like she just might be the smartest and most inept child she's ever seen. I think she expected his name to be "George" or "Sarah." Yeah, that's right, she's a smart one!

I blog to remember these moments....

(the pic above is of the girls in their matching elephant t-shirts from Auntie Liz. You can't really see the elephant, just part of the trunk. I have a feeling that the whole elephant phenomenon is going to be thrust upon poor Chloe)

**Note to follow: Camdyn is about to receive another giant life-like stuffed elephant from Papa Bob. She just needs to earn one more sticker for going to bed on time and she'll get the toy. I'm sure pics and maybe video of that hallmark moment will follow - the elephant is BIG! I wonder what she'll name it....