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Here's another thing that a friend of mine in the Army did: Take a picture of Daddy and get it enlarged. Any picture will do, as long as it has a clear picture of his face. When the toddler asks for Daddy, show him the picture.
My friend had a daughter that was born literally a day before we deployed. His wife took a picture of him holding her and blew it up to an 8x11. Every day before bed, the wife would kiss the picture while holding the baby. When the baby started vocalizing "dadadada", the wife help her up to the picture and would repeat "dadadada". Daddy had also taped himself reading bedtime stories, singing songs and generally doing silly stuff and would send them back while the wife sent back pictures of milestones (smiles, steps, vocalizing, etc).
When the friend came back from his deployment, the baby looked up at him and said "Dada!"
Every night before bed, have the toddler "kiss" Daddy goodnight (recommend you blow kisses or have plenty of glass cleaner, lol). Play a tape of Daddy singing and whenever the toddler asks for Daddy, pop in a tape of Daddy being silly.
When Daddy's birthday comes up, have the toddler make a card for him with lots of pictures of himself. Actually MAKE a card... with lots of finger paints and glue and construction paper and videotape the toddler doing it. Make a cake too and videotape the eating of the cake (for a great gag, take a picture of a piece of cake and send it to him). Have a party for him and let the toddler play party games (pin the tail on the donkey, red light/green light, so on and so forth).
I love the kisses thing, lol. I'm gonna have to use that when my hubby deploys.
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