Makai's Milestones

We've been looking for a pediatrician since we first arrived.  Doctors here work JAG and JanLG hours.  Sundays from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Wed from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.  The first pediatrician appointment we had I ended up canceling.  The woman on the phone told me, we have one available at 8:20.  I said "oh wow, that's kind of early.  He's just waking up and we'll have to drive there.  Do you have anything later, say 10 a.m.?"  She responds with "this is 8:20 in the evening."   "Oh. He's in bed by then.  Do you have anything earlier?"  "We open at 8 p.m."   Hmm....

Scott's good friend Kristine is a nurse at a children's hospital in Chicago.  She emailed a few doctor's there who sent us the head of GI here in Israel.  I contacted him for a pediatrician recommendation.  He was extremely kind and got back to me within an hour.   I called her a few weeks later and she gave me an option.  I can either a) head to the hospital for a meeting with her, but the waits are usually 3 hours, b) meet her at her house (well, an office above her house) where it will be just us.  It costs more but there is no wait and you can chose your time.  Guess which option I went for.

We went for a meeting last nite and he took to her very well.  As soon as we entered her office he went right up to her lap and held her hand.   Since it was their first meeting, she gave him a few tests to see where he's at in his milestones.  She gave him a mini mouse clock and he was able to point out all body parts as well as the clock.  When stacking blocks he didn't want the same color on top of each other.  He chose one of each color and stacked them without being told in under a minute.  When he reached 9 blocks she goes OK, he really passed that one.   The shape puzzle he didn't want to play with at first.  After about 5 minutes went by, she told us we should have these puzzles at home for him.  I told her we do but we work with animals.  He must have realized she was talking about him.   He then walked up to her, handed her the reflex hammer, went to the puzzle, took out all the shapes, and put them back in the appropriate spot.  Then grabbed the hammer back from her hand and went onto play.   His favorite part of the meeting was playing with her knee reflex hammer.   Once she hit his knee, he grabbed the hammer and tried hitting his own knee and dads with a huge smile on his face.  She said Wow! He catches on very quickly.  Most kids his age don't do this.   She was also impressed at his ability to feed himself with a fork and spoon.  She said he has very good motor coordination.   Then told us not to put him in kindergarten til after his second birthday.  

She wasn't concerned about his delay in speaking.  She said kids who are bilingual have a delay.   She did recommend speaking one language at home since Hebrew is spoken as soon as we walk out the door.