If seeing is believing, then Alix and Aster are some of the most daring babies around.
The 4- and 2-year old girls from Antwerp, Belgium, are regularly seen barbecuing, smoking, flying away, dangling from the side of a hot air balloon, reading up on world domination, or getting into other risky hijinks in a series of hilariously photoshopped pictures with their hapless dad, Kenny Deuss.
Deuss started the prank on girlfriend Tineke Vanobbergen after she went back to work following the birth of their first daughter in 2019. Vanobbergen, anxious about leaving the first-time dad with a three-month old, asked for photos throughout the day as a sign that the two were OK.
"At first I was like, OK, I can send a photo. But then she kept asking for more," Deuss said. "I was like ... maybe I can do something funny with this."
The first prank photo Deuss sent to Vanobbergen was a lighthearted gag – Little Alix, holding an astronaut's helmet and ready for liftoff.
Vanobbergen was confused but seemed to take it well enough – so Deuss decided to take things a little further.
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The joke became a weekly habit between the new parents, and that weekly tradition bore out an Instagram page for friends and family. The account, @OnAdventuresWithDad, went viral in 2021.
The couple welcomed Alix's little sister, Aster, that same year.
Deuss, who works part time as a light and sound technician, says he has "hundreds" of photos that haven't been released to fans and other exasperated parents looking for some comic relief – but the dad of two and now family content creator is branching off into videos and more parenting-centric content with the help of mom.
"We have fun as a family [creating content]. I don't want this to feel like a job, or work," Deuss said. "It has to be fun."
Part of the page's new strategy is to focus less on the solo-dad gag.
The shift in content is to prepare for when Alix or Aster wants to leave social media fame behind.
"You never know if they turn 6, for example, and the children are like, 'I don't want to be on social media anymore,'" Deuss said. "I'm trying to keep that in mind. If they don't want to be on social media – it's their choice."
While the images are realistic enough to give any new parent pause, the overall reaction to his years-long prank has been mostly positive.
"People get the joke. It's very rare that somebody's angry about this content, even though there's a line where [the depictions] gets a bit dangerous," Deuss said.
While the Photoshopped collection started as a prank on their mom, Deuss now considers the photos "something special" that their family of four share – and there are no plans to stop.
"I will be [making content] as long as I can, and as long as people love what I do," Deuss said. "There's lots more to come."
As for Tineke Vanobbergen, for whom Deuss launched a thousand (photoshopped) babies? She creates content of a staider variety on her own page, @SafeWithMum.
