Keep your fingers crossed.

Atlanta's favorite giant panda could be on her way to motherhood again.

Louie Favorite/AJC (ENLARGE)

Mei Lan (left) and Lun Lun spend some quality time together earlier this year.

• More photos of mother and daughter

Zoo Atlanta officials artificially inseminated Lun Lun, the attraction's star mom, twice on Monday. It was the first time they have tried to make her a mother again since the birth in September 2006 of Mei Lan, the adorable "stick-of-butter" that captured hearts worldwide.

"We knew after Mei Lan was weaned, Lun Lun would go into another breeding season," said Dr. Maria Crane, the zoo's vice president of animal health.

Zoo officials have been watching Lun Lun carefully over the last few days after estrogen levels suggested she was ovulating, Crane said. Giant pandas breed only once a year, usually between late winter and early spring for those in captivity.

Crane said Lun Lun's egg dropped sometime Sunday afternoon and that she was inseminated at midnight and again at noon Monday.

Hou Rong, an official from China's Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, flew to Atlanta on Saturday to assist with the insemination. That included extracting fresh semen from Yang Yang, Lun Lun's mate and father of Mei Lan.

"We tried to allow them to breed naturally, but that did not happen," Crane said. "We had a window of only 24 hours so we chose artificial insemination."