Rating: 5 stars
This is one of our new go-to books for newborns or for a first birthday. (And it really would be appropriate for a second birthday, too.) It is heart-meltingly wonderful and I think most of us should read it every day.
I like it when you hold my hand.That's the whole book. I'm sure you can picture a cute penguin parent doing all of these things with her even cuter penguin chick, their beaks easily forming a smile on every page.
I like it when you let me help.
I like it when we eat new things.
I like it when we play peekaboo.
I like it when you tickle me.
I like it when you dance with me.
I like it when you read me stories.
I like it when you hug me tight.
I like it when we splash about.
I like it when we kiss good night.
I love you. I love you, too!
I mean, isn't this what parenthood is all about? Spending time with our little ones--actually playing with them. I have a really random resume, one that's not much use for landing me a powerful job, but there's always plenty of stuff to talk about. One of those random things I did was teach horseback riding lessons one summer at a camp tucked away in western Washington state. My main job was to give kids an idea of how to take care of a horse and how to ride a horse, but on the first day of the week-long session a counselor and I were in charge of playing with the kids. Just playing. Usually that meant soccer, something I'm not particularly great at, but it was such a wonderful lesson in dropping my adult important-ness and just settling in with the silly. I'm so grateful for that summer, if only for that one very important lesson.
So let's play with our kids an extra ten minutes today! Save the cooking and cleaning and email answering and bill paying and phone calling and, oh yes, the blogging for after bedtime or tomorrow. We've got to somehow jam it all in, but...sometimes, let's just be like these penguins and hold hands, dance around, splash about, and read books.
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