Spilled Perfume

I mentioned that Ben picked out some special gifts for each of the kids. One of the things he got Rhone was a bottle cologne. 

Rhone started noticing that Ben put on cologne whenever we get ready for church or dressed up nice to go out. Rhone loves going into the bathroom with Daddy to get his hair combed and a little spritz. He comes out so proud and I always talk about how handsome he is. 

Rhone was so excited after opening it  when he realizing what it was. Ben talked about how he was the big guy in the house so he got his own, but this also meant he had to be Mom's helper. It was pretty sweet and Rhone readily agreed that he would be the "man of the house". 

Rhone treated it so carefully and would talk about Ben and being handsome every time he sprayed it. He left it up high so that Sylvie wouldn't get it. 

About 2 days after Ben left, I heard a crash from the kitchen. I rushed in, to see what had happened. There stood Rhone with tears streaming down his face. The bottle covered the floor in tiny black bits. The smell of knock of Calvin Klein (you didn't think we but name brand for a 4 year old) filled my house. My sweet little guy was so, so devastated. He kept saying, "now I won't be able to remember Daddy". 

Rhone had been putting the lid back on his bottle when it slipped to side and crashed to the tile floor. It really and truly was an accident. Luckily miss Sylvie was napping so she wasn't trying to get into the mess and walk through the glass. We cleaned up all the glass, mopped up yhe liquid, and flung open the windows to try and get the smell out. 

Sometimes you just have to cry over spilled "perfume". When our house finally stopped smelling, I let Rhone get another bottle if "Tahoe" at Target and the man if the house is handsome again. 

D Day

"D" day came- deployment day, departure day, the dreaded day- whatever you want to call it. There was no putting it off. 

The night before we had a party.  I had arranged for a friend to make a jumbo cupcake for the holidays Ben was missing. This way the kids would have a chance to celebrate with their dad. We had presents and a few decorations. We each gave Ben a special thing to take with him and Ben had some special gifts for the kids too. He picked things he thought they would really love. He also got us (especially Rhone) an iPad mini. Ben set up Rhone his own account so they could send messages to each other. The night before Ben and I stayed up late recording Ben reading some of their favorite books too. It was a fun night and so glad we were actually able to surprise Ben with our little celebration. 

The airport was such a whirl. We didn't have much time to spare. I dropped Ben and all his gear off. Then, I parked and headed in with the kids. The airport has a train to the terminal. Rhone gave Ben his special gift (one of his toy airplanes), gave everyone a hug and got on the train. There was no time for tears and words. Rhone was confused, it was so hard to watch him. He wanted to get on that train with Ben so bad. But he didn't. Miss Sylvie just waved her little heart out the whole walk back out of the airport.

I didn't particularly want to drive the truck into downtown Sacramento, but the thought of heading to an empty (and still very messy house from our trip) was not welcoming either. So the kids and I headed to Fairy Tale Land. It was a gorgeous day. They played and dressed up and danced on the stage. It was so fun to watch them play and explore. Just because it was a bad day doesn't mean that there isn't something good in it. I am so blessed to be their momma and we are so blessed to have Ben in our family. 

These are out of order from my phone and once again I don't have the photos from my camera.