a visit from Grandpa & Grammy...

At the end of September, Jeff and I went to a conference in Wake Forest so my parents came down to stay with Deacon for a few days.  They had a blast, as usual.  And with their smart phone technology, they captured some of their time together...

 [they read LOTS of books over the weekend.]

 [and took LOTS of trips around the tracks over the weekend.]

[ I *AM* BATMAN.]

Thanks, Momma & Daddy, for taking such good care of our boy!  We know you had a good time, and Deacon loved having you here!

the book nook.

I love to read.  I remember going to the library with my mom & brother when we were little (and were out of school for summer with no jobs!  Ah, the good 'ole days...) and checking out the absolute maximum that they would let me get and reading through them in, like, 3 days.

 

Yeah, I love to read.

 

I'm hoping that Deacon will get that love of reading from me.  His Daddy doesn't have it -- or didn't have it until just recently, within the last year or so.  Deacon does love to look at books, and he's to the point now where he'll sit through actual "paper page" books.  You know what I mean, mamas.  Yeah, he'll sit all the way through to the end.  Excited about that!

 

Anyway, over the last 2.5 years of his life, he's been given a lot of books and we've had some in the living room and some in his own room.  I decided I wanted to combine them all into one special place in his room called "the book nook".  Eventually, I picture a cute little arm chair sitting in this area for Deacon to have some quiet time to sit and read any book he wants...

I kept a couple of diaper boxes and covered them in some kraft paper for the "shelving".  I cut out letters on my Cricut machine to put all over the outside box and then I lined the inside backs with some scrapbook paper I had that coordinated with the colors in his room already.

 

The letters on the wall were cut on my Cricut machine, too. 

 

It's nice to have all of Deacon's books in one place now (and there's less to clutter up the living room now, too. :).

 

 

just braggin' a little...

For your enjoyment today, just a few random photos of my boy...

I HAVE mentioned how hard it is to get a good sharp photo of him these days, right?  Yeah, I thought so.  We were just hanging out in the office/craft room listening to Daddy play his drum one night and I decided to get the camera out.   

 

I think I caught him mid-word here.  :)

 

Just had to share these -- his faces crack me up.  Especially when you look at them all together.  This was the exact order that we took them.  I think maybe in the first (top left) he was waiting for the flash?  I don't use flash if I can help it.  I most definitely didn't in these.  The bottom left is probably where I was trying to get him to smile so I told him to say "cheeeese".  It looks like he did.  :)

 

Y'all would not believe all that this kid can do at almost 2 years old.  This is probably the heart of every mama but I am SO proud of him.  :: heart bursting ::

 

I've always talked about him being a chatterbox and that hasn't changed -- it's just that now we can understand maybe 75% of what he says.  He's still got a little bit of that "japanese" he speaks going on, but he will attempt to say anything we ask him to.  And some things we DON'T ask him to, if you know what I mean.  :: raises eyebrow ::

 

He's close to knowing all his body parts and where they are.  He most definitely knows his first name and is just beginning to say his last name when we prompt him.  The way he says "Wenzel" is so cute.  :)  Well, that pretty much goes for anything he says, in my opinion.  He sings A LOT.  To himself, or with us.  I think his faves at this point are "Twinkle, Twinkle", the ABC song and he still likes "The Wheels on the Bus".  Jeff recently taught him "Jesus Loves the Little Children" and he likes that one, too.  He can finish parts of all the songs we sing together if we stop singing.  Such a smarty.  :)

 

He also knows who the best his fave baseball team is.  If you ask him who his fave baseball team is, he says "yyyyyyaaaaankeeeeees!!"  It's adorable how excited he gets.  We watch a lot of Yankees baseball in this house so he recognizes the Yankees logo and even the MLB logo, hello!  Jeff loves that!

 

He is especially into trains, specifically Thomas, right now.  He likes trucks and fire engines (which are referred to as buses, for some reason -- I guess they do look more like a bus than a truck...), and still loves to sit in your lap and look at books.  He's beginning to let us read to him more than just wanting to flip through the pages as fast as he can and move on.  He's still got that 10 sec attention span, but he will actually point out things on the pages to us, or answer questions that we ask about what's on the page.  I'm so glad he loves books.  :)

 

We FINALLY got him to say the number 1!  Right up until this week, probably, he would NOT say "one".  When we would ask him to say "one", he would skip right to 2.  Well, now he's started counting with 1...2...4...6...7...9...10.  We're missing some numbers, sure, but the important one at this point is 2 and he's had that one for AWHILE.

 

There are so many little things -- triumphs, sweet (as well as frustrating) moments, etc. that I haven't included in my general summary here of life with our toddler but we are enjoying every single moment, watching Deacon grow and change.  I just wanted to share a little of that with you.  :)

 

[22 months]

more family to meet!

We had the opportunity at the end of August to travel up to Maryland to see some of my dad's side of the family that we hadn't seen in quite awhile -- more importantly, this was family that still had yet to meet our sweet boy!

 

The drive is just under 7 hours travel so it was the longest trip we've taken so far (driving).  Deacon did really great in the car.  I won't say he's the best car rider, even for short trips here and there.  But what am I saying?  There are never any "short trips" for us -- we live so far out in the boonies.  :)  Well, I take that back.

 

It's a pretty short drive to the beach.

 

I guess we can forgive all others.  :)

 

Aaaaanyway, back to our trip.  We went armed prepared with some toys, his blanket & lovey that he sleeps with, and a DVD player with fresh new movies to watch.  But actually, he slept a lot of the time and was just overall a good rider.  Praise Jesus!

 

On the other side of our trip, my aunt & uncle and grandmother (Deacon's great grandmother), and my two cousins and their families were waiting to meet Deacon.  It was a whirlwind trip but we got to spend some good time with everyone...

 

[reading with Aunt Janie]

 

[sleeeeepy boy...Uncle Bob's deep rumbly voice almost knocked him out!]

 

 

She enjoyed Deacon so much!  And he was so sweet with her.  He liked reading books with her and just climbed right up in her lap here.  I know she ate it up!  She tried to get her fill of kisses and "love yous" when she had the chance.  :)

 

 

[life of the party right here, baby!]

 

Mirah, my cousin's daughter, turned 12 the day we arrived so we were able to celebrate with her with pizza and cake, yum!  Christi, Ted & Mirah all thought Deacon was fun.  :)

 

 

And this is my other cousin, Melinda and her husband, Matt.  They enjoyed Deacon, too, but in a different way, I'm sure, considering that they are expecting their first child in January, and they found out a couple days before we got there that their little peanut is a BOY!

 

I am so glad that we were able to get up to see this side of my family.  We certainly don't get to see them as much due to the distance, but it was special to be able to spend time with all of them while we were there.