How is your inner child today ?

[Frank]

This is a discussion group for all things involving the inner child. We all know that the inner child is the creative genius of our inner personalities.
How is your child feeling today ?
What do you do that your inner child loves ?
How does your inner child express itself ?

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

We got this movie (Tale of Despereaux) to watch, before Saturday, Carol (gotta watch "24" tonight, tho :)
I'm almost finished with reading "The Te of Piglet" ... getting a lot of insights from that ... Tao is really cool. One of my favorite alternative bands is Modest Mouse. Another Small Animal. Hmm.

[Beverly]

How do they get those hamsters to pose like that? My hamster probably would have
bitten off my finger if I stuck a sucker in his paw. Hammy (what we called him) was a love
ball of fur but feisty, especially after twirling on the wheel for a while).

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

The woman who takes these photos is extremely fond of her pets, Bev ... she has hundreds of adorable images of them on Flickr ... a few different hamsters, and a guinea piggy ... and she blogs about them, too. I read one of her blogs about one of the hamsters who recently had surgery, to remove a tumor. She adores these critters and handles them a lot, even taking them outside to be photographed in natural settings. Her photos have made her quite an Internet "star"! It's really amazing the way animals will respond to our love and positive attention! She did say about this photo that the hamster wasn't too keen on the sweet sucker, though, and discarded it and lost interest right after she got this photo ... she really is good at capturing the perfect shot :)

[Maureen]

Barb, what an amazingly adorable photo!!! My daughter just came in and squealed with delight -- it is so precious!

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

Heh heh! Happy Happy Joy Joy :)

Was it H or A? H is probably at a great age to have a hammy now :)

[Maureen]

It was H :-). She adores animals and wants to work with animals when she gets older. Anna loves them too, but gets sad when she sees hamsters because they remind her of French Toast (that's what she named her hamster when she was 2). She is very sensitive and gets teary whenever she sees hamsters now, even though I'm not sure how much she remembers of poor French Toast.

Right now we have two very curious kitties, still young at age 3, and I am afraid they could find a way into those hamster cages no matter where we put them!

[Jules]

" but gets sad when she sees hamsters because they remind her of French Toast "
Maureen, I am so glad you clarified that by saying why a hampster reminded her of french toast- I was a bit concerned for a moment LOL

[Maureen]

Too funny! That would sound a bit strange... :-)

[Christie]

The kids on the sitcom "Raymond" had a hamster named Pumpernickle. Maybe bread names are appropriate for hamsters?

[Maureen]

I am not sure if it was my inner child or my inner adult who did it. I suppose if my inner child is the wise one, then it was the adult part of me that made this not-so-swift move.

This is what happened: I was outside with my daughter, and her neighbor friend came over, along with her mom. My daughter and her friend Kimberly wanted to jumprope, and asked me and Carol (Kimberly's mom) to turn the rope for them. So we did.

After awhile, Kimberly said, "Mom, do you want a turn?" Carol laughed and said, "Well, I used to be good at this ... I'll give it a try." Holly and I twirled the rope and Carol jumped in, no problem, and made it all the way from 1st grade to college, marriage, and two children (it's a jumprope game).

"Hmmmm" I thought to myself. "That looks like fun. If Carol can do it, I can do it ..."

"I'll try!" I heard myself say.

Before I knew it, I had jumped into the rope, and was working my way up through school. "First grade, second grade, third grade..." the kids and Carol chanted as I jumped and jumped and jumped. By sixth grade, my legs were feeling like they would give out. But I kept going. By 9th grade, my back felt strange and my legs were very wobbly. But I wasn't going to quit now. I made it to my second year in college before my legs gave out.

I crumpled a bit to the driveway, but picked myself back up quickly, smiling and not giving away the fact that I was in pain.

Now my entire back is in spasm, my lower back is out of whack, and my thighs are so knotted I can barely walk.

I have gone back and forth tonight between amusement at my stupidity, anger at my stupidity, and sadness that I can't jumprope for 2 minutes without being in pain. Up until I had Holly 9 years ago, I had been an avid runner, aerobics-doer, and weight lifter. It is hard to believe I have lost all of that muscle and fitness. I suppose the illnesses have a lot to do with that.

And sometimes, I really do forget that I'm not a kid anymore.

[Lin Neiswender]

Mo, it only takes 3 weeks for your muscles to get out of condition if you don't exercise. I know this from the exercise class I take at the lung rehab program. So no wonder you were sucking wind and hurting all over. Take some Advil and a hot bath and go to bed, silly! Maybe you can work your way up to exercising again, but slowly, very slowly! Glad you made it half way through college though...

[Maureen]

I did take 3 motrin earlier, and that helped a bit, but it's wearing off. You'd think I'd learn after doing that cartwheel/round-off last summer and wrenching my back! Hot bath ... now that sounds good :-)