The last time Nick and I had no communication for an extended period of time was almost 3 years ago when he was in Afghanistan.
I feel like such a rookie, cause it's only been 2 days, and I'm going crazy not hearing from him or receiving a text from him....
How did I survive his two Afghanistan deployments?!?!
Heck, at this point, I'll take smoke signals.
It's also driving me crazy that I can't share cute photos and videos that I take during the day of the kids with him.
I realized that this age of smart phones and internet has really fed my need for "instant gratification".
"I want to send him to photo NOW."
"He NEEDS to see the adorable video I just took NOW."
Now.
Now.
Now.
So, I guess this time of no communication can be a good thing.
I'm going through "instant gratification" withdrawals right now.
This separation has been the hardest on Dannika.
I've never had her actually tell me how much she misses daddy before.
She laid down on her stomach on my bed tonight, wrapped up in her towel after her bath while staring blankly at my comforter.
I asked her what was wrong, and she told me she was "a little sad".
It breaks my heart, because I know that it's just gonna get harder as she gets older.
She LOVES her daddy doll, but she's never been so attached to it until now.
I'm just trying to do my best to remind her everyday how much daddy loves her, and that he will be back home.
Since I can't share my adorable park photos that I took today of my kids and me with Nick, I shall share them with you...
It looks like I'm trying to choke my son...
Rest assured, I wasn't.
My son is always "Mr. Serious", so when I can get a laughing, smiling, or just an expression of his in a photo that's not serious...it's a good day.
This picture makes me laugh, cause she jumped on this rock and proclaimed that she was the Statue of Liberty.
After dinner, we all went on a walk around our neighborhood.
Have you ever heard of a balance bike?
It's basically a bike with no training wheels or pedals.
It sits low to the ground so that both feet can touch flat on the ground on either sides.
It teaches kids balance, and gets them on a bike without training wheels!
After attempting last Fall to take D's training wheels off of her bike, we gave up.
She outgrew her little princess bike though, and when we bought her a bigger bike this Spring, she was still not ready or confident enough to take the training wheels off.
Nick had a genius idea to turn her old bike that she had outgrown into a balance bike.
He just took the pedals, gears, and training wheels off of it.
She can cruise pretty far on it, and in a few weeks, I'm confident she'll be on her big bike with no training wheels!
I'm hoping the week flies by, because these first two days have not.
I'm doing my best to keep myself and kids busy so we don't have too much down time to think about it.
Oh wow I'm thankful I haven't went through a deployment yet. I would probably go crazy as well! That daddy doll is adorable though, I'm going to get one of those for my little man if daddy ever gets deployed! Did you get it online??
ReplyDelete-Marley
http://www.afandlove.blogspot.com/
How creative is Nick! I've seen balance bikes online and they can get expensive! So what a great idea to take a bike she's already outgrown and modify it! Wish my husband was handy when it came to those kinds of things! :)
ReplyDeleteThe no communication thing was huge for me too. I have no idea how I did 15 months when he was deployed, only talking maybe once a week. But OCS was crazy. haha! I wanted to send him pictures of Pierce when he was born and he wouldn't get them till he checked his phone a few days later. But you can do it!!
ReplyDeleteIt's always so hard when daddy's go away. Tom is away at NCOA and Natalie misses him like crazy.
ReplyDeleteI have heard of balance bikes. We never had one, but a friend's kid did and Natalie used it a few times.
Awe, I can't imagine. Makes a tough situation even tougher when the little ones are feeling it so hard. Stay strong mama.. you'll hear from him soon enough!
ReplyDeleteIt is so tough to not be able to talk to them whenever we want to! I find myself going to text kev all the time and then forgetting that he doesnt have a phone! Hang in there Momma
ReplyDeleteGreat advice! Thanks for adding to the discussion.Thanks for putting this together! It looks very cool so far. I’ll be checking back to see the full plans.
ReplyDeleteThis would be great for my girls right now. They are both trying to learn to ride without training wheels.Love his smile in the last picture! Thank you for the link to the balance bike.very cute.
ReplyDelete