Cousins!

the past two days have been filled with cousins! Deacon is fortunate enough (well I guess it is however you look at it) to be blessed with SO many cousins. One of the benefits of having a gazillion cousins is that they always gets to see each other!

Two days ago, my twin came over with her son Louis to have dinner. Theresa and I are single parents for the majority of the week due to our husbands' hectic work schedules, so we try to get together as much as we can to split up dinner duty.

Louis and Deacon are pretty much like twins...three months apart. Having them both around is like herding cats--a train wreck of sorts, but oh so awesome to be apart of. It is almost like Theresa and I have a constant front row seat to the coolest circus on the planet--ringling brothers--you better watch out! The two boys copy each other constantly, if one does something, the other one follows suit. If Louis falls to the ground, Deacon does the same thing. If Deacon jumps off the steps, Louis jumps too. I love this copy cat age--just watching them figure out the awkward social interaction phase they are in and testing the boundaries of what is and what is not "cool".

Don't let me fool you, though, as these two can FIGHT...boy oh boy do they fight. Theresa and I always just laugh it up and use it as learning experiences. We laugh because of the reason behind their fighting. For example, They got into a huge fight over the color of a backpack. Deacon was exclaiming it was red, Louis was exclaiming that it was Blue. They screamed over top each other, cried for their respective mommy and said, "He said the backpack was blue/red". Problem was Deacon was talking about Louis's backpack and Louis was talking about Deacon's. I laughed and laughed!

Another great cousin moment is unfolding as I type. Deacon is playing with his Cousin Tegan. I picked up them both from school today and headed back to my sister's house so the two could play. Tegan is a year older than Deacon and is into "making conversation" while Deacon isn't really grasping onto what "conversation" means...because he only communicates his wants and needs or his communication is totally "me" centered.

Listening to the two of them talk was almost like watching someone trying to put the opposite ends of magnents together! Nevertheless, they get a long so well and it is adorable to watch Tegan adapting to Deacon's level of understanding! For example, Tegan knew that Deacon LOVES Mr. David (A singer at their school) and so she said, "Aunt Anne, I think it would be a good idea if you played Mr. David right now. I think that would be good because we both like Mr. David." Deacon replied, "oh danks, Tegan." Once I began to play the music Deacon turned to Tegan and said, "I love you Tegan." He then continued to say, "oh man oh man, this is great, Mr. David is Awesome.!!!" Tegan just smiled so wide because she knew she was apart of creating a fun memory for Deacon. The entire ride home the two of them sang in unison all of the Mr. David songs I knew. I looked back and saw that they were holding hands! My heart melted! If it wasn't totally dangerous I would have snapped a picture but I didn't think doing that while drive 65mph was a good idea!

All in all, I am so grateful for my nieces and nephews--Deacon's cousins. They light his life with love and joy and I am so proud to be a witness to the wonderful relationships they are building with one another!