Addie had a busy morning around the house. After dancing around her playroom and playing with all of her instruments, she headed to the nearby greenbelt to check out the flowers. When we got home, she helped her mom bake strawberry & goat cheese muffins. She’s tired out and sleeping now, but we’ll see what fun the afternoon brings!

Addie got to hang out with her PA grandparents during their visit to Austin recently. She got enough spoiling for at least this month with multiple trips to the park, multiple servings of ice cream, a new doll, staying up past her bedtime, swinging, dancing, etc. She also had the chance to get her first swim of the season in at the local pool. There was just so much to do with Grandma and Pop in town.

We took a hike through the “interpretive” area of the Wildflower Center last week. Here’s my little hiker buddy taking a quick break from chasing the butterflies.

You can’t tell from the photo, but her pockets are full of rocks she collected along the way. All of that extra weight was slowing her down a bit.

Addie decided to take her bike out for a spin before heading to daycare. She’s been practicing her off-road maneuvers, mainly down the front step, through the flower bed and across the yard that Dad mows only once in a great while. She prefers the sidewalk and sloped driveway, though.

Grandpa and Nana were down to visit Addie for Easter this year. We had fun running around the Wildflower Center and spending Easter day with the Connells. Addie participated in 3 egg hunts this year. She didn’t have any competition, but that’ll change next year!

We received a family membership to the Wildflower Center for our anniversary this year. Since it’s right around the corner from the house, we’ve been heading over there pretty often. We like it because of all of the great places to explore with Addie. Addie likes it because she gets to wear stickers. Here’s a few pictures from a late afternoon trip where we had almost the whole place to ourselves:

The Connor clan came to visit Austin in January. With the mild weather, we got to spend a lot of time outside with them. We headed to the Salt Lick for a birthday BBQ lunch, the Wildflower Center, South Congress and out around the neighborhood. It was a great trip overall besides Addie busting open her lip on the playground. Ouch!

Here’s a few pics of the fun:

Addie is talking up a storm these days. To get a quick sampling of her conversant ways, we present, “Toothpaste Conversation”

Toothpaste Conversation from Ellen Strong on Vimeo.

We started password protecting the videos. All of them use the same password: addie8910

Enjoy!

Addie finished up 2011 with a walk around the neighborhood and a stop at the park. She spent a lot of time going down the slide, walking across the greenbelt area and saying hi to all passing dogs. On the way home she fell asleep in her carrier and managed to stay asleep through a transfer to dad’s shoulder, past her dogs, up the stairs, through a diaper change and up until this photo:

Happy New Year everyone! We hope 2012 is your best year yet!

We decided to stay close to home this year for Christmas. While missing a lot of our family up north, getting up and having Addie enjoy Christmas in her own home was really special. This year we had Grammy Strong staying with us to enjoy the holiday. As the presents piled up around the tree, Addie’s curiosity increased until she started dragging a few gifts out Christmas Eve. The full unwrapping extravaganza was saved until Christmas Day though. She even took some mid-opening breaks to spend time with new treasures (boxes and paper, mostly) and also a few toys. She wasn’t content until the presents were fully opened right down to the packaging/caps/twist-ties. Whenever we tried to get her to move on to the next gift, she gave us a look, rubbed her belly and asked to “pease” finish unwrapping it.

After a great morning and a few Skype sessions at home, we headed out to the lake to see the rest of the local family. Addie had plenty of people to entertain her, giving her parents a pleasant afternoon of enjoying time with the rest of the family.

Fortunately, this year we avoided trips to the ER or infecting the entire northeast U.S. She did come down with a cold starting the 26th, but at least we all had a very Merry Christmas.

Here’s a few photos of the holiday: