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!

If we could hear our babies thoughts lately, they would sound something like this..."Hm. That thing looks interesting, I'm going to put it in my mouth and see what it's like. That thing over there is neat, too. Maybe I should just put everything I see into my mouth."

On a similar note, I guess it's time to start thinking about getting used to the idea of starting foods. I ordered a book others have recommended called Super Baby Foods, so when it comes in the mail I'll see what it says about solids.

We are enjoying our babies so much as they learn more about the world around them and as they ineract more with us and each other. Here are a few pictures from this week...

In these pictures: Nathan was going to show off some of the squash and cucumber from our first garden, but Aaron had other ideas. Audrey seems more interested in eating the plate than the food on the plate.

First, before we bore you with text, Sara will share what five months means:

• 2   Cribs in the babies' room- They've finally moved to separate cribs.
• 2   Pool parties attended- They’ve had two chances to show off their adorable swim suits and stick their toes in the water at their friend Maria’s and at the church swim night.
• 3   States- The twins have been to Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri so far.   Hopefully Arkansas will be next!
• 8   Grandparents and great-grandparents living
• 10  Hours they sleep per night on average
• 11  Concerts in the park or library- Our absolute favorite family activity this summer is going to free outdoor concerts. When the babies have had enough music we just stroll them around the park.
• 32  Gallons of breastmilk consumed. Moo.  
• 50  Library book reading goal- We signed up for the summer reading program. Our goal is to read 50 different books, though this is a bit misleading because sometimes we read the same book 8 times a day and only put it on the list once. Favorites include I Like it When & I Kissed the Baby by Mary Murphy, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and Jesse Bear What Will You Wear?
• 60   Fingernails and toenails Mommy has to clip
• 100  Miles walked in our double stroller.  That’s just an estimate but we sure have spent a lot of time taking walks.
• 1500 Times Aaron has spit-up- This is an educated guess, but the number gets the point across.
• 2100 Diapers changed- Now we can say we have changed literally thousands of diapers.

Wow.  That being said, Audrey and Aaron are now five months old!  We keep saying "wow, we never thought we'd make it this far!" .... but we did!  Alas, this time, there is NO State of the Tolberts Address, as I clearly stated that those would be SeptoAnnual (a term that, you might recall, probably doesn't really exist), NOT duodecennial (a term which I did NOT make up, but which I'm not sure means what I want it to mean).

Nevertheless, we'd love to share about this wonderful month number 5.  First, let's just say that it was the best month yet!  The babies are sleeping through the night most nights, starting to fall into a more predictable routine of 3 naps per day, eating well, laughing, playing with toys, and being more alert than ever!  Aaron just loves to lay on the floor and giggle at me as I make a fool out of myself in various ways.  He'll also pull his bib over his face, and then laugh like made when we say "peekaboo" after he pulls it back down.   (Although to be honest, I'm not sure whether or not he intends to play the game when he pulls the bib over his face).  And Audrey is now officially a roller baby.  She doesn't have it down pat yet, so she still gets herself turned on her tummy, and cries until she eventually manages to flip back, or we come help her.  It's also harder for her to go to sleep now, because she lays in bed rolling around and keeping herself awake.  She also, just in the past 2 days, discovered her feet:  she now loves to hold onto them when she lays on her back or rolls onto her side.

The other fun thing is that the babies are definitely aware of each other -- they love to stare at each other and grin, or jabber in baby talk at each other.  Yesterday they spent 5 minutes taking turns squealing loudly and then laughing at the other one squealing.  They're cracking us up. 

We still have difficult days here and there...just tonight, the babies decided to fuss all evening long.  But it helps that we now can usually figure out what's going on...in this case, they were exhausted, and putting them to bed early nicely solved that problem!

Anyway, that's it for this month-in-review!  We'd love to hear from any and all of you!