Sunday, May 15, 2011

Daddy's Kisses

I am a sap for the Lifetime Show Coming Home. Though we have not had been through long-term deployments (so far) as a military wife I relate well to the families presented on the show. Being pregnant and emotional, I end up crying all the way through the show. Well anyway the other day on the show they presented a mom whose husband was deployed. The way her daughters counted the days till he came home was by counting Hershey's Chocolate Kisses. The Mom set aside the same amount of kisses as were days until Dad came home. Every night before the kids went to bed Mom would let the kids have on chocolate kiss and they would count the remaining kisses. I love this idea for a few reasons. 1) It is simple. I need simple. 2) It is a great ritual for including Dad in their every day lives. 3) It is a wonderful, concrete, and hands-on way for the children to know how many days are left till his arrival home. 4) Daddy can still give them a night time "kiss" even from many miles away.
So needless to say we are doing this activity this week. Every morning Asher asks, "Are we picking up Daddy today?" I thought this might curve some of that. I think it will also give Asher more control in understanding how many days until Daddy comes home. I also thought that this would be a good time to pray for Dad. 
7 night-time kisses set aside for each boy in their own baggie.
 We started the activity last night. I thought it might be a bit difficult with Caleb. I didn't know if he would understand that he couldn't eat all of the candy right away. No worries. He followed brother's lead and just took one piece of candy and put the rest of his candy in the bag. This morning Asher DID NOT ask if Dad were coming home today. He did however mention that there were six more pieces of candy till Dad got home. Yay!!! It works!!! 
Who knew Daddy's kisses were so sweet?
We are very blessed that Daddy is only on a short trip. Even though any time away from Daddy is hard on the boys, these short stints are good practice for when he will be gone longer. Plus I will for sure be using the "Daddy's Kisses" activity on any future trips Adam will be making for work. 
Praise goodness for the Coming Home show. Even if it does make me bawl like a baby.

(As a quick aside: Even short TDY's give me much appreciation for the Dad's and Mom's who have missed far too many night time kisses with their children because they were serving our country. God bless them all.)

1 comment:

  1. What a great idea! I have followed you guys since your caring bridge page started, but lost you somehow for a few years. I can't believe how far Asher has come!!! He is such a big boy!! You will have to post a video for us soon so we can hear his voice!!

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