Celebrating Six Years of ABC Yoga

We moved to Egypt when Rachel was thirteen months old. I was already familiar with Cairo (we'd visited there when we went on study abroad to Jordan a couple of years prior) and knew that I'd need ways to keep my energetic toddler busy inside our apartment. Even if going out as an unaccompanied woman wasn't frowned upon in some circles (I did go out plenty and it was usually fine) there really aren't many places to go with a baby (parks cost money and we didn't have a lot of that). Besides it was hot. And men stared. And everyone wanted pictures of my baby. Always.

I went out with some of my more adventurous friends (safety in numbers). I'd visit Maadi Club whenever a friend with a membership would invite us (they had a pool and a playground but we didn't qualify for a membership—not cool enough). Sometimes I'd sneak into Victoria College campus and play at their playground (but would usually end up getting kicked out). There was a strip of grass down the street from us (highly unusual) but only the second year we were there (the first year it was like...a big ol' construction site). And sometimes we'd even get kicked off of that.

To sum up: there were plenty of times when we'd go on adventures but there were also plenty of times when we were simply cooped up in the apartment.

I was fully expecting it to be this way so before we left we purchased some YogaKids DVDs: ABC Yoga and Silly to Calm.

We've been using them regularly for six years now. And when I say "them" I mostly just mean the ABC one because although I'd love for my kids to switch off with the Silly to Calm disc they just won't. They love ABC Yoga way too much.

When I was pregnant with Rachel I religiously practiced my prenatal yoga DVD. When I was pregnant with the other two I mostly skipped out on the prenatal yoga and instead did my prenatal exercises from memory while my kids did ABC Yoga.

Because that is the only yoga DVD that should ever be put on. Ever.

Today I didn't feel like taking the kids to the pool or the park (sorry kids—high of 93°F (34°C) and humidity of who knows what and we'll be at the pool all day tomorrow anyway) and they were getting wild in the afternoon so I asked if they want to do yoga. They excitedly got out the mats.

"Ogi! Ogi!" Benjamin squealed. That's what he calls yoga. It's like yogi but without the y (because Benjamin doesn't make that sound).

I took a few pictures of them doing yoga together when I realized that we've had this DVD for six years! We have every song memorized. We probably have every word memorized. I could probably just not put the DVD on and seamlessly lead the children through Yoga ABCs but that would defeat the point of the DVD in the first place (because Marsha Wenig has been saving my sanity 40 minutes at a time for six years).

Here are my little ones being caterpillars:

And here they are getting into the eagle pose (it's eagle-rific):

Trying to balance:

Skipping to W for wheel (because I had to put the camera down and do yoga with them because "MOM!"):

The girls need to work on their arm strength. They can't quite get their heads off the ground. And we'll just not say a word about how far my flexibility has deteriorated in the past decade or so.



And here we are at the zigzag zone of happiness (where we just relax with each other for a few minutes):

After the DVD was over we had to go back and recreate a few poses. Miriam was doing the rocking horse (bow pose) and was touching her toes to her head while she was rocking! She couldn't figure out how to do it while standing still so I (gently, gently) helped her hold it while Rachel snapped a picture:

And here's Rachel showing us how to go upside down (candle pose) for the letter U:

I honestly can't believe how much mileage we've gotten out of this DVD. I also wish that someone would come up with a yoga DVD my kids liked just as much because I could use something new.