Our sweet Daniel had a great year! He had a wonderful time in his daycare class and grew tremendously over the year!
Spring/Summer 2013
April/May 2013 school newsletter - "Daniel has accomplished so much this past month. He rolls over, sits up, holds his own bottle, and has two teeth! He will shine in Nursery 2...Daniel is another one coming over from Nursery 1. Miss Bre took care of his older brother almost 4 years ago. We can't wait to see what surprises he has for us as he grows."
July/August 2013 school newsletter - "Daniel is crawling, so watch out! He loves to move all over the place. He is also attempting to stand up while playing in the pit. It won't be much longer now!"
Daniel turned one and had a party at home for family. The theme was "Little Dino". He was definitely a little cranky at the party but a good time was had by all. He still wasn't walking by his first birthday but John was a little late too, so we knew he would be walking shortly!
During this summer, we found out that Daniel has a Hypothalamic Hamartoma, a benign congenital brain tumor. It was found during an MRI as we tried to track down the cause of the eyelid flutter he had since birth. We spent one very scary night in Phoenix Children's Hospital until we got the news the next morning that the tumor was non-cancerous, probably non-growing, and nothing needed to be done at that time. The initial diagnosis was actually just a brain hamartoma with no specification as to the location. We would find out more as the year went on...
Fall 2013
Daniel had a repeat MRI in September that showed no growth of the
tumor. Later that same day, he took his first steps and said his first
word! We joked that he came out of general anesthesia and decided "Hey, life's too short, I'd better get a move on!" He was 14 months old! He moved up to the toddler room from the baby room on the same
day that his big brother started Kindergarten.
September/October 2013 school newsletter - "Daniel has moved out of Nursery 2 and into our toddler room and we are excited to have him with us. He is making friends fast and he loves his one-on-one time."
November/December 2013 school newsletter - Daniel is such a cutie! He has a smile that just melts your heart. He enjoys doing art and he really loves playing on the rocking horses!
By the end of the year, he was almost running and was saying over 20 words, and really receptive to our language usage. He understood everything we said!! He got a reputation for being the most smiley, happy kid around! :)
Early 2014
In December, his case was transferred to the HH team at Phoenix Children's Hospital. Throughout this semester, we had countless appointments with neurosurgery (repeat MRI - no change), neurology (no change), neuropsychology (developmental assessment - normal) and endocrinology (most hormone levels were normal, but cortisol levels were cause for concern, which led to a months-long false alarm about adrenal insufficiency. In May, a retest showed his cortisol levels were fine, which was a huge relief). At the end of the semester, we were released by almost every specialist to yearly or semi-annual appointments.
But really, he was absolutely doing great! He was showing no signs of any issues relating to his tumor and was just a normal one-year-old kiddo.
His language development continued to amaze us. Daniel's quotes are just words, but we like to transcribe them because they look so cute written down:
-In early January, he figured out how to ask for more juice, in three different ways to make sure we got it: "Juice? Mo juice? Juice all gone?"
-February - Pee-po = paper
-March - Mo tee-ta = more tortilla
-April - Uh wuh nee-nuh! = I want dinner!
He really started to get into characters and TV this semester. Early favorites included Mickey Mouse (who he called Nee-Nee), Daniel Tiger, and Sulley from Monsters Inc!
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