Annada Marie Vergo

Annada woke up bright and early – 5:45 – excited about Thanksgiving. At noon we left to have lunch with the Townsends. It was so good to spend time with them and their family. Then we picked up Jess and Rafal and met up with the St. Onge’s, Judy (our neighbor) and Nathaniel. We had dinner at the St. Onge’s – potluck style Thanksgiving. Then the men went to our home and played Risk while the ladies played golf at the St. Onge’s. Annada went to bed.

I think it was a pretty good Thanksgiving for Annada. She was adored everywhere she went. There was lots of good food and friends for her to play with. As you can tell from the picture, she was teething too. So it was a long night – but hey, what a better way to end Thanksgiving then by cuddling with Annada?

1) Annada will crawl over to her bookshelf, pick out a book, give it to me and then climb into my lap for the story.
2) Annada feeds herself. It may be messy, but it is also 10 minutes of downtime for mom as I listen to Annada’s happy noises.
3) Annada “honks” my nose.
4) Every 10 minutes or so Annada will come give me a hug while playing.
5) When we go to the playground, Annada starts yelling “Wee Wee” and climbs to the slide as fast as she can.
6) Annada makes noises not even Marc can replicate. It is the most adorable language ever.
7) Annada says “Ah-doh” and points when she wants something. When I pick it up and ask if I have the right object, she says, “Yeah.”
8 ) Annada absolutely loves flowers. She will walk with me for over an hour going from plant to plant and carefully picking out her favorite flower, leaf or rock. She treasures her collections and screams like she is in pain if I try to take them away.
9) She can climb behind the futon and has learned that Mommy and Daddy can’t follow her. If she gets something she shouldn’t have (my cell phone for example) she zooms behind the coach faster than seems possible. When I stick my head in the hole, she grins and laughs so deeply we all end up laughing.
10) When eating left-over pureed green beans one night, she squirted some out of her teeth. I knew they were gross and it was so adorable, I laughed too. Big mistake. We’ve been trying to break Annada of spitting food since then. Hardest part is, she clearly does it to make us laugh and looks expectantly at us. Now she has started doing it without food and it never fails to make us laugh.
11) When I nurse her before bed, she knows Daddy will come to tickle her and put her in PJs when she is done. So when she gets close to finished she starts laughing in anticipation. When she hears him on the stairs, she begins laughing harder. And when he gets to the door, she quick pretends to be eating again while smiling from ear-to-ear.

I know, I know. It’s not Thanksgiving yet. But those Christmas cards need to be ordered. And once Daddy started letting her play with the tree it was all too much fun.

Meme and Annada went on a long walk. Meme let Annada pick flowers and Annada formed quite the attachment to the flowers. Annada carried them all the way home without once trying to eat them. Then we pried them out of her fingers and put them in a vase. (I actually regret it now – she wanted to hold those flowers so bad.) She has held them every day since then and still not attempted to eat them. They are looking pretty dead but I can’t throw them away. She still reaches to hold them when I put her in her high chair.

The great hunt for new pants for Daddy! We were victorious.

At the airport :(. Picking up is so much more fun than dropping off.

The birthday boy!

Every Thursday, I go see an older man! Brennan’s Mommy (Emily) watches me for Mommy while she goes to YearOne meetings. Brennan is my best friend.

Brennan invited me to his birthday party. It was the first birthday party I have gone to. Brennan would open presents and I would snatch little pieces of Elmo wrapping paper. Both Brennan and I thought the wrapping paper was the best part. Oh, and the balloons!

Mommy, Meme and I went to Wishes Brew for afternoon tea. The restaurant has only been open a few days. It wasn’t very good, but we had a lot of fun!

Afterward we walked around, found a farmers market, played on a playground and visited a Cuban bakery. Whew. After all that excitement, I took a nap on the way home.

We drove to Cypress Gardens, only to find out it was closed! But Meme was up for an adventure, so going off of a road sign, we drove to Bok Tower Gardens. And there we found a hidden treasure…

Sitting in the gift shop.

We fed the squirrel grapes and he was quite tame. I was enthralled by the animals in the gardens.

Meme even let the swan eat out her hand.




There is the tower. The gardens were beautiful. And we even picked and ate ripe oranges. Yummy!

Welcome to Orlando, Meme! I love playing with you.

Shoes, glorious shoes! Thank you for the gifts, Meme.

I love climbing in and out of suitcases or baskets now. I say, “Oww, Owww” when I go out. Or take things out.

I can go anywhere else. BUT I really, really want to go into street.

Mommmm! I want to go into the street.

Okay, the park bench is good too.

We had to laugh when Annada put her food on the floor. She looked a lot like a puppy.

She’s a two-fisted drinker!

Daddy gave her a whole apple and she loved it! Those two teeth are just perfect for getting little chunks of apple off. Plus, she can eat like a big girl.

Daddy came up with a “pour the cheerios” game. Annada loves it. Its a game and snack time all in one 🙂

Awww. Thanks for the hugs, Annada. I love them.

When we got to Morocco, a couple of women ran out and gave us kisses. They call Annada “The Princess” and wanted to teach her how to belly dance. So they put an outfit on her. At first Annada was scared, but then all of the sudden she walked out into the street/stage and started going around in circles. It was so cute! The women were laughing and a group of people jumped up and started video taping. I think people thought it was a show.

The interns had us over for root beer floats and dinner :).

They also took us to play putt putt.

Daddy made mommy special pancakes. I got to eat some too! Yummy.

Congratulations, Sarah and Ed!

I was sleeping when I heard Pepe say, “Hi Annada!” Pepe? In Orlando? What could I do but wake up and get some snuggles?!

Thanks for coming Pepe. We won’t tell Mommy about Operation BC (yummy!). I love you!

As you can tell, “every-body-stop-playing-and-sit-together-so-Mommy-can-take-pictures” didn’t go so well. At one point, every single baby was crying. But they were still sooooo cute. I love Annada’s ladybug costume. (Thanks Meme!). Trick-or-Treat pictures to come.

Ahh… Annada decided her birthday suit worked just fine as a costume a few minutes later. Such an innocent face!

Daddy took Mommy out to see CATS for her birthday. I stayed with Cate and had so much fun I didn’t even watch Mom and Dad leave. Way to go, Dad!