18 months already?

I took Andy for his 18 month checkup today. This one was particularly notable as it was our first visit to our new pediatrician. Dr. Staats came highly recommended from a friend as it's just two doctors and they take their own call, plus their office is quite close to our house. The negative is they don't take my insurance. I went back and forth about it, but ultimately decided that a better doctor was better for all of us and I would just suck it up to file the claims with the PPO. I liked the practice physically as there were LOTS of toys and books to keep him entertained while I waited and everyone seemed really nice. Not that the old practice wasn't nice, but I felt everyone was making an effort to get to know us personally rather than going through the motions of what needed to be done. Dr. Staats could not have been nicer. She probably spent 20-25 minutes with us getting to know us and giving Andy a thorough once over. The bonus was he didn't need any shots. I also hear that after 18 months, they don't need vaccinations every time anymore. Jubilee!

On to the facts, he's 26 pounds and 32 inches and measured at 50 percent weight and between 50-75 percent in height. Turns out the old practice measured his height a little differently so that's the reason for the decline in percentile. She seemed unconcerned about that saying he is perfectly healthy and seems to be progressing just fine.

I asked about his talking, saying he probably has 15-20 words in rotation. That he knows what those mean and babbles a lot, but not too many words. She said by age 2, they want to see about 50 words in context so she thought he was just fine. I tentatively asked about the sleeping with a pacifier at night and she seemed to think so long as he's not using it during the day, that it was okay for now. All in all, a pleasant experience, well, for me mostly. By the end, Andy was bored with all the toys they had and I brought and just ready to leave.