A Beautiful Book

Mateo, my three-year-old son is very attached to me. It wasn't until this year that he started letting people other than me do things like carry him, dress him, help him eat, hold him in the pool... And by other people I mean his dad and extended family like grandma and auntie whom he sees regularly.
Even now he likes to follow me pretty much everywhere and will even wait outside the shower for me sometimes rather than be without me a few minutes. With his third birthday upon us I worried about him transferring from the mommy-and-me swim class to the independent swimming class like his older (much more independent) sister. So I found this book, The Kissing Hand, by Audry Penn, and bought it as a birthday gift for him.

On the night of his birthday we read the book before bedtime. Camila, my four-year-old, and Mateo, loved, loved, loved the illustrations and I did too -- they're beautifully detailed. My kids loved this story about a little raccoon named Chester who is afraid to to go school and be without his mom. Chester shares his fears with his mom and she soothes them away with a kiss on his hand. Both Camila and Mateo kept asking me to kiss their little hands like Chester's mom kisses his. (Who doesn't love a book that gets their kids to ask for more kisses?)

To my surprise, the story also helped soothe away my fears about letting my little guy venture out a little without me as he becomes an independent swimmer (happy to say he is having a blast swimming on his own with the swim coaches) and a preschooler later this year.

I highly recommend this beautifully illustrated, heart-felt story to mommies of young children who are starting to venture out into the world without them for the first time.

If you read to your children in Spanish like I do, you'll be happy to know Penn's book is available in Spanish under the title Un beso en mi mano. Your children will love it and you will too!