He speaks! James said his first word - mama - on December 26th! Merry Christmas to me! He's been saying "mamamamamama" for a long time now but that Wednesday he shortened it to mama and it was directed at me. He also says "uh-oh" on a fairly regular basis. I'm not sure if that counts as a word but he says it at the appropriate time, usually when he throws his sippy cup over the side of his high chair. He says uh-oh as it hits the ground. I keep telling him that it's not an uh-oh if he throws it on purpose. Silly kid. He says uh-oh other times too though, usually when he drops something. And this weekend I swear he said up. He was crawling up the stairs and I told him "Up James. Go up the stairs." and he responded by saying "up." Speaking of stairs, yesterday James crawled down the stairs correctly (feet first, on belly) rather than trying to walk down them or crawl down head first. And he was pretty fast with it too.

Last Monday (a week ago), I took the kids outside to play while Kris went to work. Annika had a great time as usual making snow angels, shoveling the snow with her little sand shovel and running around playing. It was James' first time playing in the snow though. He seemed to like it. I sat him down since it was hard for him to walk, all marshmallow man like in his snow suit and boots and he dug around in the snow with his hand a little bit. Then he flopped back and laid in the snow for a while. He was fine with that until his big sister came over and threw a bunch of snow in his face. Mean big sister! He cried until I got all the snow off and held him for a little bit. Then he sat some more playing in the snow and eating it.

Saturday Kris took Annika outside to play again and this time they went sledding. There is a big hill near our house and at the bottom is a "pond." Actually it's a run-off holding pond for a neighborhood and was dry a the end of the summer anyway. The hill is pretty steep, perfect for sledding. Annika had a good time, until she went face first over the front of the sled into the snow. There were a few tears and then she was good to go sledding some more. They came home later and she was so cute, all rosey-cheaked with messy hair and freezing cold cheeks and hands. Some hot chocolate warmed her up nice again.

Tomorrow is Annika's 2nd opinion appointment with another ENT. I'm guessing we'll get another recommendation for surgery and will be surprised if he tells us something different. I'll report back tomorrow with what he says.