warm fuzzies

I went to a child psychologist when I was about six years old and this was the time of transactional analysis. When you see a shrink as a kid, you learn to "talk about your feelings" (which I guess is what you do at any age when you go to a shrink). Anyway - what I remember taking from those sessions (other than Marlo Thomas' "Free to be You and Me"), is the visual idea that a good feeling was identified as a "warm fuzzy". Picture a little fuzzy orange ball with those googly eyes and the feet that were sticky from the 70's you could put on stuff. Bad feelings were identified as "cold pricklies". Picture a little round green hard ball that looks sort of like a grumpy pickle. Anyway - perhaps this idea of a "warm fuzzy" bringing a good feeling is what makes stuffed animals so damn popular.

I have a four year old son named Alex (almost four but we're just saying four at this point) and he has a room full of stuffed animals. The ones that are deemed "worthy" of the bed include a giant lion that wears a crown he made at preschool and holds a heart (his Mommy gave him this on his first Valentine's Day), a giant Gund giraffe his great cousin Nikki gave him at birth, a giant Thumper (yep - his first Easter) and a wonderful overstuffed Appa - the six legged flying bison from the asian inspired kid cartoon "Avatar". That covers the big ones. We have made room for three small dinosaurs, a rhino, a dalmation puppy named Rosie that my husband gave to me on a Valentine's day years ago, a unicorn and a red Republican elephant we bought for his great grandmother that gave it back to him because he had grown attached to it on the trip to see her. It took great discussion to remove the nest of six birds his Gigi had given him, just to make room for his big boy pillow.

I have a few stuffed animals myself - at 41 years of age. A few small ones that have some sort of emotional revelance to me, mostly bears that remind me of my husband or a cat that reminds of a former pet. I have a huge hot pink Iguana I love that I had to up to the kid.

When I try to remember my favorites as a kid - I remember a stuffed Henry dog, some stuffed bunny rabbits (one chocolate one in particular that had a flower in its ear like a Hawaiian girl) and that's about it. Some cute stuffed cats. A conductor cat in a tuxedo in particular. But when I think of stuffed animals - the first thing I always think of brings me back to the shrink. Not the kid shrink, the adult shrink -and my first time in her office at the age of 19. There was the proverbial two chairs and a couch, the pitcher of water, and this fake fycus tree (maybe it was real) and it had white tiny lights over it. It had several stuffed animals around it and knowing this was an adult shrink, I remember thinking as I got settled into my chair for the first time "god - I'm glad I'm not sick enough to need a stuffed animal!" Then - one of those very early visits - she asked me to pick one out to represent me as a child. I picked out a speckled bunny rabbit that reminded me very much of the chocolate one with the flower in its ear.

Stuffed animals. Warm fuzzies. What's not to love about that stuff?