fixed.

 She's not broken anymore. I think we figured her out! and just in time. Kent went back to work today and she's been fabulous the past three days. She even slept through the entire Hunger Games movie (we LOVED it by the way!).

  This girl is SO unlike our boys- and it took us awhile to figure out her needs.  Plus- overall- I think she's just generally more high maintenance.

I'm pretty sure her eyes are going to be hazel like mine. They are lighter in the center and not nearly as dark as our boys were at this point. and I'm pretty sure she's pale and pasty like me too.  lucky girl :)

I feel like every day she's looking more and more like her own little person.  Less like her brothers and more like herself.  Besides the coloring- it's even hard for me to see Kent and myself in her.  I'm sure it's there- I just have a hard time seeing it.

Ike had a minor meltdown yesterday when Kent told him he was going back to work. He told kent he'd never hug him again!  but this morning when kent was gone- neither rugrat even commented.  And they've been pretty nice to metta and me today.

Kent took both of them for well check doctors appointments this week.  Both are growing well and on or above par for everything. and Zeb had to get kindergarten shots!!! plus have his blood drawn.  Apparently he freaked.  Totally ballistic banshee screams.  I'm so glad that it was Kent who took him and not me!  I hate when they scream like that.  It's not that I feel bad- I just hate the unreasonable screams.  When they got home- Zeb informed me he doesn't have to get another shot until he's 11. He's going to be sorely disappointed next fall when we get our flu shots.

 My birthday last week was wonderful.  we celebrated ALL week long and I had Kent home every single day.  Best birthday week ever. We watched my FAVORITE movie- "Dan in Real Life".  I have no idea why but I LOVE it.  It's one of the few movies that I can watch over and over and over again and laugh so hard every time. We went out to eat a few times :)  Kent watched the baby and I went to the gym several times!!  and we spent time checking out new parts of dayton- and just enjoying time to relax!!  On my actual birthday I was craving carrot cake terribly.  I have no idea why- but it sounded amazing.  The only place in town that sold carrot cake ended up being 'the cheesecake factory'- so we went.  I can honestly say that both of us loved our food.  A little overpriced- but super fun for a birthday dinner. And their carrot cake was pretty good.

This weekend- however- I decided to make my own.  Much cheaper- and actually tastier in my opinion.  The picture isn't fabulous but the cake was. I used my friend's fabulous recipe but adapted it enough that it's more my own.  I'm including it at the end of the post :)  It's the perfect Easter treat!

Our baby is broken.   We've never had a fussy baby before and this little metta is kind of driving us crazy.  I shouldn't complain because I'm assuming shes just a 'normal' baby- but our other two were abnormally easy.  She likes to be held when she's awake. and she likes to be held in a certain way.  she gets fussy in the evening and has to be walked around or bounced or taken outside.  She's gassy and gets the hiccups every night.  But she still does sleep quite a bit- and sleeps well- so I know that things could be WAAAAY worse.

 Kent figured out this pillow trick this afternoon.  She took three long (2+ hours) naps just like this today.

 Check out the orange hair!!

 she's so cute when she sleeps.  her fat little lips and pudgy little nose.  adorable.

 but she better stop shrieking at us soon!  kent goes back to work on thursday and I'm hoping that I can adjust to real life.  Having a baby was almost worth this amazing paternity break.  I love that the air force gives TEN full days to dads.  It has been lifesaving.  thank-you USAF.

CARROT CAKE

combine:

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinn.
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda


combine:
 3 cups grated carrots
1 (12-16 oz)  can pineapple crushed or blended with juice.
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1/2 c cup oil
1/2 c applesauce
4 eggs


MIx all together with spoon or whisk.
grease and flour 2 -9 inch cake pans and bake 30-35 minutes at 350.  Let cool completely- remove from pans. Stack with forsting between layers- and cover with frosting!


FROSTING.
1 pack cream cheese (room temp)
3 tbs butter (room temp)
Cream together and add 3-4 cups p. sugar

 what is it about that baby bum with feet tucked under that is so cute?!  it doesn't hurt that she's asleep. and sleeping newborns are my favorite kind.

and I know that miss metta looks a little androgenous- and maybe even boyish- here- but I love the green and blue stripes.

this girl loves to sleep on her stomach.  if we stick her on her stomach on the floor- she'll sleep twice as long as anywhere else! and since she's kind of crabby when she's awake- we try to get her to sleep as much as possible.  Luckily she still sleeps about 80% of the time :)










  and since kent has these 12 straight days off- he holds her the other 20% of the time.

 It's a darn good thing that Kent started his paternity leave this week.  because things have gotten recrazy ( I made that up- it means crazy again- all in the same ways). And even better that he had this past weekend off- so we have ended up with almost two full weeks of no work for kent!!  it almost makes having a baby worth it!!

so besides having Kent around- the craziness is peaking.

#1 the weather has been unseasonably warm.  I think the AC is going to have to come on tonight.  and with this warm weather we've got ants.  like really gross big and beady black carpenter ants. In our house. I'm dying. I'd rather sleep with spiders in my bed than ants on the wall.   Ants are my only real fear.  ew ew ew.  any ideas on how to get rid of them?!?  I can't sleep at night because I sit and think about them.

#2 Ike says his ear hurts again!!  and I wouldn't really believe it- but he keeps scratching it and leaning into it.  Kent is at the drs office with him now hoping to get round two of antibiotics.  Ten days of amoxicillin didn't cut it.  I really hope it doesn't get as bad as it did last week.  but if it does- at least Kent can hold him and rock him.

#2 Metta.  naughty naughty metta.

This little monkey has been B-A-D the past two days.  gassy?  grumpy?  tired?  who knows!!  another reason newborns are so dang hard- they don't speak with words.  and considering we've never had a fickle baby and newborn cries make me very anxious- I'm just really glad that Kent is home :)  She's already been way better last night and today so I'm hoping she's over it.  I'm not sure how people with continually fussy babies cope.  I'd lose my mind.

Here are several grumpy pictures.  she wouldn't relax for a normal shot.

 I inlcuded this picture because it shows her orange hair.  I think it's oranger than the boys' was. I'm really hoping it's red- or strawberry like mine!! I really want a redheaded kiddo!!

 luckily the monkey still sleeps whenever we get in the car- and stays asleep for several hours at a time.  Yesterday we went and played 'putt-putt' and got ice cream at youngs dairy while metta sat her carseat and never even let out a peep.

The boys were so intense with their play.

 The ice cream here is honestly some of the world's best.  I got cinnamon and brownie batter.  so so good.

are you sick of metta pictures yet??

Metta's first bath looks eerily similar to Ike's first bath. even the same dirty dishes.

Metta had her two week follow up visit today and was a total champ.  She was awake and wide eyed the entire time- with no tears!  and then promptly fell back asleep once we put her in her car seat.
and she's back up to birth weight- now actually three ounces over- 8 pounds 8 ounces.

I'm pretty sure that I have the world's best sleeping newborns.  it can be hard to wake them up to feed- but I'm not going to complain that my babies sleep too much!!

She honestly almost never cries- but if she does- this is what Ike does immediately.  It's the only form of acknowledgement he makes toward her.  He honestly doesn't touch her- or talk to her- or even talk about her.  Kent was holding both of them on his lap last night and their legs touched so Ike quickly retracted his leg so they wouldn't touch anymore.

I'm a little worried these kids are going to have fried brains pretty soon.

This week has been much better- but they are still spending far more time than normal in front of the tv!!  with the warm weather we've been outside more- and spent some time with friends- but they are getting in more than their fair share of lightsaber wii battles and donkey kong.  In fact- first thing Ike says when he wakes up in the morning is: "can I play super mario brothers??".

 

Here's miss metta after her doctor's appointment. Sleeping.

I think she's a lot cuter than our boys were at this age. Is it because she's a girl?  or am I just jaded now?  do I think she's so cute- when in actuality she's really goofy looking?!  maybe it's the bows.

new faces.

 having a new rugrat gives me lots more reasons to take pictures- and that means more blogging.   I think the boys are happy that I have someone else to pester with the camera!

my babies are notorious for getting a bit ugly shortly after birth.  it doesn't last forever- but it's that goofy newborn phase.  I've always been one to think that most newborns are funny looking.  Metta seems to be no different.  Maybe it's just because of the funny faces she makes.
 

she's following the footsteps of Ike and not pooing- which leads to some of the funny faces. We are going on four days of no poo- but I'm not so stressed this time around.  Ike went eight days and I guess it's perfectly fine and normal (so says the in house pediatrician). She has her two week follow up this week and we'll check her weight gain then to make sure she isn't having any growth issues.  do any body elses breastfed babies not poo for days on end at this age?!

 little metta has the longest fingers compared to her brothers at this age!!  her toes are long, too. I'm not sure where they came from!  and I'll be shocked if she's tall.

I'm pretty surprised at how many girl clothes I actually have!  with my preemptive yard sale shopping- and hand me downs from laney- plus gifts from friends- this little girlie is already well dressed and accessorized :)

 she may be drowning in some of her church dresses- but they are cute!

hump day?!

 I don't want to jinx myself- but I think we just made it over the hump. the hump of the hard days.  Those past seven days were torturous. hellish. and exhausting. remind me again why people like newborn babies?!?

My problems were compounded by the fact that Ike's earache included three nights and days of pure agony. several times I was in tears (blame it on the hormones) because I felt so bad for him.  he was in so much pain and there was ABSOLUTELY nothing that I could do.   plus- my help left.  and kent has worked more than 80 hours this week.

but ike is almost better- kent only has three more days left of this atrocious month- and gramps left behind a babysitter of sorts.

do you see what these rugrats are doing?! playing the Wii.   It actually came from Metta and Clair and has been a lifesaver.  THANK-YOU metta and clair!!

this is Zeb's face when gramps opened his bag and showed him the surprise.  He was screaming with excitement.  He's been asking for a wii for at least a year now.  and the two boys LOVE it.  They sit and play and giggle (and sometimes scream at each other) as long as I need them to :)  It may be hard to wean them off once I come back to my senses.

Gramps also left behind some new amazing lightsabers that glow and make crazy lightsaber sounds.  The boys sleep with them and we can hear them going off periodically at night.

Did I already mention that they got crazy spoiled while Gramps was here?!

and even though this little monkey holds most of the blame for the chaos of the last week- she really is the model newborn. I'm not sure why I get so blessed with perfect little babies- but I do.  As far as newborns go anyway. 

I think we started off on the wrong foot having her born so late at night.  Kent was coming off his night shift and I didn't get any sleep that first night so it's taken us this long to catch back up. Getting the first week of feeding down- and Kent being up three nights with Ike- kind of did us in for awhile there.

but she is so good. She eats and sleeps. a lot. and never cries.  She would for sure sleep six hours at night if I let her.  Last night I slept from 9 pm to 830 am- and besides waking myself up to feed her three times- she slept perfectly.

 I love her little round soft face.  It's most certainly going to get zitty and wrinkly so I'll enjoy it now.

 she's sort of got creepy eyes when they're open.  they get all beady and wild.  and they've got some broken broken blood vessels so she looks a bit like a baby zombie!

 luckily I got some head accessories for her this week in the mail (thanks Pat and Laney!) so she's looking a little more girly.  It's going to be so strange to dress a girl!  I'm really hoping she stays bald for at least two years and then I won't have to deal with hair!!

 and don't mind the giant binky in her mouth. I'm kind of a binky nazi and really want her to love them.  Hopefully we can make a switch from the hideous hospital one- but for now it's the one she likes- so it stays.