Ducks and Egrets

Evie and I had so much fun at Kundalini yoga yesterday! It's just fantastic. Of all the Mommy & Me activities I've signed up for recently, I had the lowest expectations for the yoga. I couldn't imagine how it would be relaxing to do yoga with a bunch of crying babies. But, I've been totally surprised to find that my favorite activity of the week is Kundalini by far. Evie spends the two hours we're there smiling, laughing and trying to sing. She kicks her legs and stares unabashedly at the gorgeous yoga instructor with the long, blond hair. It's really funny! Two women noticed how attentive Evie was to the instructor both times we went. Yesterday during introductions I told the instructor, "Evie seems to really like you", and she replied, "We have a deep connection, this is true".

I think I've found my kind of yoga with Kundalini. It feel more like dance and uses the whole space of the room. There's always beautiful music playing and the poses are set to the beat of the drums in the songs. We do a lot of work in a large circle around the perimeter of the room - which is great. It's kind of like a 'feel good', seventies style experience - lots of scarves and flowing tapestries hanging on the walls - love, beauty, openness as key tenets of the practice. I still don't know anything about it really - the history or teachings. There are lots of paintings and photos of a Yogi Bhajan and the Sikh Golden Temple in India. It's interesting...I'm going to find out more. Evie honestly just loves the music and dancing around the room. She looks like she's having SO much fun.


Last night Evie slept for twelve hours straight! It's just one more thing to add to the "totally random" list I've realized comes with babies. There are very few absolutely predictable behaviors with these little people. They're changing every second and what worked marvelously one day - to help Evie pass gas for instance - is a brilliant flop the next (as Grandpa Dick can attest to). So, who knows what happened last night. It's possible that the Kundalini yoga did it. Perhaps the music and energy relaxed her and the yoga tired her out.  I thought about waking her after 8-9 hours to give her a bottle... but I chose to go back to sleep and relish the random instead.

This morning she woke up at 8am - so civilized - and we had breakfast outside on the patio. I'd like to say we did that because it was a beautiful day, but actually it was because I left the water kettle on the stove too long as I was changing and dressing Evie and the water evaporated causing the metal to begin to melt down and fill the house with a toxic odor. Go Mommy! So, I opened all the windows and we took our morning meal under the trees.

Evie started to get a bit cranky after that so we set out on a walk of the Venice canals. From our place, it's just a few blocks to the entrance to the canals. Evie can usually be cheered up by a walk, or else at the very least, she will fall asleep. We entered at the Carrol canal and walked south. Crossing a steep white bridge, we spotted a family of egrets sleeping in and around some canoes. We stopped and watched them for a while. A family of ducks came along and woke up the egrets who spread their long wings. That's when Evie noticed them for the first time. She spent several minutes staring at one rather dirty looking egret in particular who was sitting on the bow of a small boat. He kept his wings spread out wide, as if trying to intimidate, yet, he seemed a bit wobbly somehow. I wondered if he kept his wings out like that to try to keep his balance. Anyway, if he'd been a duck, he'd have been considered an odd duck for sure.

After some time, a big orange cat came around the corner from a smaller branch off the grand canal. He slowly approached the ducks and egrets. He was very sure footed and clearly knew what he was doing. I wondered if Evie was going to notice him. On a side note, I was reading an article put out by the UCLA Baby Lab - a world famous research lab working on infant development, mostly visual coordination and language acquisition - on four month old babies and how much they can actually see. I was surprised to read that the researchers at the baby lab believe babies of four months can see at least twelve feet away and have developed, or are completing the development of, depth perception. Anyway, check out the baby lab if you can. They have an excellent newsletter that anyone can subscribe to: http://www.babylab.ucla.edu/ So, back to the orange feline...well, as could be predicted, kitty used his stealth approach to elude the birds until he was just two feet from our friend the wobbler egret. Then he pounced! Well, he fake pounced actually because he didn't seem to want to board the boat. He jumped as close as he could to the canoe while remaining on land. The wobbler egret didn't even flinch. I was hoping he'd make a big fuss and fly off so Evie could watch him use his wings for something other than trying to keep himself upright...but, no such luck. Clearly this is a morning ritual between cat and egret. We were just lucky to have witnessed the dance as we made our way through the canals.

Evie was, and is in general, most interested in plants. If I park her stroller facing a bush, she is content to check out the leaves and flowers for hours. I have to be careful though because once I was sitting enjoying my coffee when a jogger stopped to ask if I knew who 'that child' belonged to. When I told her she was mine, the woman asked, "Why did you push her into a bush?" These pesky do-gooders! I understand the concept that a child belongs to the world, but honestly, I wish people would mind their own business sometimes. You can't believe the advice and commentary I get just walking to my car. Hey, if I want to put my baby in a bush, that's my business - Evie happens to love bushes!

Anyway, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Evie played on her gym mat. I'm trying to improve her hand eye coordination, which seems to be lagging a little behind. The gym is a round mat with objects hanging from two foam arches that criss-cross over it. The baby is supposed to bat at, or grab, the objects with his or her hands. In Evie's case, she just likes to sit and stare at them - and sometimes talk to them. She almost never even raises her hands from her sides. It's a little unusual but I'm not worried. Right now she's concentrating on her legs - which are very strong and coordinated!

Okay, enough for today. It's time to start the bedtime routine. I can hear some not-so-subtle sucking sounds from the pink swing. It's Evie's way of saying, "It's time to start getting the bottle prepared". In about fifteen to twenty minutes, those sucking sounds become screeching sounds, which is - you guess it! - Evie's way of saying, "Bring me my bottle NOW!". Who says you need words to communicate?!