Ahn-Bao is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday, December 16 to have his tonsils and possibly adenoids removed. This has become necessary to prepare for his next palate re-repair and expansion which will likely be in January. The palate repair this time will be a pharyngeal-flap procedure (wikipedia has an explanation of the procedure at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharyngeal_flap_surgery) to expand what his plastic surgeon says is a too-short palate. While he is under anesthesia for the tonsils they will also clean out his ears and check to make sure that the tubes that were surgically placed in April are still in place. The ENT surgeon expects to schedule his surgery for early in the morning and keep him overnight in the hospital just one night.If all goes well for both procedures, this should help him be ready to learn to make more of the consonant sounds that he is now lacking. He is getting speech therapy through the school district every couple of weeks and we're working on homework in-between. He's very motivated and talks up a storm, but requires a family translater (often one of the other kids) to be understood. We are very hopeful that once the anatomy is repaired, that he can really have a chance to be more understood. It would be such a joy to hear the independent thoughts, feelings and observations that he trys so hard to express.
Ahn-Bao will also have an ultrasound of his kidneys on December 12. This is a precautionary measure to make sure his kidneys are not compromised by the melamine contamination of milk in China over the past few years. It has just been coming to light recently and it's likely that Ahn-Bao would have had some exposure. He's already had clear laboratory tests so the ultrasound is just to put his parents minds at ease. 
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