First Yoga Class!

On Thursday Owen and I spent the day in LA. After meeting birthday twin Simon at a local park for an hour in the morning, we headed down to see cousin Alice and Oqwe in Silverlake. Owen enjoyed trying out Oqwe's jumperoo, and then we went over to Silverlake Yoga for the baby and me class. We were the only students, so we really enjoyed teacher Betsy's spring-themed class. Some baby and me yoga is geared for the mom, with the babies doing what babies do (i.e. sleeping, nursing, crawling, and just hanging out). This class was really geared toward a shared experience with lots of developmentally appropriate and sensory activities for the boys. It started with using phonics phones to introduce ourselves, and becoming the phones with the boys in our laps "getting our wires crossed" (crossing and twisting legs) and "calling long distance" (stretching legs out in front and forward bending). Then she took out rainbow colored scarves and we blew them across the space to the boys for wind and breathwork. Next, she took out colorful wristbands with flowing ribbons for butterflies and we did some cobbler pose to Shakta's "Fly like a butterfly" song. She had different music for each activity. After each activity she stressed the importance of the boys being aware of putting away the materials (just like in O's signing class). Next were instruments. She had a big djembe drum that O. enjoyed before class, and now it was time for triangles, egg shakers, and clappers. Owen loved it all. We have just signed him up for his first Music Together class which starts April 15th! Can't wait! (He's done two sample classes and really enjoyed both.)

After the instruments, the teacher brought out Eric Carle's illustrated book "The Tiny Seed" She paraphrased it but had fun sensory activities for each season. The boys got to be birds hunting cotton ball "seeds", and rolling seeds spreading their roots around, and near the end they laid on us and the teacher dropped cotton ball snow all over us to symbolize the changing seasons. Such a treat! For the last part of the class the momma's got to relax on rectangular yoga bolsters while the boys crawled or snuggled.