Annada Marie Vergo

It’s cold!!! With 12 inches of snow. Whenever we ask Annada if she wants to go outside, she emphatically shakes her head no. Smart girl :).

Annada was content to sit in her seat for about 10 minutes. After that, I learned that it is much harder to travel with a toddler than a baby. But she pretty much charmed the whole plane when Daddy walked up and down the aisle with her. “Hi! Hi Ya!” she would smile and say to each person who looked at her.

I love the St. Louis airport. There are dozens of abandoned gates to explore. The first empty gate area still had the tables to be a gate. That made it a perfect “toddler playground” where Annada about 6 other toddlers ran around. Annada loved climbing up the stairs and trying all the doors.

We started Annada’s birthday off by opening presents. Mommy and Daddy got her the Little People Zoo and Stables. Both make music, which she loves :).

Then we went to the park. It’s 60 degrees. 2 days ago it was 85. I guess we are just getting ready for Nebraska. It was fun to be there with Marc. Annada liked having two slides to choose from and more wood chips than she could possibly examine. But she gave it a valiant effort. I’m not sure what makes one wood ship more special than another, but she looks through them carefully and only picks one or two to save.

Then, of course, there had to be cake.

Happy Birthday Little Princess! We love you very, very, very much.

A few days ago I was really tired, so I laid down on the floor while Annada played around me. I was half-alseep, half-listening when I heard paper rustling. I opened my eyes to find Annada ravaging my journal, which she must have climbed up part of the couch to get.

I reacted by sitting up quickly, which caused Annada to throw the journal over her back (pages flying – just like out of a movie) and run away. As she ran, she yelled, “Oh!”

It was pretty adorable. And it must have worked, because it is her new go-to method of escaping. This morning Marc and I were sitting on the bed talking. I leaned over to make sure she was okay to find her taking apart my breast pump.

“Oh!” yelled Annada, as pump parts went flying and little feet took off running.

This morning Annada and I were playing in my bedroom. She walked down the hall into her bedroom so I took the chance to jump into the bathroom. I had barely sat down when I heard rustling by my bed.

There is no way Annada got back that fast, I thought as I kicked into high gear.

I stuck my head out just in time to catch Annada pouring the last bit of my previously full cup of water carefully into the clothes folded by the bed. She was just walking along, spreading the watery goodness she had grabbed off my nightstand. She looked at me and smiled. Ah, yes. That is why I don’t drink anything but water anymore.

Oh! Hi Mom. Did you know I can crawl all the way into the cabinet? There are all sorts of things hidden in the back to play with. Dad even has a stash of trail mix back here. He’s been holding out on me!

Why walk when you can run?

Ah, a nice relaxing meal out with a toddler. To Annada’s credit, once we took away the serving spoon she was using to flick food off my plate, she spent a long time talking to the lights above her. It really was a fun night.

Besides, when you are this cute, what is a foot on the table?

It may have been a week since her birthday party, but this little princess still knows exactly where crowns belong.

Wow, she’s grown! I don’t think she is going to fit in the snguli much longer. That and she has learned how to get her arms out.

Now that Annada has learned to say “yes” with her head, she is trying all sorts of new expressions. She likes to tilt sideways and say hi. The best part is, even strangers will turn over side ways and say hi back. At dinner tonight, after about the 10th time we stopped to turn sideways and say hi, Marc and I realized that she has us well trained!

Today Marc taught her to move her head side-to-side when he “raps.” (“You better watch out. Things are going to get sticky. And then I will blog about you on my Wiki!”) I’m hoping this comes in handy over Christmas when William is around!

Annada is showing me the wood chip. She likes to find new things and then show them to me.

Annada is experimenting with who she is right now. She says “No” (or more often, “NoNoNoNoNo”) and shakes her head up and down for yes. She has developed some strong opinions. So, here are a list of the hot trends in the Vergo house:

No:
Veggies without butter or olive oil
Being separated from the birthday balloons for any reason
Getting a diaper changed
Any assistance in eating or drinking
Avocado chucks
Pants
Hair bows

NoNoNoNoNoNoNo:
Daddy putting on his pants (a sign he is leaving soon b/c he normally wears shorts)
Mommy walking to the door
Being pulled out of the refrigerator or dishwasher

Yes:
Bites of the avocado Mommy is eating
Cheese
Climbing up the pantry shelves or stairs
Omelets
Putting one or two toys away when asked
Playing hide and go seek
Oranges
Reading books together
Sneaking bath tub toys when not taking a bath
Crown
Tilting her head to the side and saying Hi
Putting objects in containers (keep track of your keys and cell phone!)

Ah-Doh (YesYes!):
Banana
Black olives
“I Love You Through and Through” (Book)
Slides
Dancing
Giving hugs

On a side note, Annada is hard to slow down. I counted 7 bruises on her shins/bottom, a bump on her head and a small bruise on her cheek. She has mastered walking and is moving on to running into walls. Most of the time she just gets up when she falls and I have to stop her to check if there is a new bruise. Marc asked me recently, “When does Annada grow out of trying to kill herself?”

We were driving home from Marc’s office Christmas party when Annada said her first phrase… “kill you.”

Merry Christmas!

Oh, yes. This is Nathaniel’s fault.

Nathaniel and Bill (YearOne interns) were in the back seat with Annada as we drove home from the party. We were teasing Nathaniel when he jokingly threatened to kill us. He turned to Annada, sitting peacefully in her carseat, and said in a overdramatic way, “I’ll kill you!!”

Two seconds later we hear, “Kill you” in the cutest little voice ever.

She looks pretty dangerous to me. As the interns say, “She’s got big, pointy teeth.”

Today Annada did three new things that made me laugh out loud:

1) This morning I pulled her up in bed with me while I tried to adjust to being awake. She stood up on the bed and noticed it gave in a little. She paused for maybe 5 seconds then began jumping wildly up and down and giggling to herself.

2) Annada found the crown from her birthday party. She walked around with it for a few moments and then pulled out her hair bows and put on the crown. Several times I tried to fix her hair, but every time she would pull out the bows and replace it with the crown.

3) Annada is becoming increasingly skilled at climbing. She likes to stack objects so she can get to higher bookshelves, my computer, etc. But she hasn’t quite connected her feet with herself. So she uses her feet in the stack, pulls one out and gets painfully stuck when all her weight goes on the foot under the pile. It happened a few times today. The last time she was stacking books to get up in the bookcase. She was standing on a board book that her big toe was sandwiched in when she started crying. When I rescued her she pulled the wounded toe up to my face for a kiss!

I’ve been kissing her hurts for a while, but I didn’t know she cared. When I planted my lips on her toe, she grinned through her tears. I couldn’t help it – we both laughed.

What is it in a girl that knows instinctively how to wear a crown? I was worried Annada would pull it off, like she does to everything else in her hair. Nope. The crown and scepter were just what she wanted. I love my little princess!

I think Annada’s favorite parts of the party of the party were: 1) presents, 2) walking around and begging black olives and chicken nuggets from each person she ran into, 3) being with Mommy and Daddy all day and 4) squishing whipped cream between her toes.

One morning Annada headed straight to the baskets where I keep extra diapers, her Snugli and wipes. She likes to pull everything out and spread it around on the floor. But this morning she caught my eye. Instead of just throwing everything out, she was looking through the basket.

She found the Snugli, pulled it out and sat down on the floor looking at it. Then she crawled inside it and started walking around wearing the Snugli. She walked over to show me – just as proud as can be. “Wow,” I told her. “Are you carrying your baby just like Daddy does?” Annada grinned and laughed and kept walking around. It was so cute, I had to get a picture!

No drawer is safe anymore. Annada has a special love of crawling in the stove drawer and pulling out pans.

I love this last picture because it shows two trademark Annada moves. One is sitting on her heels. Now that she is walking, she doesn’t like to go all the way to the floor to look at things. Instead she sits up on her heels or calves. She can sit like that a lot longer than I can.

The second is the look on her face. I can clearly see, “Hi mom. I really want to eat this wood chip, but I have to wait until you aren’t looking. But I’ll be super cute while I wait for you to be distracted!”