1 year old - DH

[LaDonna]

My little girl has just turned one and her daddy is being deployed in a few weeks. Any fun ideas or suggestions on getting her involved (as much as a toddler could be)? Ways to help her remember her daddy, and to help make care packages, etc.

[llove12]

The only thing I can think of is having her color a picture for him. DH is in boot camp and our son is 14 months old. I had our son color a pciture of a teddy bear holding a heart for Valentine's Day. It took a lot of different sittings but he did it. And, when I type his letter sometime AJ presses buttons and I tell him the AJ is saying hi, too.

[itsalwaysme]

My husband LOVED getting the boxes with the pictures all over them! We they got delivered to his shop, they always knew right where they went!

[nana_bear15]

Daddy dolls are great. I had DH record his voice when he was reading stories and I used to play it for the girls at night. They were much smaller of course. Get them a Tshirt that says I miss daddy. A picture of him in her room. Little stuff. Care packages would be fun to make with toddlers!!

[NavyChiefs_Wife]

What I did was talk about him a lot, make sure I have lots of pictures around the house so that she could see him and make sure that I told her that was daddy. We made things for him, anytime he sent me pictures I let her see them. Let her hear his voice when he calls. There isn't a whole lot you can do to help a one year old remember. Cause even after all I did she was still kinda afraid of him when he came, but it didn't take her long to warm up to him. Good luck!

[HuskerFan]

DD got to 'write' her own letters to daddy. I'd give her a pen and paper and let her have at it. She got to color on the envelope and it would be addressed with her own address label and sealed with a ladybug sticker. DH loved it, LOL! She also got to color on all our boxes.

As far as remembering, I recorded his last couple days at home and we would watch them almost every day. We also had "the daddy show" on the computer, just a really quick power point I threw together that had all the pics of ONLY my DH in it, and every time he sent us a new pic I added it to the show. DD could sit there for hours and watch it.

[*Realized*]

I am getting ready to go through this too Ladonna. I am worried about Bailey.

[sandykay]

YDS is amost 3 and DD is almost 8mths, we webcam to DH once a week the kids also have a Daddy Doll each, and a build-a-bear (you can get cute uniforms for them too) with a voice recorder in it. We talk about daddy all the time. the boys draw pictures for him, they help me pic what goes in the care packages. You could also send one of her toys over and have your DH take pics of the toy doing stuff with him and send them back to her . Hope some of those suggestions help. Also check and see if your family support centre has programs for deployed spouses and kids.

[magsloveskev]

We have a 13 month old. I let DS color in coloring book for DH, scribble on paper, finger paint(that was a personal fave of all 3 of us!!)...artsy things like that DS and DH love. While doing it you can just talk about daddy, how much he misses him, how he has his eyes...etc. DH made a video of him reading to ds before he left, but the military also offers a free program called United Through Reading where the deployed loved one can pick a book, video tape himself reading it, leave a message for child and spouse, then mail it home(sometimes with the actual book). That would be a really great thing for your DH to look into. We never got the daddy doll, but we were able to get a free 'flat daddy'. DH and I think it's kinda creepy, but DS LOVES IT!! Oh and we have pics of daddy all over the house.

[llove12]

Originally Posted by magsloveskev We have a 13 month old. I let DS color in coloring book for DH, scribble on paper, finger paint(that was a personal fave of all 3 of us!!)...artsy things like that DS and DH love. While doing it you can just talk about daddy, how much he misses him, how he has his eyes...etc. DH made a video of him reading to ds before he left, but the military also offers a free program called United Through Reading where the deployed loved one can pick a book, video tape himself reading it, leave a message for child and spouse, then mail it home(sometimes with the actual book). That would be a really great thing for your DH to look into. We never got the daddy doll, but we were able to get a free 'flat daddy'. DH and I think it's kinda creepy, but DS LOVES IT!! Oh and we have pics of daddy all over the house.

That's a nice idea. Militaryonesource.com also has a bunch of resources about it including a video with Elmo and friends. I got one for DS who's now 17 months, but he won't sit stilllong enough to watch it.