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He made it!

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Our first brief Skype:

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He popped up in gmail instant messaging asking where I was. I asked where HE was! He meant he was trying to connect on Skype but I wasn’t logged on. My laptop lost its webcam somehow so I can only use the iPad, iPhone, or desktop computer…so I logged on with my phone!

It was just about two minutes—long enough to say he got there with no issues and he loves us! The connection wasn’t great—there was a big lag and I could still only make out about half of what he said. But it’s a start!

I love technology. 🙂

Goodbyes

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Tom’s unit wasn’t scheduled to depart until 6:30-7, but we went about 4:30 because the waiting was just THE WORST. I knew we wouldn’t stay the entire time (to actually see them off) because I knew I couldn’t keep from breaking down that long. And it was about eleventy billion degrees and humid and the kids needed to eat dinner. Tom was perfectly okay with an early goodbye.

This is what the staging area looked like (forgive the bad pictures—I only had my phone)—piles and piles of bags and gear, hundreds of people, and lots of trucks.

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Of course, now that Katie can walk, she really did NOT want to be held…so we just let her roam and she had a blast. She had a few tumbles because the ground was fairly uneven—but she didn’t let that stop her!

More than a few people commented on how cute she was, how cute her dress was, and how good she was at walking.

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That’s Tom taking her picture.

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Then as I was trying to get a picture of Tom and Katie, one of Tom’s buddies stepped in to take a family picture. Amazingly, he took two and one was halfway good!

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Hugging daddy before getting in the car. I know he understands that Tom is leaving, but I really thought he’d be a bit more emotional—but he seemed kind of lackadaisical about it.

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Then Tom and I hugged and kissed goodbye, he walked off, and I got in the car…and Owen started crying. 🙁 I got out to give him some tissue and a kiss, and of course seeing him break down made it worse for me…

THANKFULLY it didn’t last too long—we passed by a playground on the way off base and he said he wanted to go! Well, it was too late for that one (I wanted to be closer to home if either of them got tantrum-y) so I took a different route home so we could stop at a playground…

It’s okay, mom.

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So Tom just drove off. He has to be in early to drop off all his bags and pick up his weapon, etc. (We go in at 6 to see him off.)

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Of course, I’m an emotional wreck today, so cried after he left.

Owen: Mama, what’s wrong?
Me: I miss daddy.
Owen: [Singing, from Daniel Tiger] Grooo-oooown-ups come back!
Me: You’re right. Can I have a hug?
We hug. I’m still crying.
Owen: It’s okay mom.

/bawl

It’s the stupid little things.

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Tom leaving is always hard, and as the time draws nearer, it gets exponentially harder. But there are stupid little things that you don’t think about or don’t expect.

One of Owen’s random cartoons this morning (that we’ve never watched before) played Pachelbel’s Canon in D. SERIOUSLY?!? A song from our wedding? The day he leaves? Sure, THAT won’t set me off. 😐

Tom’s side of the bed cleaned up.

His side of the sink cleaned out.

His stuff not in the shower.

His shoes not on the rack.

The remnants of his last-minute packing on the kitchen table.

The random shirt hanging over the tub.

It’s seemingly never ending.

After a few days none of it will really bother me, but for now…it really sucks.

Last family photos

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I had grand plans of hiring a photographer to take a real family portrait before Tom left…but that obviously never happened. So I had to make do with a last-minute haphazard couch photo shoot before we went out for dinner.

How Katie likes sitting with Tom.

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*This post also introduces a new acronym for photo tagging purposes: JTOK (Jen Tom Owen Katie). I’ll be going back and tagging old family photos. 🙂

Daddy’s Deployed Book

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So, in addition to the Daddy Dolls, I also got Owen a personalized book called Daddy’s Deployed. Of course I had it for two months before I could even bear to read it myself…and then I made Tom read it to Owen the first time because I knew I wouldn’t be able to get through it without crying (I was sitting behind Owen so he couldn’t see me). Owen did pretty well during the story, but did get a little teary and sad. Especially on the page where we’re all saying goodbye to daddy with sad faces. 🙁

But he asked to read it again the next night…and it was up to me. I steeled myself and got through it…even with Owen being sad again.

He’s also been sad on and off throughout the day for a few days now…back to saying how much he misses his daddy. 🙁 Thankfully it’s not as bad as its been in the past…but I’m keeping my fingers crossed anyway.

So then this afternoon Tom overheard Owen playing:

Owen: When daddy is deployed we are going to send him letters and packages and call and Skype and he will love it!

Awwww.

Daddy Dolls

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We decided to get the kids Daddy Dolls and this morning was the deployment, so-to-speak. I thought Owen would be THRILLED…but as you can see, he was LESS than thrilled…even asking for another surprise.

However, he eventually did like it…

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And even co-opted Katie’s doll…

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Throughout the day, he kept going back to his doll, saying he was “going to go get his surprise.” 🙂

Katie, of course, chewed daddy’s face—since everything goes in her mouth (I didn’t get a good picture of it), but she did play with it later in the day.

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Afghanistan is looming…

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Well, the time is drawing near…we’re down to about 2–3 weeks. The original departure date was around August 1–5 but Tom has said that it might be a few days later. As far as I’m concerned, they can just as easily say it will be a few days earlier so I take every piece of news with a grain of salt.

That said, right now, the plan is for Tom to be gone about eight months. I still can’t believe I have two kids this time around. Looking back, 13 months by myself was a piece of cake compared to what I have in front of me this time (believe me, even though I’m glad it’s only eight and not 12 or 13 months…it will still feel like a LOOOONG time). Of course there is a SLIGHT chance he could be home earlier—but he’ll have no idea until after he gets there and things start moving along. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he’ll be home by Owen’s fifth birthday (February 2) but of course (!) I don’t plan on it. There’s that grain of salt thing again. (Also, return dates as early as December have been tossed around but I have ZERO hope of those happening. I take that one with a salt shaker’s worth of salt.)

Owen still seems to be doing okay. Every once in awhile he’ll say he doesn’t want daddy to go away and that he’ll miss him. I tell him I will miss him, too—and that daddy will definitely miss us. I asked if he wanted to see on a map where daddy would be and he said yes—but didn’t really seem that interested (though I’m really thinking he just couldn’t comprehend it). We’ll keep trying. We also have a big calendar to X off each day—since you can’t really expect him to understand MONTHS of time.

I do have Tom’s actual address already and will be emailing it to family but will post it on the Afghanistan Info page (linked in the static menu bar above) once he actually arrives there. There is also a new Goodies page and a USPS Shipping page linked as well.