This Kid Kills Me

I feel like I've been writing a lot about Zeke lately, and that's probably because I have. After all, over the last month the kid has lost his first tooth, took off with the potty training thing, and started school. All pretty big accomplishments, all pretty exciting stuff. Deacon, on the other hand, hasn't done any of these things yet, but what he has done, is raise the level of cuteness in this house by 1,867,392,000%. Or there abouts. And just when you think he can't get any cuter, he pulls out something new and just knocks us over. The other day, Josh said, "That's it Deacon, get cuter. I want to see if the universe will actually stop." Here are just a few snapshot of some of the things Deacon has been up to recently.

First, we have the fact that absolutely everything can, and most likely will, be a hat. Tupperware is a favorite "hat go-to". And since he's pretty good about sharing (when he wants to share, that is), and since he likes to help, he will be more than happy to help you adorn your head, whether you want the help or not.

I mean, just look how thrilled Josh is to have a new piece of headware.

While we're on the subject (sort of) of Deacon helping, he does love to help. He loves to help cook, clean (unless it's picking up toys...that can be like pulling teeth sometimes with him), carry stuff, put the groceries on the counter to be rung up, etc. One night Josh was doing the dishes, and Deacon, of his own accord, got the stool out from the bathroom, carried it to the sink, and proceeded to "help".

He's also very good at helping me empty the dishwasher. He's a speedy little thing, so most stuff ends up on the counter before being put away since dishes and glasses come at me in lightning speed.

At night, he's been a bit of a bugger though. He refuses to stay in his bed. When he's out of his bed, he has this fascination with the heating vent in the floor in their room. If he's not laying across it, he's laying next to it, kicking it, or pulling it out of the floor and playing it like a bongo. My favorite part of nights though, is when Josh goes in to check on him (and put the vent cover back) and says something like, "Where are your pants?!" That's right. Deacon likes to run around like this:

when he's supposed to be in bed sleeping. I guess I had him in some jammies he really didn't want to be in the other night because when Josh went in there I heard, "Why are you naked?!" He had completely stripped, diaper, socks and all and was running around the room naked. Even better, when I opened their door in the morning to get them up for the day, he ran out of the room naked again. I guess he can undress himself if he really wants to.

But the bedroom mischief isn't contained to only nighttime. While he is getting better about keeping quiet during rest time and naptime, he did come out of his little rest time the other day like this:

Still in his jammies, but with his rain boots on (this is what prompted the start of our water walks), swinging Zeke's dirty underpants around. That's right, those underpants are dirty, which means he fished around in the hamper for them. Why he was even in his closet when he was supposed to be in his bed is beyond me. Most of what this kid does is beyond me, but that's what makes him so much fun.

Like this:

This is Deacon sitting at Josh's computer with Josh's headset on (astronauts, you are cleared to land). He insisted on sitting there like that (pushing buttons so he could hear the bell sound) for at least a half hour.

Deacon is also very, um, creative. We got these dragons when we went out to lunch the other day. After eating what he wanted of his lunch, Deacon decided to share the rest of his sandwich with his dragon, who, as you can see, was quite pleased with it all.

It's also a little bit creepy, no?

Here he is using my shoes and skis, and my knitting needles as ski poles. He goes around the houes like this, using a pretty good technique for only having ever seen skiing a few times during the Olympics.

Then there's his favorite activity of sitting in boxes. I have no idea where/why/how this started, but if there's an empty box laying around, you can be sure Deacon will be in that box in one way or another.

Another new favorite place of Deacon's is "Daddy's head". This is what he says when he wants to go up on Josh's shoulders. In fact, Josh hadn't been out of bed for 5 minutes when Deacon was lining himself up to Josh's legs saying, "Daddy's head. I want Daddy's head." Poor Josh. Although, I don't think Daddy minds too much.

Besides all this, Deacon also makes some of the greatest faces I've ever seen. Of course, he won't make any of them for the camera, but I promise you, they are classic. Especially when he says things to go along with his faces.

For example, the other day we were eating lunch. Zeke was so tired he had his head on his arm on the table while eating his sandwich. So I said, "Mommy's tired" (because I was). Zeke picked up his head and said, "Zeke tired too." So then Deacon opened his eyes as wide as they could possibly go, smiled his biggest smile, and said in a rather upbeat and high pitched voice, "Deacon tired tooooooOO!!!" For some reason I just didn't believe him.

His most used phrase though, and it's really funny sometimes, is "I can't". I'm not sure where he picked this up from but he uses it for everything he doesn't want to do. Like, if we try to put his pants back on him at night after he's taken them off he'll say, "I can't pants. I can't." Or if I ask him if he wants his sandwich cut into triangles or squares he might say, "I can't triangles. I can't squares. I can't sandwich." Or if Josh asks him for a hug when Josh gets home from work Deacon will sometimes say, "I can't Daddy. I can't hug." "I can't Deacon" is another favorite, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what makes him say that one. "I can't Deacon." Oh, I'm sure you can Deacon as you are Deacon.

But my favorite thing about Deacon is how sweet and snuggly he has become. Not that he wasn't always sweet, he was, but he was not always snuggly.

See, Zeke used to love being held from the beginning. He didn't like being put down as a baby, and would sit and snuggle with whomever. Deacon, never much liked it. He was a bit more independent I guess? But over the last year I guess (so fear not you mothers with little ones who don't like to snuggle, you may still get your chance) he's been such a little snuggle bug.

Moments like this just kill me with its sweetness.

Even though he can be difficult at times (he's stubborn, and wild at times, and there seems to be absolutely NO form of discipline that seems to work on him), he is such a joy and just so much fun. He's the cutest thing and he knows it. Which is probably why discipline doesn't work on him. He just makes a face, flashes a smile, or makes a funny comment and it's very hard to keep a straight face and stay stern. For example, the other night I went in to put him back in bed and to tell him, again, to leave the vent alone. I said to him, "Deacon. Stay. In. Bed. Do you hear me?" He just sort of looked at me so I said, "Say it, Deacon" meaning, repeat the command to stay in bed, right. So he smiles a little smile, looks me straight in the eyes and says, "You hear me?" (Make sure you read that with a little bit of sass.) It was very hard to keep myself composed.

But that's our Deacon. And we love him.