Army Brats

I want to share my Army Brats stories with you. Normally when I blog about my kids like this, I start with the oldest and work my way down, so thought I would change it up a little and start with the youngest. In honor of it being the Month of the Military Child, I'd like to introduce my youngest "Brat", Roman Gianmarco... Roman has had a different lifestyle than the older kiddos. He had the luxury of daddy already having an established career so weekends with daddy were pretty normal-Not so with the older kids. So, like most Army Brats, Roman was born in an Army Hospital. He entered the world at Ft Leonard Wood Missouri-Home of the MP CORPS!!! No pressure kid but being an MP should be your destiny! Anyhow, Roman is our 6th child. Not until he was born did we feel completion for our family(NOW after having Roman for 5 years, its a pretty good thing he was our last-We are TOO old for his crazy, daredevilish self....) So, when Roman was born he had a father in the Army and a brother that was moments away from leaving for basic training to become a soldier and a big sister that was ready for her adventure in life as an Army wife with her love, Blake... At the ripe old age of 2, Roman was on his way with his first PCS!!! We were headed to Ft Bliss!!!! Upon arrival we found out daddy would be deploying soon(we just said goodbye to big brother Nick who was already in Iraq at this time) So, we savored every minute with daddy. Lots of why's and how comes? Little fellas don't understand so we explain as best as we could. As the deployment was getting closer, time with daddy was less and less(normal when daddy is a 1SG and trying to make sure his soldiers were ready for this) But Roman didn't seem to mind, he liked taking daddy dinner at the office. He liked seeing all the soldiers and playing with the other brats there spending time with their daddies and mamas. So the ick day finally arrived and Roman was NOT thrilled with it, I kept telling him that it was okay and that daddy would be home-I even did the CARDINAL sin and PROMISED daddy would come back to us-BLAH. I reminded him that daddy is a soldier and needs to go help people sometimes and this was that time. I told him that we needed to be brave and say bye bye to daddy and have big smiles and hugs because it would be a while before we got to see him. So he did a wonderful job saying goodbye and watching his whole world drive away in a bus(he is going to hate busses, LOL He had the same situation months earlier with his big brother) So I put them in the carseats and stood at the back "pretending" to be putting the stroller away and had my moment, dried my tears and sat down in the car and he looked at me and said "Don't cry mama, don't cry" . Little smarty pants. So he endured a year without his daddy.. I had to play stand in for the monster that eats baby feetsies.. I had to be daddy and mama to him and he had to learn that mommy is NOT daddy, LOL.. We all survived that deployment and when daddy stepped off the plane, Roman wouldnt let the strongest man on earth come between him and his daddy.. Military brats are AMAZING, strong, resiliant, compassionate, funny and brave.... To my little baby brat, thank you for making me laugh and thank you for being so brave and good.