Albundy, on the subject of missing one of your little ones birthdays, my husband flew out on 3rd Jan and it was my youngest daughters birthday on the 10th Jan. We celebrated it the week before and my husband bought her a 'speacial' present. She enjoyed having two birthdays :-).

Also, with my husband being over here, I ended up selling our house, finding a rented house for a few months, packing to move house twice and sorting out getting all of our stuff shipped over here, so although it was 7 months we were apart, it was quite an eventful 7 months which just flew by. Hopefully your wife will have a similar experience. The time going fast, that is!!!