This book is about a man and a woman, a mother and father. The mother gave birth to twins. One twin, a boy, is perfect…the other, [...]]]> Well this book, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards is a rather sad book to read and it certainly made me cry a few times whilst reading it.

This book is about a man and a woman, a mother and father. The mother gave birth to twins. One twin, a boy, is perfect…the other, a girl, has Down Syndrome. The father decides to send the one with Down Syndrome away to an institution and tell the mother that the child has died. The father sent the baby girl away with with the nurse helping with the delivery of the babies to an institution but the nurse couldn’t do this, so she kept the baby and raises the child as her own. The book tells you what happens in the life of the mother and father and their son and also in the life of the nurse and the baby girl.

I think the book is fantastically written, I read the whole book in a few days. I couldn’t put it down. I have my opinions on the characters of the book. I feel that the father was in the wrong for sending the baby away. This was back in the 1960s so I don’t know what life was like then, I really feel for nurse but she should of said no but then again I suppose the father would of took the girl to the institution himself and then the baby girl wouldn’t have the opportunity of the nurse raising her. I do feel for the father, he obviously did regret sending the baby girl away. The person that I feel for the most is the mother. To be told that your baby has died has got to be one of the worst things in the world. The fact that this was not the true is terrible!

This book got me thinking about the child I am trying to conceive. I am of the opinion that if my next child is at all disabled or sick, I will love it more than words can describe. I will love it exactly the same amount as I do Amelie. That child is mine and that is all that matters. These are my feelings now, I hope I never have to be in the situation where my child is born disabled or sick but I think I have enough love to give and the determination to deal with whatever is wrong.

I would like this book to be sent to Northern Mum. I know it is a bit of a sad book but it comes with chocolate! Northern Mum has made me laugh and also cry in the past year that I have been blogging. She is a lovely person!

1. The love they give you

Amelie is getting to be very loving, she gives fantastic cuddles and she certainly has a lot of love for the people who she cares about. She now says [...]]]> I thought I would join in with the Listography as it is the top 5 things I love about kids

1. The love they give you

Amelie is getting to be very loving, she gives fantastic cuddles and she certainly has a lot of love for the people who she cares about. She now says love you properly and the first time she said it it almost made me cry!

2. The fact that they are experiencing things for the first time

I love watching Amelie experience things for the first time. I know us adults still can experience things for the first time but when a child does it, the look on their face is fantastic! It makes me very proud and blessed that I can see how much joy Amelie gets in experiencing something new.

3. Learning new words.

Amelie is learning new words every day and even now it amazes me when she does. She copies words that we and other people say too. Sometimes this is a bad thing (she is now saying wowcher..horrible advert!)

4. I love Amelie laughing

I love it when she has a proper giggle about something. It is normally if we are doing something silly but she also laughs at television programmes too. She has laughed at Something Special and Big and Small!

5. Developing their own opinion

Amelie is a good girl. However she doesn’t really listen to me and often laughs at me when I tell her off or say the word no and she often tries to do what she was going to do wrong anyway. I really like that (in most ways), it means that she has a personality. I was never like she was and did what my mum asked me to do. I love her rebellious ways! Amelie is also getting good at telling us what she does and doesn’t want. It was a no day yesterday. She didn’t want to do anything we suggested and that included going to bed!

I promise that we are going to go [...]]]> I haven’t done this for a few weeks because we were away and then we were ill so it is back to normal now (although have a busy few weeks ahead so who knows what time I will have to blog!) so this week baby I promise…

I promise that we are going to go to the park this week and go on the swings. We are going to go to the library and get some story books for bed time as I am going to start reading to you at bed time again. You never liked me doing it, wasn’t interested but maybe you are old enough now to appreciate a story?

We are also going to spend more time in the garden. I have some work to do with the garden so you can play outside while I do it. I shall have to get some garden toys soon!

Some of you may not know this, but I had to have a lot of work done to my teeth after a bicycle accident. A van swerved into me when I was happily cycling to Martin Mere to [...]]]> Today me and Amelie made our way to Blackburn to get some work done on my teeth.

Some of you may not know this, but I had to have a lot of work done to my teeth after a bicycle accident. A van swerved into me when I was happily cycling to Martin Mere to see the lovely wildlife. So I had this work done when I was rather depressed! That was back in 2006 and I haven’t been to the dentist since. Now I have Amelie I have had to forget about my fears. I cannot pass my fears and phobias onto her..it isn’t right. So I have had my first piece of dental work done today and it wasn’t bad at all.

However, as expected, having my mouth open for any period of time causes my parotid gland area/operation area to hurt like hell. The dentist was fantastic and let me close my mouth regularly. I have to go back again next month for a tooth extraction. My lack of trips to the dentist have caught up with me.

For this week’s The Gallery, the topic is Morning. Well my favourite morning ever, apart from waking up on the first morning after Amelie was born, was her first Christmas. This day means a lot to me. We spent it with my family and it was the best [...]]]>

The Gallery: Morning. Amelie's first Christmas

For this week’s The Gallery, the topic is Morning. Well my favourite morning ever, apart from waking up on the first morning after Amelie was born, was her first Christmas. This day means a lot to me. We spent it with my family and it was the best day ever. It mean’t so much to me, letting my parents experience her first Christmas. Living away from family is very hard. They miss out on so much and Amelie misses out too. It really does break my heart, especially leaving them.