Practice this morning was good. Just a regular practice with little mental drama, nope, not even over backbends. I did like 9 before Tim got to me and I just kept the motto of "This getting up one handed is really no big deal." It seems to be working. I realized today, however, that the primary series is a place of comfort for me. It's not that I'm no longer physically challenged but it also isn't this place of "the edge" physically either. It's an interesting thought to think on for awhile.

After practice I had the kids all day. It's been a long time since I had the kids all day. We met up with Tiff for lunch, then the yoga store, then SoulScape (lest you think this was not kid friendly, my kids love "The Crystal Store" as they call it, they have quite a collection of crystals going that were the ones that "called out to them" as I always tell them)... after that I spent an hour in the toy store with them. I bought them some Sea Monkeys without their knowing it which should be fun to do. They each brought a bucket of change with them to buy something. I always feel bad for the girl at the counter who has to count out $12 in dimes, nickles and pennies. :)

From the toy store, we went to The Daughter's gymnastics class which I love to watch. These little kids can be so amazing. Today an older girl was having a private lesson and they set up right in front of me. At first she was doing back walkovers. They start out with a foot in front of the other, legs engaged, hands straight up, then drop back, then up and over. Each time I watched her she was totally leaning into her right hip to drop back. Because of this she was consistently off balance and not landing straight. This was alright on the floor but then they started doing it on the beam. I wanted to yell "Dudes! She's totally got her hips out of alignment there's no way she can land it!" Finally one of the other coaches told her coach exactly that. I watched them do this wierd "massage/exercise" with her and I got to wondering how that was going to help her get her hips straight. Seems to me like maybe she needs to do something that forces her to keep them straight and bend back (like kapotasana!). Later she was doing this thing where she laid down on the beam and then rocked over in a backwards sommersault, straight into a handstand and then down. Same hip issue. What I realized however is that yoga is so not gymnastics. The focus is completely different though many of the uses of the body can be the same.

After The Daughter's class was done, I had the instructor show me how to help The Daughter do dropbacks and stand up. If she sees me trying it, she really wants to and lately I've been feeling like I'm not helping her back out. I was surprised then that the way they teach dropbacks and coming up is to put a cheese wedge, fat side down against a wall with the thing side up at the top (so the bulge is at the bottom)... they teach them to drop back and come up by walking up and down it. What is interesting was that as I watched The Daughter do this I realized that her hands were way closer to her feet than they normally all, that hump made her "walk it in" -- fascinating... I may have to try this.

Tomorrow I'm in Los Angeles all day. Back to work... who's world is this anyway?