Happy Belated Birthday to my Baby

I cannot believe our little baby is already 13 months old! The time could not have gone faster for us. But it has been one of the most amazing years of our lives. What a blessing God gave us in Liam. He's sweet, loving, social, gregarious, active, strong, funny, sometimes so serious and other times such a little clown. But if you've been keeping up with us you know all of that already! So we'll just get to what Liam is up to now.


Our little guy is almost 25 lbs, and about 33 inches tall. He has caught up developmentally from having been born 5 1/2 weeks early and surprises us everyday with his skills. He crawls with all the gentleness of a herd of elephants and is on the verge of walking, taking three and four steps unaided from one piece of furniture to another. He still puts everything and I mean EVERYTHING in his mouth. His attention span is getting longer, which means he will sit and play with one toy at a time and tries to figure out how it works. He has started heading off to play by himself in his bedroom for 15 minutes at a time, flipping through his books and exploring the toys we put in there. Mommy loves that because it gives her a little more time to breathe!


Liam is finally interested in books and will sit and snuggle while we read (not too long though!). He LOVES animals and is starting to make animal sounds. He also loves balls of any size or texture. He is talking more and more and screaming for fun. He is testing boundaries with mom and dad. He is finding all kinds of cupboards and drawers to explore. And he loves to open and close doors, which is fine as long as he doesn't block the door when we try to get him out! He is big into peek-a-boo, likes it when you scare him and squeals in delight when you chase him around. He won't be bothered by any accessories, such as hats, socks and shoes. If you put them on him he will work tirelessly, focusing on nothing else until he gets them off. I am just waiting for someone to make a comment about how inappropriately dressed this poor, defenseless child is this winter.


There is so much more to our little Liam, but if I write anymore you might not stick with me! Here are some pictures taken on his birthday by our friends, Aaron and Meg Nelson, http://www.evantidephotography.com/. They are so talented and such fun to work with! I would highly recommend them. They also did Liam's newborn pictures and I am sure we will be going back over the years for more. I feel like they did a wonderful job of capturing some of his personality. There were hundreds of pictures and it was hard to limit myself, but here are some of my favorites.