Mother's Day: Our Mini-Reviews of Mother/Child Books & Missing My Mom

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Every year Mother's Day is a hard day for me. We lost our Mom in December 2012 just before Christmas. The first Mother's Day we spent it with our Mom's family, gathered with aunts, uncles, cousins and of course our grandparents and father. It was bittersweet.  We were surrounded by so much happiness, yet filled with a loss that our family shared, but not in the same was as losing a mother/wife feels.

Since then I've spent the last few years celebrating my Mother In Law and just trying to get through the day. Last year I was pregnant and getting ever closer to my due date and it was a very tough day. I cried A LOT. But this year feels like it's the hardest yet. It's my first as a new mother, but celebrating without my own mother. I've cried quite a lot while thinking about doing this post... but I think in the end my Mom would be so happy to see me turn today into a day to celebrate with my daughter. And what better way then to celebrate it than using books! Looking forward I think that coming Mother's Day celebrations will be different as my own daughter grows and I can share happy memories with her of her Grandma.

My Mom was the one who introduced us to reading at a young age. We spent weekends going to the library picking out tons of books to bring home. And when I was in school and struggling with reading, I was almost held back a year, my Mom was the one who stepped in and pushed them to let me move into the next grade and promised she'd work with my over the summer to be at the correct reading level when school started up again. Not only did I reach that goal with her help, I surpassed it. I ended up flying through the reading program for my grade and started reading the next grade up. And for that I will forever be thankful. My mother instilled in me a love of books, reading and learning. This is her greatest legacy in my eyes, and I just hope that I can do the same for Spencer.

So today, let's be happy and celebrate Mother's with some great children's books that Spencer and I read this past week.

My favourite of the bunch was a book called Someday by Alison McGhee and Peter H. Reynolds. It's a sweetly illustrated story of a mother telling her daughter all of the things she hopes that she will someday see her do or that her daughter will someday do. Honestly, it's so sweet and inspiring. It made my ugly cry. I even tweeted about the hot mess I was after reading it to my daughter and thinking of my own Mom. It's everything you want in a book to share between a mother and daughter.

You Mean The World To Me by Bayne Gibby and illustrated by David Walker – This is a sweet little book featuring two cats (my daughter loves cats) and they go about their day doing everything together while the mother cat teaches the kitten all she knows and why she loves him/her so much. They do everything from gardening to reading and crafting to tickling. Very fun and cute to read with your little one.

I Will Love You Forever by Caroline Jayne Church – A cute book about watching her baby growing up before her eyes while reminding baby that Mommy will always love them.

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and illustrated by Sheila McGraw – do I even need to say why this one is on the list? This one is also one that made my ugly cry while reading. I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living, my Mommy you'll be. Ugh! That's the part that made me lose it. Such a great book that shows a parents love for their child, yet also how a child grows to become the next generation of loving parents.

Forever by Emma Dodd – I love the illustrations in this book and the silver foiling on the pages for snow. The sweet polar bear parent and child. A great story about how a parent will help their child reach their hopes and dreams by loving them always.

So, did you all ugly cry along with me? What books do you recommend for Spencer and I to read next that showcase a mother and child? Leave suggestions in the comments!

PS That sweet little figurine in the photos is one that I gave to my mother when I was five or six, I brought it home just before my daughter was born and it sits in her room on her dresser. Such a cheap little trinket bought as a child, but obviously cherished by my Mom enough to keep all those years and now I'm passing it along in hopes that my daughter can cherish it just as much.