Cutsie Tootsies: Sweet Baby Feet by Margaret O'Hair

MORNING TIME! FEET ARE BARE.
STRETCH THEM, WAVE THEM,  THROUGH THE AIR.

BABY CRAWLS.
AND BABY SCOOTS.
WEARING ONLY HIS BIRTHDAY SUIT.

One of the best things babies have going for them is their irresistibly cute little feet, those toes too tempting to keep from kissing. But those feet have many steps to take in their lifespan, and this baby is just now walking and is  ready to run up the count. Trouble is, Mom's feet have to go almost everywhere Baby's feet go, and her counter is already turning over some big numbers.

STOMP THOSE FEET! POUND THAT TRAY!
BABY'S FOOD IS ON THE WAY!

Mom hustles Baby in his high chair, and stirs up a baby breakfast, part of which she even gets into his mouth while he's, um, exploring the textures of his breakfast and checking to see if gravity is still on the job. Yep. It's still working.

As so is Mom, as she cleans up (with the help of the family pooch) the food which hits the floor. Then Baby is off and running for the rest of the day.

It's into clothes, socks and shoes, so that Baby can play hide 'n' seek among the items in the laundry hamper. Mom cranks up the music so that Baby can tap his toes while the clothes go into the washer.

Then it's time for art, where Baby turns fingerpainting into foot-print art, cleverly combining art, music, and physical education in one activity. Another cleanup is called for, and Baby is popped into the tub for a scrub-a-dub-dub, especially those ten toesies to eliminate the paint.

Out of the tub, Baby feels refreshed and races Mama around the house, logging  lots more steps.

WHO IS TIRED? MAMA? MAYBE....
BUT FOR SURE, IT ISN'T BABY.

But, as parents know, they will finally be rewarded with a baby ready for a snuggle--at least for a few restful moments, in Margaret O'Hair's Sweet Baby Feet (Farrar, Straus, 2012) before those sweet feet are off again. Artist Tracy Dockery delivers a darling toddler in all his (or her) appealing physicality with her pastel palette and artful extension of the text, finding humorous touches in her addition of family pets, the bouncy dachshund who is eager to go wherever and do whatever with Baby, and the cat, who like most felines, knows that cat tails and toddlers don't go well together and keeps her distance wisely. Pair this one with Tom Tarpley's and Marc Brown's recent Ten Tiny Toes for a pair of sweet feet tales that you can count (to ten) on.