Not

We are not ready for Halloween. C keeps changing his mind on costumes. For the ward party this past weekend, he was a zombie and Viv was supposed to a peashooter from plants vs. zombies, but due to high standards of public dignity she wouldn't touch the hat I made and went in a truly adorable bee costume. Well played, Viv. For real Halloween, C has told me he wants to be Green Lantern, a ghost, Dracula, Wolverine, or perhaps a zombie again.

We are not entirely sure what Viv thinks, but she tries hard to tell us all the time. She refers to herself as Mimi, and loves all things cute and pretty, from doorknobs to small grapes. She is learning new words daily. My favorite new word she's learned this past week is "fire pit", emphasis on the "r" and "t."

We are not ashamed that I have started my birthday extravaganzas a month in advance this year. Happy birthday to me, we now own a little fire pit and its awesome. C is becoming quite adept at the art of the roasted marshmallow.

We are not ready for the perfect weather of fall to end and the winter to make all bleak. I hate sleeping in socks, bundling kiddos and unbundling kiddos repeatedly, scraping ice off cars (rather, making Steve scrape ice), and all the drama I make when it snows. I really need to get over it but each year it keeps coming back! I'll stop when it stops, so there.

We are not ready for sickness season. It should just go away, I hate it so. I am determined to try harder this year to keep us all healthy, since last year was one thing after another from Thanksgiving to Valentine's, but I'm not really sure where to start besides getting flu shots and stocking up on hand sanitizer.

We are not at all sure about what C thinks about, especially since his questions after long periods of thoughtful silence range from,"Are you going to take off your head and make your skin come out of your brain?" (he literally asked me that just now) to "So, when are those PBJs going to be ready?".

We are not worried one bit about C's imaginative ability. It is alive and well, and he is a wonder to converse with. He seems to be most talkative with me if we both sit perched on the corners of the Little Tikes climber in the backyard, or after he's been soaking awhile in the bathtub. That's when he tells me all of the juicy preschool gossip. Apparently, Tom (name changed to protect identity) still wears pull-ups and was the one who set off the fire alarm.

We are not worried one bit about C missing us too much while he's at preschool. He loves it and has made good friends, and has even taught his class dance moves to "What Does the Fox Say?" (thanks Aunt Liz for introducing us).

We are not sure why that video exists, but Viv also knows the dance moves and some of the lyrics (ding ding ding!).

We are not sure why Viv decided to give us one week of perfect sleeping through the night in her own crib, but we're glad she did. I just wish she hadn't stopped the magic just as abruptly.

We are not sure why Viv decided that after many months of weekly attempts at nursery attendance, today would be the day she would go in and not only survive the two hours, but be so happy about it that she would politely say "Thank you, bye-bye" to the nursery leader as she was picked up to leave.

We are not going to hibernate and get fat this winter (no promises for next winter). This spring something clicked and we've been able to consistently be more active and enjoy becoming more fit together. C can probably still do more burpees than me, though. Every day he spends time just running from front wall to back wall, doing parkour tricks on top of anything he can get on top of, and jumping up and down in place.

We are not positive if all three-year-olds are existentialists, but ours has strong tendencies.

We are not going to forget Lou Reed. RIP, Lou.