My Yoga Boy

Remember Under Dogs? When someone pushes you on the swing and gets you so high, she can run under you? The other day, while swinging, Zack asked me for a "Down Dog"! That's my yoga boy!

New Use for Yoga Mats

I bet you hadn't thought of this one!! He taped it together and made it his "skirt".

My Son Eats Meat

It is true. My 4 year old eats meat. It was a difficult decision for me, I have been vegetarian for over fifteen years for a variety of reasons and my seven year old daughter is flourishing as a vegetarian. My husband and I suspected our son needed meat for 6 months before we finally fed it to him four months ago. My husband also eats meat so it isn’t an anomaly in our house. He was vegan for several years in high school and just couldn’t keep himself grounded. He needed meet for balance. He still does. I can tell when he hasn’t had meat for awhile and have been known to suggest he go out for a hamburger so he can feel better. My son is similar. He doesn’t seem to enjoy food very much and yet was very interested in meat when he was around meat from babyhood on. He was thrilled to eat it. He is even more excited about beef than cookies. It is an interesting process in letting go of what you expect and allowing others to do what they need to do, especially when it is with your children. When I surrender to what he needed, I felt myself soften and the rest was easy. Seeing him flourish on beef also helps me surrender. It was clearly the right decision.

Day 12: Celebration Craze

(I am tracking my yoga practice for the month of january for World Yoga Practice Month. You can read each day about what I did that day!)

I was up super early again today. I had an 8:30 class and I was up at 6 am to fit in my japa and meditation and boy am I glad I did! When I got home this afternoon, I had an experience of comic relief (something that other parents will appreciate especially.) First of all, I was deeply exhausted. You know the kind of fatigue, the-I’ve-really-had-enough–and-I-just-need-a-bath-and-12-hours-of-sleep kind. Only your kids need you and have been waiting by the door for you to come home to spend the rest of the day with you and your husband is already out the door to take a break, uh, I mean errands, before you have your shoes off.

I knew that when I came home my job was to make brownies for a family celebration. I have an extremely easy brownie recipe so I didn’t think much of it even in my fatigue. It would be an easy 20-minute job. Only my son was melting down because he was hungry so the first 60 minutes of my time at home was spent coaxing him to eat. Then I realized that I didn’t have the chocolate I needed for the recipe so I called my “errand running” husband (who was eating at Big Bowl when I reached him! ☺ ) to buy some and bring it home. Once I got the brownies in the oven, we began the frosting. (Yep, I forgot this part. Brownies are a treat but frosting makes it a celebration!) I made the frosting and then discovered that the celebratory boy wanted “rainbow” color. Since I homeschool, I am always looking for a way to sneak in a lesson so I agreed that we could make several different colors of frosting, mixing different combinations of food coloring. Out came four bowls, the craft table cloth (have you ever tried to get food coloring out of a wooden table?) and we mixed different food colors together into the bowls. Then he decided he wanted to make “cookies” out of the brownies and frost them individually. First I tried a drinking glass to “cut” them out only to find the brownies are stuck in there once cut (and it makes a very big mess!). The only thing I could think of to use was the cookie cutter my children use for the play dough. I did wash it quite well and I make my play dough from scratch so it is edible, I still found I didn’t want to share this part with my husband! We finally got the brownies cut out and frosted. I then turned to review the result in my kitchen. You guessed it, chaos. I took a deep breath and plunged in. I pulled out a pyrex container to store the leftovers only to find it was too heavy. It came down on the plate of brownies (squishing them) that were in my other hand then they both landed in a bowl of frosting which promptly broke splattering colored frosting everywhere! I cleaned the kitchen for 15 minutes before I even got to the broken bowl! Once the kitchen was cleaned, I realized it was time to start dinner. If I thought I was tired before…

I am off to forward folds and a lovely Savasana…although I must admit, I am not even going to try to stay awake for this one!

Funny Zacky Story

I was up early this morning to do my breathing practice before my children were up. I often use the podcasts I have on my website (so my own recordings) to guide me in my breathing. So, here I was in the middle of our living room, listening to my own voice talk myself through a breathing series. My four year old son, Zack, woke up and came to find me. My children know that when I am in the middle of a breathing practice they can’t touch me (it throws off the energy balance). So this little cutie snuggled next to me without touching my body at all and rested his face in his hands to watch my screen saver. There he sat for at least 10 minutes, not saying a single word.

That in itself is a cute story, but it gets better! My daughter, Sierra, (6 ½ years), then woke up and came out to find me. She whispered to Zack, “What is Mommy doing?” He replied in the loud whisper of a child, “Whatever she tells herself to do.”

Doing Yoga with the Kids

Yep! I really do yoga with my kids climbing on me – literally. Here are the photos to prove it.

I also want to add that my husband told me Zack (3 years) did his own yoga practice tonight while his sister took a bath. (I was out teaching yoga). He said, “Daddy, can I do yoga?” Then he got out is mat and proceeded to do about 5 minutes of his own yoga (many variations of down dog.) That’s my yoga boy! ☺