Pancakes and Yoga

This morning, Caitlyn and I decided to treat the girls to breakfast out, since Julia doesn't have preschool on Thursdays. We took them to a breakfast/lunch joint in town called Fresco, which is one of our favorite spots for pancakes.




As we awaited our food, the girls entertained themselves by coloring on their paper kids menus. Julia thoroughly enjoyed coloring facial features on the blank-faced kids at the top of the coloring page, giving her favorite girl eyelashes, and asking us all to vote on our favorite kid. Madeleine also enjoyed coloring in some faces, although for some reason she opted to give each face some ghoulish, hollow eyes and open mouth:



To make things even creepier, she then decided to give the boy shown above a bloodied face:



There is something eerily nightmarish about Madeleine's artistic visions.

Every last one of us absolutely devoured our breakfast, with Madeleine covered in chocolate from head to toe by the time she was done. You can see in the picture below how thrilled Madeleine was to stop stuffing chocolate chip pancakes in her face to pose in a picture with me:




Later in the day, the girls joined Auntie Caitlyn for an at-home yoga session. It seems like Madeleine didn't quite get the idea that Caitlyn was following the poses demonstrated by the instructor on the video they were watching. Seemingly oblivious to the video for most of the yoga session, Madeleine suddenly noticed the instructor and exclaimed to Caitlyn, "Look! The girl is doing what WE'RE doing!" Julia, on the other hand, decided to take on the instructor role herself, devising a number of new poses with names such as "Square Pose," "Diamond Pose," and "Relaxing Pose." Not only did Julia need to demonstrate each pose to us as Caitlyn was trying to do her yoga routine, but she felt the need to have her face a mere millimeters from Caitlyn's as she gave detailed descriptions of the names of each pose. So much for a relaxing, Zen-like atmosphere for Caitlyn.


Julia and Auntie Caitlyn working the "Triangle" pose


Madeleine joining in

For any of you yoga buffs who want to try out some interesting new poses, Julia demonstrated a few for me. To try the very energetic "Diamond Pose," simply arrange your body into the following form, then kick your legs out behind you like a bucking bronco:



Or, if that's too much of a workout for you, try this simpler "Relaxing Pose." In fact, you can even do it in your bed or on the couch if you prefer:



Julia Rowe: Future yoga instructor!