Day 250: Day 1: The first day.

We wake at 5am. I doze as long as I can before he calls me to get up. In 5 minutes I manage to dress myself and get both children bundled up and out the door. I drive as he sorts out his head. Silence.

We swear about traffic, I ask if he's got everything. "Good enough." he says. Then it hits me that he's leaving and we get the kids involved. Fun stuff we're going to do, upcoming parties, a big birthday. To me, 5 is huge.

We pull up to the base, show our ID, and drive in and up to the ship. So big and impressive among themselves. I love going down to the dockyard...

He kisses me, he kisses him, he kisses her, he kisses me. In that order.

Everytime.

And we watch him walk up the ramp and out of sight. "Bye Daddy." We say. Then we slowly drive away talking about where Daddy is going and how much fun he's going to have. What an adventure...once in a lifetime.

"Timmy's!" I proclaim. "Yeah. Timmy's!!!" she joyously hollers.

I pull up to Tim`s, we wait in line. 1 medium, 2 cream and a 10 pack of timbits with 2 old-fashioned plain for Buddy. It's always Julie who's at the intercom.

On the 5 minute drive home, we each have 2. Then we count how many they gave us (because sometimes they give us a couple extra). Home, struggle into the house, kids in jammies, blankies hanging everywhere. Coats off, up the stairs, plunked down in front of the tv to eat 1 last bit. I sit with the last of my coffee at the dining table with my computer booted ready to read email, check my stocks, check Groupon, check my two favourite blogs. Then, with last drips of coffee sucked from the paper cup, I realize we've got to go before it's too late. And we rush out the door dressed in raingear, a bucket and shovels, my camera and my tripod.

We go to the beach every time he goes away. I watch the harbour, bated breath, for the first signs of ship: the white plume of smoke, grey movement against the dark hills. I say "Look at Daddy's ship!" atleast 50 times. My daughter looks, she waves, she calls out, "Bye Daddy!!" then she gets to playing in the sand. Buddy just plays in the sand. They both tolerate me taking timed pictures over and over until the ship is out of sight.

Then we're on our own.