Children's books that may help you understand some of what's said around here

We love books around here. We have them all over the house, we read many different times throughout the day, have several books taped back together from so much love. I posted here on some of our family favorites, but today I'm thinking about the books that have, sometimes just because of one phrase, woven themselves into the very fabric of our family. I'm sure there are some I'm forgetting but here's a few that come to mind:

• Go, Dog. Go! - the phrase from the book "I like that party hat! I do!" is said in our family anytime someone's wearing a cool hat

• The Poky Little Puppy - when a child is doing something especially slow, like getting out of the car, they are deemed the "Poky Puppy!"

• The Digging-Est Dog - this book brought us the phrase "long dog chain" from the part in the book where he digs himself into a well and the dogs all join together to create a long dog chain to pull him out. My husband, especially, loves to use this phrase when he grabs one child's hand and wants all the rest of them to link hands to cross a parking lot. "Make a long dog chain" he'll call out!
  

• The Kissing Hand - my daughter loves to give me kissing hands and sometimes she gives them to her dolls, too. So sweet!

• Love You Forever - I'd read this book, but we didn't have a copy until recently when I picked one up at the used bookstore. My boys especially love it and have requested I read it over and over. My 3 year old thinks the picture of the mother rocking her grown son like a baby is hilarious. Now it's my running joke with my sons that when they are grown-up and have their own houses, I'll drive over in the middle of the night with my ladder and climb in their bedroom window to rock them while they sleep, just like the mother in the book did! They laugh, but at one point, my 7 year old looked at me real serious and asked, "But you won't really do that, right?"

• A Mother for Choco is the sweetest children's book we have on adoption. My kids have gained volumes of perspective through this delightful story of little Choco trying to find his mother. Several animals turn Choco away saying there is no way they can be his mother as they point out some physical difference in the way they look. Then Choco happens upon Mrs. Bear who looks nothing like him but seems able to love him and play with him just like a mother would. You can't help getting choked up after Mrs. Bear invites Choco to come live her and then introduces him to her other children "Hippy, Ally, and Piggy." The image of Mrs. Bear loving on her children, the hippo, the alligator, the pig, and Choco, is priceless!

And enjoying great books as a family is a finer thing for sure!

Find more Finer Things Friday.