children’s book review – I Love You Stinky Face

It’s really hard for me to pick a favorite book to read to my kids, but this book is it. It’s just that well done. It’s the perfect length, great illustrations, easy concept, sweet enough to make me cry and silly enough to make my kids laugh.

The book is I Love You, Stinky Face.

This is the first book I have a memory of reading to tiny baby Sam. He could not have been more than a few days old—definitely under a week. I remember the room we were in and how I still had so many nerves and was in that hormonal state. This book brought tears to my eyes instantly.

Then I got to the part where the child asked what if he were a slimy smelly sea creature and she said:

“Then I would live by the swamp and take care of you always…”

And I sat there with my little teeny baby and cried because I would have lived by the swamp for him too!

I don’t have a memory of my first time reading any other book to the kids. So this one, for me, is something special.

I love how it puts unconditional love and how a mother would do anything for their child in terms that are funny and perfect for kids. This way, it doesn’t come across mushy at all. And other than those very emotional times it’s not really a tear jerker.

If her child was an alligator she’d buy a bigger toothbrush. If her child were a smelly skunk she’d plunk him in a bubble bath. And so on. I love the message.

It does still get my in the feels to this day thinking about how this silly little book about skunks and bugs and peanut butter and alligators and monsters is actually the sweetest thing ever.

I Love You, Stinky Face is a classic at our house. It has been steady in the rotation for both boys since the very beginning and it is my go-to when gifting books for new mamas.

Last night I read it to both boys at the same time and realized that even though most board books have taken up residence in our younger child’s room, this book will not soon be outgrown. I think it’s age appropriate up to grade school really.

It get’s a full on 5/5 on Amazon, which is not surprising. I can’t recommend it enough to add to your collection or to give to someone else!

See the boys below enjoying our new bedtime set up. Since Tom is going to move into Sam’s room come May/June (I want to give him a few months in there before the baby comes) we have started letting him stay up as late as Sam.

In our Babywise household that means they stay up until 7:45 or maybe even 8:00 on the weekends if we’re feeling crazy, ha!

Since they go down at the same time they have been sharing a bedtime story in the big master bed. We snuggle up with a story then we have to sing “roll over, roll over” and fall out one by one. It’s pretty sweet.

I am loving life with these “stinky faces.”

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