Liam's Golden Birthday

Check out what we bought Liam for his third birthday! Can you believe it!? I think I’m still in shock.

If you would’ve told me that this baby boy would be sitting on a bicycle one day, I never would’ve believed you. Side note: before you spend too much time staring at this next picture, I’ll just go ahead and let you know that, yes, those are sixth fingers on each hand. He had them removed when he was a few months old. I show this picture often, because I think it really captures just how far he’s come, and people always look at it for a long time. A little too long. I used to think they were marveling at his progress, but now I’m pretty certain they were trying to make out what was going on with his fingers, since they all inevitably asked the same question: “is that a sixth finger!?” 

Our little boy, who was born paralyzed from the ankles down, with clubbed feet, one dislocated knee, and two dislocated hips, is learning how to ride a bike! In typical Liam fashion, he is exceeding all of our expectations. 

We still have work to do, of course. The good news is we’re one step ahead of where I thought we’d be. When I ordered the bike, I bought two packs of Velcro thinking I would have to strap his feet to the pedals somehow, and he hasn’t needed it. He does need to learn how to get on and off the bike by himself, and we’re working on teaching him how to pedal using his feet and legs. Currently, he gets his feet on the pedals and uses his hands to roll the back wheels, like a wheelchair, which is totally genius, but not how we want him to do it.

During the month leading up to his birthday, we worked on learning how to pedal a bicycle by getting on our backs and pretending like we were riding a bike. He got that down quickly, so I am convinced it won’t be long before he is zooming around the apartment.

When we first received the diagnosis, not being able to ride a bike wasn’t even on my radar. Because we found out about the spina bifida only a few weeks after the magical 20 week ultrasound – you know the one where you get to find out the sex of the baby – we already knew we were having a boy. So for almost three weeks, DeMarko and I had conversations about our little guy being a wrestler, and doing all sorts of other “boy” things. But riding a bike never came up. It wasn’t until weeks later, when I was on my way to work one day, that I saw a little boy riding a bike. It hit me like a ton of bricks: my little boy would never ride a bike.  It seemed like everywhere I turned, I was taunted by things he would never be able to do. And now look at him. Just look at him. So, you know what, I’m not going to count out wrestling either. If Liam has taught me anything, it’s not to count him out. Not to underestimate him. Come to think of it, he does have some amazing upper-body strength. And he is really flexible (see picture below). Sounds like the makings of a perfect wrestler to me.