20 months old and some randomness

This past Tuesday (um, yeah I'm a bit behind in my blogging), our precious dumpling numero tres turned twenty months old.  We didn't do anything to celebrate, other than smother her with kisses.  I'll likely make it for it next month.

Anyway, one of the things that Havi enjoys doing is brushing her teeth.  One day when the two big dumplings went with Baba to work, she stayed home with me.  And she spent some time brushing those little pearly whites, which meant I had to grab my camera. (That's her sister's toothpaste in the shot; hers is training paste.)

In other random news, I have been busy churning up some delish ice cream.  The milky chocolate I made for Madeline was such a hit that it was consumed quickly by the dumplings, and another request for chocolate was made.  I complied.  I did, however, squeeze in some strawberry buttermilk which was insanely good!  I roasted and pureed the strawberries so there weren't any big frozen chunks of strawberry in it.  Yum!!!!  Tomorrow I will be making some pistachio at the request of my dear hubby.  And then I'll be churning up some more fun flavored, fruity modern batches.  I love fruit, especially in summer.  So why not try it in my ice cream?!

Besides churning up ice cream these last two weeks, we've also been spending some time on the tennis court.  Let me rephrase that, Caleb and Madeline have been spending time on the tennis court.  When I used to take Caleb to the library for storytime, we would regularly see another homeschooling family who also lived in the neighborhood.  Naturally we would end up at our favorite park at the same time throughout the years since then.  This family is a tennis playing family, with one of the older boys now playing for our local college, and his brother was the coach for the local high school (at 19 years of age.)  These guys are good.  And they were always asking us if we were interested in lessons for the kids.  Well, a few weeks ago, we decided to take them up on their offer.  The oldest boy does the lessons for now, but he will be attending college in a different city.  So they will tag team during the school year.  Caleb's coach has been so impressed with what he can do already.  Back in the spring when lessons were first suggested, we bought him a racquet so he could practice hitting the ball against the wall.  Well, apparently that has been a jumping off point, as Caleb has great eye-hand coordination.  His coach suggested he play in a tournament for under 8, and, to my surprise, Caleb was eager to do it.  He gets so shy in new situations.  So I was thrilled to hear he wanted to do this.  The tournament isn't until next month, but he can't stop talking about it!  And today, he handled the full court really well.  So now I need to get him a new racquet... and real tennis shoes.  lol  Madeline's interest in tennis has not taken off like Caleb's has, though she did like the idea of a new pink racquet. lol  I think she'd rather play on the playground with Havi and the boys younger sister, who happens to be around her age.

Anyway, the tournaments are on Saturday mornings.  So they will likely interfere with baseball during baseball season.  Thankfully they are just once a month.  So it won't interfere too much.  The thing that makes me happiest is to see him so happy.  It just warms my heart to see his enthusiasm and joy.

Well, I'll be back with some more random, ordinary photos because that's about all I've been shooting.  Oh, and to add to that...I expect a precious little girl to lose her first tooth any day now.  So you know I'll be snapping a few to mark the momentous occasion.