Day One

In order to comfort the kids, I have been telling them that we will surely miss Daddy on this deployment, but that it will be an adventure and we will do fun things together to pass the time. I realized today that is an abstract statement and while it probably sounds appealing, they have no idea what to expect. Therefore, I am planning on doing something special with them every day (and not beating myself up if I fall short on some days). It doesn't have to be anything big, just something like playing a game together or allowing them to sleep in my room one night on the weekend (that is huge, we NEVER let them sleep in our room).

The kids got a Hallmark book for Christmas from my mom where you can record a voice reading the book and we had DJ record the story for them so they could play it at night. I also ordered Zoe a Daddy Doll which she loves and is already carrying everywhere she goes.

Today, I stopped by the public library and checked out the book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. When the kids got home from school, I read it to them and we made Flat Zoe and Flat Noah and decorated them to send to Daddy in his first care package. Zoe insisted we make Flat Mommy and Flat Lindy (the dog) as well. They had a blast making them, and we had Zoe's Daddy Doll sitting in the empty chair at the table to preside over the festivities.

Notice Daddy Doll sitting in the chair

left to right: Flat Zoe, Flat Mommy, Flat Lindy, Flat Noah

After we were done, I told them I had another special treat. I found a tiny little cake at the grocery store today for $2.99 and bought it as a celebration of making it through our first day of the deployment. Of course they loved it- who doesn't love cake?

One day behind us. Approximately 119 to go.