Peekaboo Kisses By: Barney Saltzberg

If you are looking for a fantastic book to get for a baby up to a preschooler this is it.   This book covers all the basis of a great book to keep a little one occupied!  A sturdy board book that is touch and feel, with lift up flaps, a squeaker, and a mirror.

All the adorable animals in this book are playing peekaboo with your little one even a squeaky little mouse.  The book ends with a mirror for your child to see their own reflection.  Peekaboo Kisses has always been a huge hit with my girls and I can remember both of them shoving their faces in the mirror to see themselves and bouncy their fingers off the mouse to hear it squeak! 

 Introduce kids in a fun way to reading with this playful book Peekaboo Kisses!

The Giving Tree By: Shel Silverstein

I can remember being read this book at school as a young child.  I remember feeling sad for the tree. This book really stuck with me.  As a child I liked seeing how the boys life progressed and how what he thought he needed changed as he grew older.  I didn't fully understand the book as a child and even as an adult I don't delve too much into the meaning behind the book.  I see it simply as a love story.  One of my favorite things in life is to give and see the pleasure that comes over a person when you have done something special for them.  That feeling is such a gift.


The Giving Tree is about a tree who holds the love of a little boy and he does as well for her.  As a child he plays on her, eats her apples, sleeps in her shade and that makes her happy.  But as the boy grows he begins to need more in his life and doesn't have time for the simple pleasures.  He comes to visit the tree in different stages of his life and eventually depletes the tree of all she has to offer him.  By that time the boy is an old man and she is a stump.  "I don't need very much now," said the boy, "just a quiet place to sit and rest.  I am very tired." "Well," said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could, "well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting. Come, Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest." And the boy did. And the tree was happy."
 

This book was also one of the first books I heard Isabela reading out loud.  It made me smile so big and after she finished reading it she read it again.  I asked her today why she loves this book and she said "I like that their names are on the tree in a heart."

I want to be the giving tree for my girls.  I want us to be together and have fun and love our whole lives...together.  That will make me happy.

I can't say enough about this book but I can say that it is a truly fantastic read. Share this story with your little ones because everyone who reads it will feel something for this book!

On the Night You Were Born By: Nancy Tillman

Tomorrow is my daughter Emma's birthday.  She was born on Mother's Day three years ago.(Gush, Gush) I immediately knew what book I should write about for the special occasion.

On the Night You Were Born is a masterpiece!  The message in this book is the most special message a child can hear or be validated with "Because there had never been anyone like you...ever in the world."  I love reading this to my girls and when my husband bought it for my oldest daughters first Christmas, reading it for the first time the words brought tears to my eyes (and still usually does).  You have to read this to your little one to appreciate how powerful and humbled it will make you feel.  It really reminds you how precious our children are and that they are a gift from the Heavens.  

My little miracles love reading this book and they both think that they are the little baby in the basket in the first illustration. =)  They love listening for me to whisper their name and love the whimsical drawings.  I can't say enough good about this book!  Share this with your child or grandchild and remind them how amazing they are!

"For never before in story or rhyme (not even once upon a time) has the world ever known a you, my friend, and it never will, not ever again."

Love You Forever By: Robert Munsch Illustrated By: Sheila McGraw

The other day my oldest daughter Isabela grabbed this book off the bookshelf and began to read it.  She got interrupted reading it so when she got back to it she asked if I could read it to her and Emma my youngest daughter excitedly said "yea read it mommy!".  This book brings back memories of being in first grade and my teacher reading it to me.  I remember it made me feel so emotional.  Even today when I read it I tear up at the end!  While reading the book Isabela and Emma began talking about how they will live close to me always and we can take turns keeping our cat and take turns having dinner at our houses (which we all decided will be a lane apart from each other).

Love You Forever is about a mother and her son.  It is a story about growing old and how the love we have never changes for our children.  Love is everlasting.  This mother rocks her son to sleep singing "I'll love your forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living my baby you'll be."  The song she sings never changes.  It doesn't change when he is two and ransacking the house, or when he is a teenager she can't understand, or a grown man who has left the house to start a life of his own.  She even travels across town to his house hoists a ladder into his window and picks the grown boy up to sing to him.  The story ends with the boy now a man picking his sick mother up and rocking her and singing her the same song she has sung to him his whole life.  He then returns home and picks up his baby daughter and rocks her and sings to her just the way his mother has done. 

This is such a pure and beautiful story!  We all hope that our children will love, respect and be there for us just as we are for them.

So grab your baby close no matter how old and enjoy this heartfelt story together!