Say, "Please!"

My kids have never gone trick-or-treating. You may think I'm a lame mom or something, but actually I'm not against going out to visit people we know or my kids eating a bunch of sugar on one night, it just hasn't worked out so far.

On the day of Halloween, they did however get a piece of candy from one of Andy's med student friends when we went to visit Andy at USC. Let me tell you, the students got a kick out of the kids. That we have 2 toddlers is novel enough to most of them, but they loved seeing them all the more dressed up (even though Titus got too hot and had to get out of his costume in the 85-degree-California-fall weather).

Before arriving at school though, I had to stop by CVS. When we were checking out, the nice witch (as she called herself) behind the counter said, "Oh how cute you kids are - I have some treats for you!"

She grabbed two mini-bags of M&M's and Annaliese's eyes lit up. The witch cashier said, "Now what do you sa-ay?" Annaliese put on her biggest cheesy grin and said, "PLEEEASE!?!"

I think the lady thought it was weird that I hadn't taught Annaliese what to say even though I had obviously dressed her up. I quickly informed Annaliese of the right words which she promptly repeated. M&M's are her favorite candy, she let me know later. Titus didn't actually receive any of the benefits of the M&M's, but enjoyed a little bit of Oreo cookie with which I tried to coax a smile out of him while taking these pics.

Andy was also kind enough to bring my kids for a quick visit to my childbirth class in Pasadena that I recently began teaching on Monday evenings. It is a pretty time-intensive course for pregnant couples to learn about pregnancy, labor, birth and breastfeeding. By time-intensive, I mean a 2 hour class weekly for 12 weeks! I am really enjoying it. Andy has been so supportive helping go to training in San Francisco this summer and watching the kids for me while I teach.

It has been a great way to have some adult time, share some great info that we learned while pregnant with Annaliese, and to be out there meeting new people that I wouldn't have otherwise. Hopefully, it will also help bring some additional income, once the initial investment of the cost of training and supplies recovered. In case you're not familiar with The Bradley Method® and are interested, you can check it out here (which is where all 8 of my couples have found me), see my personal Bradley website, or visit my new blog (which is all things pregnancy/labor/birth/health/baby-related). The training over the summer, prepping for class and teaching are partially why I think I've neglected this blog for the past several months. That, and I get so impatient waiting for pics to upload. It was way faster uploading these pics though, so I think I'll try to be more regular again! I miss you all - friends and family!