It is about a mother who rocks her baby when he goes to sleep at night and sings:
I love you forever
I love you for always
As long as I'm living
My baby you'll be.
(I change it a little). The son grows and grows and is soon a toddler. The mommy sometimes thinks he drives her crazy but every night when he's asleep, she crawls into his room. And if he's really sleeping, she'll hold him and sing....I love you forever, I love you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be.
He grows and grows into a teenager and she thinks she lives in a zoo. But she still goes in and rocks him and sings when he is sleeping.
He grows into a man and moves across town. And the mommy still drives across town and if he is really sleeping, she'll climb in and rock him and sing.
The mommy grows older and older too though. And one day she calls her son and says to him that he better come visit because she is sick and getting old. He goes to her house and she tries to sing the song but she is too sick. So the son holds his mommy and sings to her....I love you forever, I love you for always, as long as I'm living my mommy you'll be.
Then the son goes home and into his own sleeping daughter's room and picks her up and rocks her and starts to sing her the song.
I read it to Hudson yesterday when Cannon was napping and couldn't get through it without crying. And at the end he said "Mommy, can you rock-a-bye me and sing that song." Oh man, that killed me. I could hardly sing.
Then after Hudson went to bed, I read it to Cannon. And Cannon sat still and listened to the whole thing. And then said "Again." I have yet to make it through this book without tears. It describes life in a nutshell. How much we love these kids and how they grow so fast and how maybe they don't really know how much we love them until they have kids of their own. And yes we have crazy days and bad days but these are the only days we get with them and we should make the most of it. I love the tradition in this book and plan to read this book and then sing this to the boys at night now - if I can make it through it. I love this book and wanted to share.
3 comments:
Awww, I know it is such an emotional book, love it. We have 3 copies! I'm not kidding. Shea actually sings it to Jordan every night when he takes her to bed. ...it's become their thing. My mom used to read it to us and mainly my brothers (because they were younger when she discovered it) so it's become a special book for our fam.
p.s. Kind of a funny thing-I used to cry but we've been reading it so long that now Shea and I can't help but laugh on the part where the mom drives to his house in the middle of the night and rocks him as an adult. You have to admit-kind of creepy. Can you imagine doing that to Hudson if he was married? Haha!
I love that book! I came across it a couple years ago and still get tears in my eyes when I read it...so sweet!
I love this book-- I used to sing the song to my kids at bedtime, even when we didn't read the book. (And then we made up our own song and do that now instead.) It was many, many reads before I could get through it without choking up. It's like that for me with I love You Like Crazycakes (if you want another tearjerker-- though maybe it's only so hard for me because it's an adoption story).
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