The Tolberts

6 Months!  6 Months!?  We never really expected to survive this long.  6 Months was some strange distant imaginary time in the future...like when you are 5 years old, and it's the day after Christmas, and you're trying to imagine NEXT Christmas.  But wow, here it is!  And so, as promised, your State-of-the-Tolberts address!

Where to begin?  With pictures, of course, because if there's one thing that we know is true about blog readers, it's that most of them don't actually like to read.  You skim through the big blocks of text, and look at the pictures.  And don't pretend to deny it, because we know that its true.  So first off, as you can see from the pictures here, we've started feeding the kids solid food.  Now for those of you who aren't baby-owners, solid food is not necessarily solid.  Actually, it's pretty un-solid.  But somehow, solid and milk became antonyms in the world of baby-rearing.  So anyway, we started the kids on these so-called-solids, which they seem to thoroughly enjoy.  But after feeding 2 kids their rice mush for the day, we end up with 2 babies, 2 bumbo seats, 1 table, and at least 1 parent that is covered in mush and needing to be cleaned.

What else, other than bigger and smarter and stronger and cuter and easier?  Last Sunday, both kids managed to sit up unassisted for a short amount of time for the first time.  And both have started slowly scooting on their little tummies.  It's slow enough that you don't notice them moving, but today, Sara left them on the floor, and came back, and Audrey had somehow moved to the complete opposite side of Aaron from when she started.  We're still not really sure how she managed that! 

While we still have some tiring days here and there, things are getting a lot easier, also.  There's much less crying for seemingly no reason; they're a little more predictable.  They cry when tired, hungry, bored, lonely, or, in Aaron's case, at a party.  It's weird, he just seems to hate parties.  But it evens out, because usually when he's crying, we can just take him outside, and he'll instantly calm down.  It seems that the power of parties trumps the power of outside, though.  We took him to an outdoor birthday party, and the church picnic, neither of which he was really a fan of.  Oh well. 

Other than that, though, we're doing great!  Sara still loves staying home and taking care of the kids every day, which completely amazes me, as I'd be stir crazy and half insane if I did that.  Every time I take care of the kids for more than a couple hours, and am anxiously awaiting Mommy to come home, I realize just how impressive she is to be with them all day every day. 

Well, that's it for this month!  Now we have to wait for a year...there's something more exciting about counting down the first 6 months, but what's the difference between month 7 and 8, when you just did 6 and there's a year around the corner?  But don't fret, there will be plenty of updates to keep all you grandparents (and our other reader or two) satisfied!

I feel like there was a lesser known garage band that I’ve been following that suddenly became a famous household name. I was a single adventurous teacher working in the middle-of-nowhere China in 2002 when China got the Olympic bid, entered the WTO, and aware enough of the Western world that people asked me if I knew Michael Jordan. Now every night people sit in their living rooms and see the sights of the country I simultaneously love and shake my head at in the same sentence. For me, the Olympics are as much about the country and the opening ceremony as they are about the sports. We had been looking forward to this opening ceremony since we saw how all-out the Chinese do performances at a theme park we visited.

When the Olympics were in Greece in 2004, Nathan and I were living in China together. We got to experience their view of the games as well as anticipate the excitement of 2008 along with them. My co-teacher and I wrote our whole summer curriculum around an Olympic theme. Unfortunately, the sports that dominated Chinese TV were ping pong and badminton so I didn’t get to see much of my favorite event- Gymnastics! This little trip down memory lane includes a picture of our preschool "opening ceremony" and a picture of us living in china.

The bits I’ve seen from Beijing 2008 make me feel patriotic as I root for the USA, reminiscent of the country I lived in for 3 years, and amazed that people have so much drive to work so hard to win in their sport.On the night of the opening ceremony this year, Aaron coordinated his outfit with his friend Alana. Here they are wearing matching Hungry Caterpillar garb. Finally, the babies show off their own olympic feats (playing on their bellies and holding themselves up with their arms).

One of the coolest things our local public library does is donate a book in honor of babies born in town. Aaron and Audrey both have a book at the library that has a sticker in front honoring their birth! Also, for completing our summer reading program goal, we got two free books along with the two free sippy cups we got for joining. Aaron loves to get his hands on books and turn the pages and Audrey just likes to eat every page.  

We've been trying for weeks to get a picture or video of both babies smiling at the same time.  Almost every day, they'll sit there and giggle and laugh together, but as soon as we pull out the camera, they immediately put on their serious faces.   We now have hundreds of photos of one or both babies smiling, with the other scowling or looking bored. But yesterday, we finally got both pictures AND video of both being happy! 

As usual, I was hopping around and hollering, making a general fool out of myself, which they both love (I'm still not sure whether they're laughing AT me or WITH me).  But this time, Sara managed to sneak the camera up in front of their faces without totally distracting them.  And the results are here for you to enjoy!

Well, with all the publicity I got about Anguna, I had a number of people asking me to make a version for the Nintendo DS.  I resisted and resisted.  But finally, after enough pestering from various people, and the wonderful donations of DS flash carts from the wonderful company  Electrobee and a DS from my friend Tim Dudek, I've started my DS port.

I thought it would be fun (for me, likely not fun for anyone else) to blog about my progress.  But really, you all just come here to look at pictures of my babies, and I can't think of anyone who would really enjoy reading about my progress without their eyes glazing over, so I started a different blog to record what's going on.  So for anyone who wants to subject themselves to my technical ramblings:  my AngunaDS development blog.

In other news, we got our camera back from Canon, fixed for free, and in better shape than when we bought it!

Yesterday I went to get the camera so I could take a picture of Audrey in her very groovy outfit and email it to The Swopes to say thanks for the hand-me-downs. When I got back to Audrey, she had found a very cute and very funny place for the book she was reading (read eating). I thought the Swopes shouldn't be only ones to enjoy the picture. By the way, if you'd like to hear about their recent trip to Guatemala, go to http://aheartsjourknee.blogspot.com/

Remember when the babies didn't acknowledge the other existed? Well, now they like to look at each other and smile and talk, and we often find them holding hands. Yesterday, Audrey (in very groovy outfit) was giving Aaron the eye, like 'hey, let's look at each other and smile, it'll be fun' but Aaron was so zoned in on her psychedelic outfit that he couldn't pull his eyes away long enough to play with her. It cracked me up!