Daniel's Voice Golf Outing Update

So the final tally is in and the photos are up! If you have not already taken a look, please visit http://www.danielsvoice.org/golfgallery.htm for photos from the golf outing. Brooks did a fabulous job uploading all the pictures people took during the outing. The site looks great! Thanks a million Brooks!!

As for the tally, thanks to the incredible job everyone did the outing was a huge success!! Special thanks must once again go out to Eve who spearheaded the outing and stuck with it despite some bumps in the road. We must also thank all the sponsors, donors, and raffle donors who without their support the outing would not have been such a success. In the end, the outing raised over $10,000 for Daniel's foundation. THANK YOU!! We can't even begin to tell you how much we appreciate your support and how grateful we are to have such fabulous friends and family like all of you in our lives. THANK YOU!!!

As to whether or not will there be an outing next year.....we will see since we are hoping that this time next year all we are doing is follow-ups. Thanks again!!!

Celebrating Milestones....

This weekend marked the birthday celebration of Robbie and Kyle Mandel. Their birthday will always hold a special place in our hearts since their birthday and birthday party was the first "outing" we ever took with Daniel once he came out of the NICU. It is amazing to think what has happened over the last year and to be able to celebrate milestones with friends who have been there through it all. The party was great and Daniel even seemed to enjoy his first "Power Ranger" experience and even got to "dunk."

On a wild hare we took Daniel to the Festival of Ballooning on Sunday which was supposed to feature over 100 hot air balloons. Well, the weather was certainly hot but there wasn't any hot air balloons on the ground. Daniel was ready for action

and did get a chance to run around a deflated balloon.....

We also tried to take him to the ocean but it ended up pouring on us so we will just have to reschedule that milestone.

Here's to reaching and cherishing milestones!!!

Summer Fun!!

Though it has been extremely hot here we have been able to have some summer fun at local pools and lakes - all thanks to our friends. Sunday we went to the pool in Ramsey with the Mandel's and boy did Daniel have a good time. Ramsey has a great kiddie pool and all Daniel did was walk back and forth the whole time. A very fun day!!

Today I was fortunate enough to take Daniel to the Lake in Allendale thanks to Barbara. He even made friends with a little girl who was there with her grandmother and stayed in his float for the longest time, which he had no interest at all in on Sunday.

"Watch Out Here I Come"

"I Am Ready for Another Push"

Next step, swimming lessons......

Daniel Bedhead & Haircut

This morning Daniel woke up with the best case of bedhead in a while. We had to take a picture cause it was classic......

Now, given the state of his hair we decided it was finally time to cut Daniel's hair. (He is 14 months old already.) Actually Mike decided and cut his hair as Daniel napped this afternoon. Though Mike did not cut a ton off, he did do a great job.

The remains.....

And He still LOVES his Daddy...

And it did not take long for Daniel to get readjusted to the "new Doo."

Hope your Monday is memorable!

Daniel is Famous.....

So Daniel is more famous then we originally thought.

Months ago I sent a photo of Daniel holding Jimmy Buffett's new live CD into his website. (I think Daniel is like 7 months old in the photo). Hoping he would make the cut I checked the website religiously and then given all our craziness the last few months I totally forgot about it. Now being a true "Parrotthead" I checked today and to my surprise what did I find --- Daniel is Famous!

Just click on the link to see the photo. He is on the second row, center photo, on page one (could not ask for better placement): http://www.margaritaville.com/index.php?page=pphotos&ga=54.

Now we just have to get him to his first concert!! Fins Up!!!!

Daniel & His Sandbox

Today we finally put together Daniel's sandbox which we bought months ago at Thruway (Mike's favorite store). Though he did not get the whole idea of the sandbox he did decide to eat the sand and the rocks we added in for effect.

Daniel continues to enjoy his swing and yes those are crocs on his feet!

Enjoy your Sunday!!!

Just Another Trip to Cincinnati.....

Though we got a reprieve from our ENT Drs. in Cincinnati we were not able to schedule a follow-up scope with Daniel's GI Drs. in June so we had to go back on Tuesday and Wednesday. The actual scope was yesterday (Wednesday) and Daniel did awesome. His esophagus had not retracted and is at the same size it was prior to his airway surgery - a very good thing. We did learn that Daniel will always have scarring in his esophagus all his life and he just must learn how to eat slowly. The Drs. will continue to monitor him but the good news is that they will do it as part of our ENT scopes so we will just have to make one trip out there. His GI Drs. also gave us the reprieve of three months so we don't have to go out to Cincinnati until October!!! YEAH!!!

Daniel also underwent a feeding evaluation on Tuesday. The good news is that Daniel has started to take a liken to Cheerios, Doritos, Swedish meatballs and pizza. Though we thought this was weird we have learned that it is not. Apparently kids with swallowing issues tend to like foods that have more of a "bite" to them. We just must get Daniel to eat more consistently. What a fun challenge waiting us. Next week we are scheduled for another feeding evaluation locally so we will see what they say. Keep your fingers crossed.

Until next time....

Happy Fourth of July Continued...

So we went over to our friends in Ramsey and celebrated the Fourth of July with a B-B-Que and a trip to Finch Park. Lucky for us Ramsey was celebrating their 100 Anniversary and provided Daniel is first visit to a firetruck. He was quite happy checking it all out...

Just before it rained, Daniel was able to enjoy his second round of fireworks on Daddy's lap. He made it all the way through and almost fell asleep by the end of the display.

All and all a great way to celebrate our new found "Independence!"

Happy Fourth!!

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Daniel begun celebrating the 4th in his new wagon thanks to Nana, Jack, Grandpa and Grandma Selleck. Mike picked it out and of course had to go for the one with all the bells and whistles. I guess Mike chose right by the look of Daniel's face.....(The Diet Coke bottle is just for effect, I swear we are not giving him soda - even if he would drink it.)

Daniel also thought he was "Mr. Liberty" tooling around in his wagon this afternoon....

This evening we are off to watch the fireworks with friends in Ramsey. Hopefully Daniel will do as well as he did on Wednesday night when we took him for a "fireworks test run." I know only us but this time last year Daniel was recuperating in the NICU from getting his trach and g-tube. Crazy how fast time has gone and it's unbelievable how far we have come. Makes you really appreciate being "free" to do whatever your hearts contends.

Anyway, Happy Fourth of July. We hope you have/had a safe and happy one. (Where is the summer going....)