The Kissing Hand

Well, tomorrow is the day that my eldest baby is going to school. It's hard to believe Bug starts preschool tomorrow. I know it is only 2 days a week, only 2 1/2 hours each day...but it's the start of our next phase with our first born. It is only adding to the nostalgia this Mommy VDV is feeling in regards to being done with pregnancies and newborns.

I have been buying a few books for Bug, ones that are specifically geared towards starting school. I have come across a few great ones, and the one that I am blogging about is really cute and had a specific activity described in the front cover. It's called "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn. Basically, it's about a small child on his way to school, explaining to his mom that he isn't wanting to go because he wants to be home with her and do the activities they do together. The mom comforts the child by kissing his left palm and saying that whenever he misses her, all he has to do is touch his hand to his cheek and the kiss will remind him that "Mommy Loves You". It has a cute little ending for the parents too, who may not voice this to their children, but they are just as nervous and sad about their babies heading off into the world.

The activity is basically creating your own kissing hand, and putting a heart sticker on the palm. But we all know how a piece of paper ends up getting mixed in with other papers, misplaced or accidently thrown out. Plus, I really wanted to make something that Bug can take with him (and...for this sad Mommy to carry with her). So I bought a Shrinky Dinks package from Michaels (normally $10 but I used a 40% coupon) and decided to make a zipper tag for Bug's backpack and a key chain for me.

We traced our left hands onto the piece of plastic. Then we each drew a heart on our corresponding hand. I got Bug to write "I Love You" on his hand (plus, it's a cute way to have a durable copy of your child's first writing practice) and I wrote "Mommy Loves You" as well as some lovey words on mine. Then I cut them out, hole punched one near the bottom of the palm and before we put them in the oven, we each kissed our hands.

Bug was completely enthralled with how much they shrunk. I then put them on key chain pieces (I had some on hand, but you can easily just buy a cheap keychain from the dollar store and take the trinket off of it to use the ring).

Based on the book, I should be the one to kiss Bug's hand cut out and vice versa. But I wanted this to be a bit more than him having a kiss of mine. So Bug gets my hand cut out that I've kissed with a little message from me.  That way, if he gets scared when I'm not there or he is simply just missing me, he will always be able to hold Mommy's hand (even if it is just a shrunken version of it). Bug loved this...I mean really LOVED it. He's excited for school, but he just finally is grasping that Mommy, Daddy and Bear won't be there with him. He loved his mini Mommy hand, and kept saying thank you! I don't think I need to explain how much I love Bug's mini hand or even try to convince anyone that I won't be holding onto it tight when my little (sniff...big) boy isn't with me. I think every year I'm going to do one, and then I will have somewhat of a sense of how much he has grown (even if it is just a size comparison between his shrunken little hand).

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