Okay so today was a good day! We pretty much kept busy all day, which was good for me and Kaydence. We spent the morning around the house just having some nice mommy daughter time, which is always nice! It just makes me sad that Kaydence isn't having the same opportunity to spend time with Miles, but I do make a conscious effort to talk about him all day every day. I do not want her to forget who he is or what he looks like or anything like that. I also talk to her about what daddy is doing and why he is not here. She may only be ten months old, but I talk to her just like I would another adult. We met Miles' mom for lunch at the Mexican restaurant; my favorite!!! We had a very nice lunch. We talked as my child stuck her nose into everyone around us' conversations. I have no idea where she get that from...lol! Afterward I took Kaydence to the Columbus Museum. They have an area on the first floor that is just for children and it is all interactive. Kaydence had the best time. Even though she was not fully able to play with everything or do all of the activities they have set up she just had fun being in a new place around new people. She made her daddy a little piece of artwork. I try to let her do a little something every day so that we can send it in the letters that I send him. After the museum we ran a few more errands and headed home. We played, ate dinner, played some more, took a bath and went to bed. Its nice having Kaydence go through all this with me. That may sound weird, but it is. She always keeps me on my toes. There really isn't ever a dull moment in our house except when she is asleep, and still our three dogs keep me pretty entertained. Its more like I have four children.

Okay so I just wanted to share some pictures that we took the few days before Miles left. Including Kaydence's first flight and a few from when we returned back home...




This is my sweet child hiding in her closet with my phone! Too CUTE!




This is Kaydence climbing the stairs for the first time. It took a few tries, but she almost made it to the top.



Here is our big girl standing all by herself...next thing I know she'll be running circles around me!






And this was the result after her first spaghetti dinner...NICE!

Surviving His First Deployment

Kaydence laid there squirming all around fighting her sleep because she is having to share a bed with mommy and daddy tonight and that is the last thing that this sweet child wants to do. I lay next to her with tears in my eyes as I watch my husband doing his nightly routine: shaving, brushing his teeth, putting on deodorant, just normal things, but this time it was different because I realized as I laid there that my husband was getting ready to go to war. We've know it was coming for a while, but now that its happening it is so surreal. I guess I was hoping that at the last minute the Marine Corps would call and say no sorry change of plans; were not going the war is over. Nice dream huh? Well i knew that that was not going to happen, but I can hope, right? Miles came over after getting ready and laid down with us. I slipped out of the bed so that Miles could get Kaydence to sleep considering she just wanted to play with me, but she knows that her daddy is serious. I sat on the floor for a few minutes before Miles joined me. Our 10 month old now had a king sized bed all to herself. Nice. I laid my head on miles cheek and felt tears. Now this was a big surprise to me. Miles isn't really the kind of man to cry over anything...he just deals with it. But I guess when it comes to a daddy having to leave his daughter for so long...that does something to a man, and for good reason. We finally managed to get some sleep that night after all of the good-bye phone calls. We woke early in the morning around 1:30 to take Miles onto base where he would soon depart from us all for the next 7 months. It was a hard good bye, but we all got through it. I'm not sure how he took it once we left, but I know that I almost had to pull over because I couldn't stop crying. I really thought that I would be able to keep it together, but I guess not. That is okay though crying is good just as long as you don't let it consume you.

Miles has been gone for four days now and it has not been that terrible considering I have gotten to talk to him everyday so far. Were not too sure when that will end, but I'm sure that it will be sometime soon. I'm thinking that the first two months will be okay as far as being apart because we've been apart for at least that long before; it's just going to be difficult not being able to talk to each other. And I figure that after that its just going to be rough and I'm going to have to have something to keep me and Kaydence busy everyday.

I've found plenty of military wives blogs and people giving a generic outline of what to do and how to deal with deployments, but I just want to give a day to day account of how I am dealing with his first deployment while trying to keep a normal household for our daughter (not letting her forget who daddy is) and keeping strong through friends, family and faith.