Beauty Through Imperfection

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The Valentine’s Day tradition that helps you connect with your toddlers

Valentine’s Day is a traditionally “grown up” holiday, but there are meaningful ways to celebrate with toddlers and preschoolers too.

I know, the obvious choice is to buy them some candy or new stuffed animals, but between grandmas and preschool, we have enough candy and stuffed bears to go around.

Instead, I decided on a Valentine’s Day tradition that would help us connect, not just on Valentine’s Day, but all year round.

For Valentine’s day I’m buying them each a new book. Kids love story time, and I have found some precious books that talk about love in a way that’s just perfect for children.

Some of our absolute favorites made the list! These make such great Valentine's day gifts, the perfect alternative to giving candy.

We’ve found lots of wonderful books for toddlers that talk about love, so I decided to make a list of the best ones, so you could choose one for a Valentine’s Day gift for the baby or toddler in your life! There are affiliate links in this post, meaning that I may get a percentage of the sale if you purchase through my link, at no additional cost to you.

You Are My I Love You – This is easily one of my favorite children’s books. The pictures are gorgeous, and my 2 year old loves looking at them! But the text, it made me tear up. He may not understand what it’s saying now, but he will one day. The book goes through all of these different scenarios about what the mom is to the baby and what the baby is to the mama “I am your calm, you are my wild” and so forth. It takes you on a journey through many different parts of a day with a mama and baby (They are both drawn as teddy bears) and it’s very relatable. The last verse goes “I am your goodnight kiss and you are my ‘I love you'” … Such a sweet book to share with a little one.

Love You Forever– This is a book I will always love. My Mother In Law bought it for my son on his first Christmas, and it is one of the sweetest books. It takes you through the life of a mother and son from newborn, to toddler, to teenage years, adult years and then when the mom is on her deathbed but they always say the same lines to each other “I love you forever, I’ll like you for always…” so sweet. And a reminder that even when the child is naughty mama still loves him!

Snuggle Puppy – This is an adorable little board book with very bright pictures. It refers to the baby as a “snuggle puppy” and the book has a little song in it “I love what you are and I love what you do…I love you”. Perfect book for a baby, or smaller toddler because the pages are so vivid and the song is fun to sing!

I Love You, Little One– This book has beautiful pictures of nature in it, and talks about several different animals. Each new baby animal asks the same question of it’s mother “Do you love me mama?” and the mama animal will say yes, and describe their love in a way that the baby could understand, comparing it to something that the animal knew and understood. I loved the comparisons and thought it was very creative and poetic, while still being a cute children’s book. Each animal (and at the end, the human mother) ends their comparison with “I love you little one, forever and ever and always”.

Guess How Much I Love You– This book is a sweet “competition” between mama bunny and baby bunny. The baby tells the mama that he loves her as far as his arms can reach and the mama counters that she loves him as far as her arms can reach. which is, of course, much farther. They go back and for declaring their love until the baby bunny think’s he’s won when he declares “I love you to the moon!”. The pictures show the mama tucking him into bed and smiling as she says “I love you to the moon…and back”. Such a sweet book, and I didn’t know that it was the source of that popular “to the moon and back” quote until I read it to the end!

If I Could Keep You Little– This book is a real tear-jerker. It’s all about the things a mama would do for her child if she could keep them little, but the contrasts each statement with “but I would miss…” and describes a positive aspect of the child maturing. Perfect for a toddler that’s starting to grow up a bit more, and become more independent.

 

After you choose your books to help you connect with the kids, try out these Valentine favorites from our site:

 

What about you? How do you celebrate Valentine’s day with your family? Do you have any favorite “love you” books that you would add to this list? 
More beautiful Valentines fun, order this gorgeous wall art from our partners at minted!

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Books are the best gifts, Paula! You are planting a love for words in your littles and that is a beautiful thing. Love these selections too. Seeing some of my favorites here.

    Reply

    • thanks so much Laura! My hubby and I both love to read, and it’s been fun to watch our son learn to love it too!

      Reply

  2. I love this Paula! I’ve really never had any Vday traditions, but we love books and this idea is great. I especially love the idea of giving books on courtship and marriage as they get older, I think far ahead too :)

    I’ll be sharing this post today at my blog in my “Saturday Share: Vday Edition” post!

    Reply

    • Nice to know I’m not the only one who plans gifts that far in advance! ;) glad you like the idea!!!

      THanks for sharing <3

      Reply

  4. This is sweet–I’m always looking for new holiday gift ideas that don’t involve candy! :) I’m hosting a Valentine Link-Up, and would love if you could come check it out! This post would be perfect!!!

    Reply

  5. Love the ideas, I haven’t started a Valentine tradition, but this sure got me thinking!

    So glad you linked up today, hope to see you back next week!

    Reply

  7. I’ve never heard of “You are My I Love You” but the rest on your list are some of my favourites so I will have to check that one out. Gifts aren’t usually in our Valentine’s tradition, but for books, I may have to make an exception! Great idea!

    Reply

    • Oh my goodness Sharla, I had never heard of it until a week or so ago! I about cried in the middle of Barnes and Noble! such a sweet book! I’m sure you will love it! :) books are always the exception aren’t they? lol

      Reply

    • Me too! I’m so excited to be starting new ones with my little family <3

      thanks for stopping by and for the sweet encouraging words!

      Reply

  11. Hi Paula, I found you over at Jen’s. I think this new tradition is awesome. It will be something that your children will always remember fondly.
    God bless
    Tracy

    Reply

  12. I ordered a book for my 4 year old son for Valentine’s Day before I found this post on Pinterest. I never thought about making it an every year tradition, though! Great idea! He is in the throes of dinosaur obsession, so I chose “How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You”.

    Reply

  13. I love to do books for my kiddos too! This year I got Llama Llama I Love You for my 4 year old! My oldest is becoming a bit of a challenge now since she is 8 and reading chapter books, so I got her Nancy Clancy, Secret Admirer. But one of my FAVs that I have given them over the years was The Wonderful Things You Will Be by Emily Winfield Martin. It always makes me tear up a little when we read it!

    Reply

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