A Lifetime with Liam: Four (4) months-really

Can it really already be 4 months since we have met Liam?! One of the kids and I were talking about a family event from last year at the holidays and we both laughed because the way I remember the event, Liam was with us. Even my sister said it feels like Liam has just simply always been here. The older kids pointed out that Liam isn't in any of the older family pictures we have in our family room and I have to remind them that he wasn't even born yet when all of those pictures were taken. But I did take Liam last week to get his first 'official' portraits and they turned out so well. The studio asked for me to sign a copyright release so they could use his picture in their album. I warned Liam we might need to be careful of the paparazzi now that he is famous!
Liam is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds. He was a little over 17 pounds when we met and is now 22 pounds 9 ounces. He has grown 1.5 inches up to 32 inches as well. As the pictures show, when we met, his sitting balance was poor and he wasn't able to push up onto his hands and knees. Now this little guy moves like the speed of lightning. If he is in the family room and I run something into the next room, there have been times when I have to go looking for him as he has quietly crawled away. More often than not, he strongly prefers to be right under foot. He is most happy playing with any or all of us. If you aren't where he wants you he will pat his hand on the spot where he wants you to plant yourself. And as you can imagine, most of the time we happily oblige. His language acquisition continues to astound us. I have said repeatedly that you could drop me in the middle of China probably for 3 years and I may still not understand a single word. It would be hard for me to figure out if there were something Liam didn't understand in English.
Today was an extra special day as it was Liam's first day riding a horse. He was assigned the horse 'Charlie' (or 'Shrimp' if Charlie is unavailable) for his hippotherapy. The kids are evaluated and then assigned a horse that fits just their size. Liam will be going for weekly therapy to a beautiful stable not too far. Our goal is that participating in hippotherapy in addition to his physical and speech therapy will help him catch up in the areas where he is delayed.

May 17, 2010 THAT WAS THEN...

...THIS IS NOW; Liam at his first birthday party; we discovered he has quite the sweet tooth!

The slide has to be one of his favorite things to do! This is one of my favorite 'Liam' expressions.*Notice the eyebrows*He can lift just one eyebrow up at a time too-oh so talented!