Photo by Erroll L. Brunson Nine-year-old Brandon (left) and three-year-old Maleak Brunson (right) pose beside the ‘flat mommy’ version of their mom (center).

Brunsonís husband, Erroll, placed the ìFlat Mommy,î a life-size, waist-up picture of his wife, on the bedroom wall for their two sons, Maleak and Brandon, so their mom is the first person they see when they wake up in the morning.

Sgt. 1st Class Graphics in Toledo, Ohio prints the life-size photograph posters of Soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan as a part of their Flat Daddies program, which was created about a year ago to help children stay connected to their deployed parents.

ìMy mommyís cute,î said 3-year-old Maleak when he first saw his new ìflat mommy..î

ìItís nice to have a life-size picture of her,î said Erroll.

Families receiving the prints often choose to cut out the image of their loved one and post it to foam or cardboard, making it two-dimensional and easier to include the deployed parent in their daily lives: at the dinner table, soccer games, or cat naps in front of the TV.

ìMy husband had always taken the children to school and with this Flat Daddy, he will be able to ride with us,î said Melissa, whose husband is in Afghanistan.

The spouse of a deployed family member can visit the www.flatdaddies.com Web site to order a free flat daddy or mom-my. As of July, the company had received more than 3,000 orders on their Web site and shipped out more than 1,500, producing a growing backlog.

ìOur current resources and sponsor commitments enable us to produce around 60 Flat Daddies per week, which does not even come close to meeting the demand that we are seeing daily,î said Eric Crockett, National Program Director for Sgt. 1st Class Flat Daddies. He said the company seeks corporate sponsors and donations to continue offering the service free of charge to Soldiers and their families.

ìThis is good for families with small children,î said Erroll. ìI am very proud of her [Capt. Brunson] and canít wait until she comes back home to us.î