i'll love you forever

Tonight I read one of my favourite childhood bedtime stories to Lil J for the first time:  Robert Munsch's Love You Forever {I can almost see all of you '80's and '90's babies smiling and shaking your heads!}.  All I remember is that I loved the book and that's pretty much it.  I wasn't at all prepared to end the story an emotional wreck.

For those of you not familiar with this classic Munsch book, it basically tells the story of a mother and how she has rocked her son to sleep his entire life while singing a song:

I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always,

as long as I'm living

my baby you'll be

It goes on until the boy man reaches adulthood and his mother gets older, and then ends with the man continuing his mother's tradition with his own baby daughter.

I could hardly get through the story without trying to hold back my tears.  And I'm not an emotional person.

All I could think of was that one day this would be me and my son.  And my daughter.  One day, I'll be watching them graduate high school, going to university, moving out and starting their own families.

After I finished the story, I took one look at Lil J, lay down next to him, hugged him tight and whispered in his ears, "I'll love you forever and ever.  You'll always be my baby".  He looked at me, eyes half open, and said, "I love you too Mommy".  I hugged him even tighter, tucked him into bed and quickly tiptoed out of his room before he could see my eyes welling up.  As much as I love this book, I'm not sure if I can ever read it to him again without getting emotional every single time.

Do you have a story from your childhood that you now read your child{ren}?  If so, I'd love to know which one!