Day 1: 15 minutes

15 minutes of practice today. I heard that the YMCA on Town Lake had Ashtanga classes. Armed with my free guest pass and both girls in our new Joovy Caboose, we arrived just in time to check into childcare and rush upstairs to put my mat down.

I can usually get a feel for how serious a class is going to be based on what the other students are wearing. This group was a mixed bag so I didn't get a good feel for the level of the class. More shorts than I was used to seeing in a yoga class. One guy. I was wearing loose, long black pants and a t-shirt since I was too self-conscious about my extra padding to wear any of my yoga clothes. I'll have to to get over it since practicing like that would have been miserable.

The instructor, Lisa J, said that this was a short forms class so I immediately wondered if she was a student of David Swenson. I was anxious to see if she was going to use his modified sequence since the class length was only an hour. Unfortunately, I didn't get to find out.

Just as we were finishing the last sun salutation, I heard "Jennifer? Someone from the nursery here?"

I walked out into the hallway with her. "Your baby won't stop crying!"

"The big one or the little one?"

"The little one."

"Let me grab my mat and I'll be right there."

I arrived in the nursery to find both girls screaming inconsolably. Apparently, when Eevory (seven months) wouldn't stop crying, Mia (28 months) joined the cry parade. I spent ten minutes calming them down then told Mia it was time to go home. She threw herself on the ground screaming, "No! Stay here! Mia wants to play here!"

I checked my breathing, relaxed, put a once-again screaming Eevory in the stroller, put a flailing and kicking Mia in the stroller, and could only smile and shrug at the people gawking at the spectacle we were creating all the way from the nursery to the car.

We'll try again on Thursday.

My biggest obstacle to attending a yoga class is childcare. If someone would open a reasonably priced Shala with a nursery, I'd be there six days a week. But it seems that the only facilities offering childcare are gyms. So, I'm going to cross my fingers and hope I can find a way to make both my girls happy at the Y.