Oh life...

Life goes on and on and on, and Auggie is getting older. I know I'm always posting about how much older and bigger he seems, so it may get annoying, but he just keeps growing! He already counts as 4 1/2 months old, and it seems like he was just reaching 4 months a few days ago.

Last Wednesday Auggie had his 4-month well baby visit with his baby-vet (and by that, I mean his pediatrician.) He weighed in at a hulking 18lbs 3ozs, hitting the 92nd percentile with his weight. He's in the 81st percentile with length at 26 1/8 inches long. Auggs is one Big Boy. And we like him like that. His doc was pretty impressed.

He also had his very first vaccine on Wednesday. I was more or less traumatized by the whole experience before we even left the house. I've been reading up on vaccines since well before Auggie was born. The majority of the medical world will tell you that they've been tested to be safe (although no one will pronounce them 100% safe), and to just go ahead and have your kid vaccinated. Well, frankly, that isn't good enough for me.

First it was mercury that supposedly didn't make kids autistic, but we'll never really know. And now the problem-ingredient is aluminum. When talking to Auggie's doctor about aluminum, she didn't seem to be even the slightest big concerned. She said that there's always going to be some controversial something about vaccines, and this decade's something is aluminum. Still, that didn't exactly calm my fears. Just because there's always something doesn't somehow make that something okay. Aluminum poisoning is a big deal! Premature babies who received aluminum in their IV-fluids were shown to be developmentally delayed at 8 months when compared to preemies who didn't have aluminum in theirs. And it's been proven time and again to cause Alzheimer's-like symptoms when given at a toxic level.. And now we're giving it to our babies?

Okay. Breathe. ... Back to my baby. We naturally declined the Hepatitis B vaccine that is routinely given to newborns. Seriously, why does a newborn need a vaccine for a disease you can only catch through sexual activity, blood transfusions, or dirty needles? Complete nonsense. And we continued to decline vaccines until last Wednesday.

Dan and I decided that while we don't want Auggie to get bombarded with a gargantuan number of viruses and chemicals all at once, we do want him vaccinated... Just carefully, thoughtfully, and selectively. So we started with DTaP. (Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis.) The funny thing about DTaP is that there's almost no chance of Auggie catching the D and T, while it's the P that's most dangerous to babies. But you can't get the P without the D and T. So there you go. Thanks vaccine manufacturers. .....

Okay. I'm going to stop here. I could just go on about conspiracy theories and what-not, but I've already spent too much time on vaccines. Auggie handled the shot really well. He was sleepy in the afternoon, but was back to his smiley, cheerful self by evening. There is certainly the possibility of other side effects that could happen in the next few months, but we will continue to pray over the little man. Thank goodness for a God who's power extends beyond chemistry, biology and genetics.

On Thursday night we had our Bradley Method reunion potluck and hung out with our instructor, her lovely family, and the other couple and their cutie-pie baby boy Henry. Henry is a month older than Auggie and he showed off his 5-month-old skills the whole time by sitting up on his own. Clearly this makes sense since he's older, but ever since then we've been diligently training Auggie's stomach muscles in the ultra-competitive sport of sitting. Seriously, the competition is on! He loves training, too. We sit on the floor and I pull him up with his arms after an enthusiastic 1-2-3. And he laughs the whole time.. Clearly he doesn't realize the brevity of the situation! Who said comparing babies wasn't fun?!

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There's been a ton of action in the T household in the past couple of weeks. Last weekend Dan headed south to Arkansas for a climbing trip. He was overdue for some Bad Dude World and I know he had a fabulous time. And while he was gone my mom came down for the weekend. I had so much fun hanging out with her and I know Auggie loved her visit, too. Yay. And this past weekend Dan's parents came back through from Florida with their new boat. It pretty much dwarfed our house. But you know, our house is small.. ;) Still, it now has room for four adults, and maybe we could squeeze a baby in there? I'm thinking yes.

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Here's the Little Man in his cutie-man outfit (ignore the pee stains - we're working through the kinks of some new cloth dipes) matching his dad. My men.. :)