Ponderings

Did you ever thing to yourself "What if" or "If only"? In the process of house-hunting, Chris and I have often thought "If only we could have afforded that house we really liked..." or "What if the perfect house would finally come along and we could actually afford it!" Do you ever wish there were times in your life you could live over again, or do differently? I often wonder what life would be like if only I had had a girl or two.

But, being the overly analytical person that I am, I took that thought further. What if, THIS is the what-if life I had imagined in a different life? What if we had been able to buy that house we really wished we hadn't missed out on, but then that house flooded, or burnt down, or we had a child die from an accident on that property. And after such calamity, we had thought to ourselves, "If only we hadn't bought this house!" And *this* is the life we were given instead? What if I had had a few girl babies, but in 20 years they'd have grown up to suffer horrible tragedy, or at least difficulty, because they were girls?

What if you could live your life over, and this is already the second time around? This is the chance to make better choices? This is the life with better opportunities offered? What if I had once been born as a single birth, with no twin sister, and I had always wondered what it was like to have a twin, and always wished I had one, and Poof! My life became one where I had a twin sister! Now I know what it's like! My wish was granted!

Ok, I know that was weird and a bit circular, and probably hard to follow, but I like to think that the life I live now is the best one I could have hoped for. Instead of wishing for something different, I like to think that this is the life I was given when I DID wish for something different. This is the best I could have gotten. Maybe that's a little bit like It's a Wonderful Life? It doesn't stop me from dreaming of a beautiful farmhouse on many acres with a house full of boys (and girls!) but it helps me to not be bitter that I don't have what (I think) I want. Maybe if I had what I thought I wanted, I wouldn't like it at all! I know my life is full of blessings I can see and appreciate, but I bet it is full of blessings I didn't even know I was given, and I'm sure there are many sufferings and tragedies I was spared. THIS life is the good one!

Und der Haifisch, er hat Zaehne, und er traegt sie im Gesicht!

My apologies for not knowing how to get the umlauts in there. I'm sure probably only Michelle knows what that means either, but it's one of my favorite phrases I remember from high school German.

Anyway, the operative word above is Zaehne, which means ..... teeth! Jacob has officially, at one day less than 20 weeks old, gotten his first tooth! It broke through this morning, after a week of grumpiness and discomfort. It is funny to watch him now, because he can't help playing with it with his tongue. Each time I look over at him, he is sticking his tongue out and grinning widely. We are both glad it has finally popped out! It is a bottom front tooth, and its partner is close behind, I bet it will be out by this weekend.

Troyer used to have the record for earliest tooth, but if I remember correctly, it was 5 days before he turned 5 mos, so Jacob has him beat!

Pictures

Ok, here are the pictures from the last few weeks:

Remember how I told you Jacob likes to roll over in his sleep, even in his carseat? here is a picture of him half way through a nap:



He will, as he is waking up, roll over onto his tummy while pushing with his feet, and eventually fall out the *top* of the seat (it rocks, so his weight tips it over). All my other kids learned to squirm out the bottom of it by wiggling until their heads hit the floor as the seat rocked out from under them. This is the first time I've had one squirm out the top!

Here is a picture of Micah blowing Levi's bubbles while Levi holds the wand. They were having a great time!



Since all my blub flowers are done for the spring, I don't really have any flowers in my front beds anymore. I make Chris leave the flowering weeds in for me, so at least there is some color LOL




Last week our exploring brought us around to one of our favorite parks. Troyer and Noah were spending the weekend with MIL but the other 5 were with us, and had a blast.



















And here we are loading up to go home:


And finally some shots of Jacob in the exersaucer. He really likes it, and got the hang of it as soon as we put him in it. He chases those toys around in circles, LOL.





I really like this early version we have. The new ones come with all sorts of activities built in to the tray, which is nice because the babies can't throw them to the floor, but they are murder for cleaning up if the baby spits up or drools wet cheerios all over.