On The Night You Were Born, By Nancy Tillman

on the night you were born nancy tillman

Like all parents, I want my children to feel loved and special in order to set them up for a healthy sense of self esteem in the future. "On The Night You Were Born," by Nancy Tillman has exactly what I want to say to Audrey and Antonino to make them feel like VIPs. The author just has a way with words that's simply magical. I mean just read a few lines from the book below:

"So enchanted with you were the wind and the rain that they whispered the sound of your wonderful name."

and

".. notice the bears asleep at the zoo. (It's because they've been dancing all night for you!)"

Beautiful, right? I also love how some parts of the book encourage interaction by instructing your child to say his/her name and wiggle his/her toes.

The book's design which was made by the author and Kathleen Breitenfield is just stunning. The images fit perfectly with the rhymes and even have short inspirational quotes incorporated into some of them. 

Audrey and Antonino's birth was not ideal. They were born 3 weeks early and had to stay in the NICU before they were able to come home. Their NICU stay made Joey and me feel isolated and lonely because our experiences were different compared to our family and friends who gave birth to full term babies. I remember feeling like my twins were cheated because they had to play catch up from day one. Of course, thanks to the care of our beloved team of NICU nurses and doctors, the twins made it and were finally able to go home after 3 weeks. I just wish I had this book then because it would have really helped comfort me and lift my spirits. The message that you are a one of a kind miracle just spoke to me because the fact that Audrey and Antonino are here with us is  truly a miracle.

This book has been part of our nighttime reading rotation since Audrey and Antonino turned a year old. It's the perfect way to fill them with good thoughts before they go to bed. I'm sure that right now the message may seem vague to them and they may even be wondering why our voices would occasionally crack - mostly mine, this book just makes me so emotional! But I hope that as they grow older, it will help them understand how special they are and how we cannot find anybody like them.

We bought our book from Amazon but I recently saw a few copies on the shelves of Fully Booked. I hope you guys will like reading it to your kids as much as we do.

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