Zen baby

"He's so busy!" People keep saying that about AwesomeCloud. It's not nearly as common as "He's so CUTE!" That phenomenon deserves a blog post all its own. He is very cute. He's also a nonstop little guy.

Sort of.

I've decided that he has the potential to learn Zen meditation. Although maybe that is too ambitious at the moment. Maybe I should start with baby yoga.

I don't actually know any yoga, however. I've taken exactly one yoga class, and I paid attention while I was in it, but there was no long-term skill retention involved. I know it involves moving into positions and holding them. I know it is about 20 times more strenuous than it looks. But I don't know actually how to do it.

I have a yoga tape, but in order to watch it, I'd have to hook up the VCR and reset the TV, and I have no real desire to play with either device. It annoys me that the entertainment center is just an overly elaborate dust collector, requiring frequent, pointless dusting. But that doesn't mean I feel like plugging it in, either.

So today I got on my elbows and knees and lifted one leg high in the air while AwesomeCloud watched.

He laughed.

Then he stretched his arms out at me because he wanted me to help him walk. Walking is all he wants to do all day besides eat. Eat and walk. Walk and eat. The EI lady suggested that I should get him to crawl more. It will help his sense of balance, which is, quite frankly, atrocious.

He does not care to look where he's going; he'll plow through toys as high as his knees and is not deterred by the fact that wheeled and wired toys make lousy footholds. Who needs footholds when you have Mama to hold you up?

He doesn't try to keep his legs straight and his feet under him. I've gashed him in the forehead countless times with my fingernails because his feet are flailing and his head is swinging wildly every which way. Including right into my fingernails. Who needs a center of gravity when you've got Mama?

No crawling. Only walking. Help me walk! Help me walk!

I think maybe some baby yoga, if I can catch his interest, might improve his balance if crawling won't. But if I eschew video tapes, refuse to spend any money, and overlook internet resources... I guess I'll just have to make it up myself.

In that case, I can't really call it yoga. Yoga is a pre-existing thing, with history and technique and tradition. It's not just the general concept of moving to a pose and holding it.

I need a name for just moving to a pose and holding it.

In the meantime, I'm going to do it. (It's good for me too, after all.)