No TickerTape Parade for us--just carrying on with Gabba and Passions.

You know in the movies when the soldiers are going away and the families gather on the tarmac and wave them off? And there is confetti and a congressman and some sort of banner?

We don't get that.

We get to go to the gym, eat danish and punch, and hang out for two hours, at which point a mean soldier says "Thanks for your support families, but we need to go. Soldiers, when I call your name put your bags here and get on the plane." Then the moms grab the kids and there is serious kid crying and wife crying and everyone gets in their cars and goes home.

But Jooj and I don't get that, either.

Because W has been named the mean soldier. He has to kick all of the ladies out. He has to get the refreshments and bus plans and meals for the flight and take care of it all. He has done this two times already and has decreed, in his infinite wisdom, that we will not be attending the farewell.

"I will not have you there making me cry," he says. "I won't be the guy who cries."

I am perfectly fine with that. I am more of a "with your shield or on it" wife. I don't think I could handle seeing him lose it. Mark my words, he will, but it will be on his terms. And that gives me comfort, somehow.

I have only seen him cry one time. It was during our wedding ceremony. He was sniffling and wiping his eyes and I thought "He loves me!" And then right after we went to kiss he whispered "These contacts are killing me!" and ran to the mirror to fix it. In perpetuity, as it were. Then he came back and was ready for the reception. It pretty much set the tone for our marriage.

So we are saying our goodbyes little by little throughout the weekend. On departure day he will go to work like usual, except he won't come home, kind of like usual. I will get a ride and pick up the car at some point, and then I will go on. We haven't talked with Jooj about it too much, because she is too little to grasp it. I will just tell her Papi is at work, then we will watch the video of ~J's dance recital girls and she will move forward.

I did take her to Build A Bear yesterday and she picked out a matching bear for herself and for W. She recorded a message for her Papi inside, "I Yuv Yu Pops!" and dressed him in a soccer outfit--all her choice. Her bear she wanted in an Army Uniform "Es yike me Papi!" and I brought home a thing for W to put a message in when he got home. As he unwrapped it, he got a little sniffly and wiped at his eyes. But Papo and Cay Cay got him Lasik few years back, so I knew it was real.