Wanna Do Yoga?

I get tired of being the baseball pitcher.

And sometimes I get bored being the swing pusher, the scooter balancer, the Robin to the Batman, the damsel in distress, the traffic police officer, the Lego fuel truck builder, the worm inspector, the stink bug flusher, the fort wrecker, the obstacle course developer, the water balloon filler, and the one who comes up with the next creative activity we are going to do next.

With Greg out of town more often than not these days, I look around for new ideas that are easy, to keep me going, especially as the witching hour is winding down and I need to make it just twenty more minutes to bedtime.

So a month or so ago, when Reid grabbed a book we hadn't read in ages, and I asked Will if he wanted to join us, our new bedtime routine began.

Wanna do yoga?

At Will's baby shower, a long time friend gave us this book:

which I have now sent to many friends. It has been the greatest vehicle in introducing yoga to my kids, despite the fact they have both been exposed to yoga since they were the size of peanuts. Both kids tumbled and flipped as I taught nine months of yoga classes with them in my belly. Both kids have run barefoot around a yoga studio and flown airplane with me in partner yoga stunts.

Both kids could point out Buddha in a cheap gift shop, and tell you that "namaste" (and even pronounced "mamastay") means something about light in everyone.

And both kids can OM, and they close their eyes tight, and they shout out a person's name ("Daddy!" "Jorgie!" "Uncle Shawn!") and sometimes they open their arms wide and squeeze themselves as though they are hugging whoever they are thinking about.

It's in the split second after we OM as a little group that I think I'm doing an okay job (those moments are fleeting, aren't they?), and that the roles I play every day in their lives--baseball pitcher and sidewalk chalk artist, and even yogi--aren't nearly as important as the role I play as "mom."

Addendum: Last night I was thinking, What if we are raising the next generation of yogis? What if kids of yoga teachers and yoga doers started following in their parents' footsteps the same way soccer players and football players and singers tend to do? Wouldn't this be a calmer, more peaceful and loving world? I think so.
-Kristin