My birthday

For my 31st birthday (June 23rd) we went to the Oregon Coast with my brother Rob and his wife Rachel. Here is some evidence:

Big boys

Grant got a new car seat for Cole's birthday! We had been talking about it for months. Cole was a little tall for his infant carrier, but he had to stay backward facing until 1 year, so we kept him in the carrier far longer than we wanted to. As soon as Cole hit 1 year, we moved him into Grant's car seat and faced it forward, and bought Grant a new booster! Here are my big boys in their new car seats for the first time!

Cole's stats

On Cole's first birthday, June 14th, he visited the doctor for his one year appointment. He had to have shots, of course. I told a friend this and she said, "How sad that he had shots on his birthday!" Well, Cole didn't know it was his birthday!

Anyway, here is the update:

Weight - He is now ON the chart! He weighs almost 21 pounds (he gained almost 5 pounds in 3 months!) and is in the 25th percentile.

Height - He is 31 inches long, a gain of 2 1/2 inches. He is in the 85th percentile.

Head Circumference - 15th percentile - what did you expect with pin-head parents?

By the way, Cole started OFFICIALLY walking (meeting all of my strict criteria) about 3 days before his birthday. Today (a week later), he is walking all over the place across long distances. Of course, the quickest way to get around is still the bear crawl!

The real birthday cake pictures

"Cake" at home

Mitch bought some Ding Dongs for Cole's birthday cake. We are celebrating his birthday with the rest of the Ratzlaff family on Sunday. I promise, he'll get a real cake with lots more frosting!

How big is Cole? So big!!

Happy Birthday my baby!

Cole's Birthday Dinner

We went to Mira Mar for dinner. Cole was given the special birthday boy treatment!

One year ago today . . .

Mitch and I dropped big brother off at his grandparent's house and drove across the bridge toward the hospital. The bridge was lined with American flags, and it occurred to me that my baby would be born on Flag Day. June 14th also happens to be my older sister's anniversary! In my huge family it is always good when a birthday matches up with another important date on the calendar.

When I was 34 weeks pregnant, I went to the doctor's office and found out that I was 3 cm. dilated. They put me on bed rest - Kelleigh style. (I did most of my regular outside activities, but was just too pooped to cook anything or clean anything or go shopping. Strong Braxton Hicks all the time.) By 36 weeks (which is when Grant was born), I was 4 cm. and we were just sure my water was going to break like it did with Grant. I took it very easy. By 38 weeks, I was 5 cm. and getting really tired of wondering when this baby was going to make his appearance. By 40 weeks I was pretty fed up. At 41 weeks, they decided to induce. Crazy.

Our original induction date was June 13th. Although I was excited for this baby to come, I was not excited about celebrating future birthdays on Friday the 13th. Thankfully, the hospital called that morning and rescheduled us for the next day because there weren't enough beds. Mitch took me out to Olive Garden that night and we stopped by the mall to buy some yummy shower gel for the hospital. Our one last hurrah!

We arrived at the hospital early in the morning on June 14th and were quickly checked into our delivery room. My midwife started Pitocen right away and we just waited for the contractions to get stronger, longer and closer together. The midwife kept increasing the Pitocen every 15 minutes or so. I was curious to see how much pain I could take. Of course, I have been told over and over that Pitocen makes the contractions so much worse than "natural" contractions, but what was I to do? I wanted this baby out!

After about an hour of contractions, my water broke. That is when the pain skyrocketed. Wow!! I tried to brave it out for a while, but then my midwife suggested that maybe I should think about an epidural. I love epidurals and was planning to have one, but I wanted to tough it out as long as I could. Still . . . we called the anesthesiologist. In the meantime, the midwife gave me something to take the edge off. Oh, blessed relief! My wonderful painkiller lasted about 20 minutes, then SLAM. I could hardly breathe, the contractions hurt so bad. The epidural was administered and I started pushing the little button. Again, I wanted to be brave, so I didn't push the button as often as I could have. My midwife encouraged me to push the darn thing! By the time I was ready, though, it was too late. The baby was coming!!

I will spare you all of the details, but let me just say that it was very painful and totally worth it. I would not change a single thing. I got to actually pull my baby out (sounds gross, but it isn't) and they put him on my chest right away. I couldn't control the tears as I held my beautiful baby boy. I was totally overwhelmed with love for him from the very beginning. I still marvel . . .

Anyway, Mitch went out to tell his parents the good news and while he was gone, they weighed Cole Robert Ratzlaff. He was 9 pounds, 4 ounces!! My goodness! I had no idea I could have a baby that big! I was very proud.

What a wonderful, exciting year it has been. I can't believe how quickly the months have gone by. I feel so blessed to have two such beautiful little boys and an amazing husband. One year ago today, my family was completed (unless, of course, I change my mind, but that is not likely!).

Frustration . . . my opinion

Time for me to express my opinion here, so bear with me.

I have a drop down menu on my browser toolbar titled "Blogs." I like to look at my friends' blogs every once in a while. I enjoy getting caught up on their lives and feeling connected even though we may be thousands of miles apart. Maybe we live in the same town, but I don't get to spend much chit-chat time with them. Whatever. I just like knowing what is happening in their lives.

Opinion time. I think I really dislike MySpace. Why? It takes FOREVER to load. People put obnoxious wall paper on their blogs so you can't even read the print. There are all kinds of blinkies that take FOREVER to load, and if they have music, it has to load that, too! But here's the thing: I have a brand spankin' new computer with tons of memory and super-fast DSL. WHY does it take so long to load these pages? Because they are obnoxious, that's why.

For those of you who have MySpace, please don't be offended. Just know that I would LOVE to get caught up on your life, but I am a busy mom who can't wait around for all of your blinkies to load. (And, Tootsie, just so you know, yours is the only one I really bother with anyway!!)

"Once a time ago . . . "

Grant has been telling stories lately and they just crack me up! He starts out with, "Once a time ago . . . " and starts listing the characters. Sometimes the characters are dinosaurs (his current interest) named Squeezasauraus (Mitch), Kissasauraus (Me), Grantasauraus (Grant) and Poopasauraus (Cole). Sometimes the character is a boy named Grant who is also a pirate who "swings his sword around!" Grant demonstrates this by swinging his turkey-baster-sword. Usually he includes Katie, Grandpa and Grandma and his friend Patrick. He is so stinking cute!! Speaking of stinking . . . typically the story ends with "and they pooped!" Is that Freudian or what!?

Reptile Man

Last night we went to Lyle School to see the Reptile Man. I knew it was going to be an awesome show because I remember this guy from last summer when he came to the park. Anyway, I took Grant and Cole (the little tornado) to see lots of snakes, lizards, turtles, a tortoise, and an alligator. It was seriously cool. Parents enjoyed the show as much as the kids. Grant watched most of it with his hands over his ears (he does this when he is a little scared), while Cole twirled and whirled on my lap. Obnoxious. He kept kicking the kids seated within range. Anyway, it was one of those fun memories that will stick with me for quite some time!!