Annada Marie Vergo

Our YearOne crew! Nathaniel and Jess were the brave ones to face the cold weather and rain with us.

Annada wasn’t so sure about this race in the rain. Particularly when I tried to warm up my hands on her back! She was a trooper though and ate a whole pear as we made our way through this off-road race.

Annada’s favorite parts were: the bounce house, going home with balloons and climbing up the stairs when we went inside to warm up.

Saying goodbye at the airport.



After they left, I let Annada play in the sand behind our townhome. I don’t think she knew Grandpa and Grandma had left, but she did seem to know something was wrong. We had fun playing, but she was extra cuddly and didn’t try to wander away from me (unusual). Since then she has been upset whenever Marc or I leave the house, even if it is just to get something from the car. I think she had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa; she misses them!

Annada has become quite the sweetie. In the last month, she has learned to blow kisses, give kisses and hugs and stroke my hair when I lay down. If I am sad, she will crawl up in my lap. If she is sad, she will hide her head in my shoulder.

She gives us all (Marc, Grandma, Grandpa and I) a kiss before going to sleep. It is one of my favorite parts of the day. The last couple of days, she has also taken to blowing Daddy kisses as he leaves her room at night. Marc won’t leave until she stops and we have both had to laugh at the incredible amount of kisses he gets (and how long she can delay bedtime!).

Annada learned something else new this month too – pretending to go potty. When I go to the bathroom, Annada sits on her potty too. Then she flushes the toliet for me and stands under the sink while I wash my hands. I’m hoping all this role playing will make the real thing easy :).

While Mom and Dad were busy with Preview Weekend, Grandma and Grandpa took Annada to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. She loved the rocks, leaves, animals and constant love.

Annada loved the aquarium. She would rush from tank to tank, her hands above her head, giggling with joy.

Annada started saying bird (“bir”) at Epcott whenever she saw one flying or swimming on the lake. In this picture, she is pointing at the birds.

Das Madchen ist in Deutschland.

Afternoon coffee break in France.

Grandma calls this Annada’s natural habitat – our front yard.

Annada recently discovered her shadow. Here she is waving to it!

Thanks for the cute outfit, Meme and Pepe!

Thank you for the balloon, Grandma and Grandpa!

Annada has a boyfriend! Or at least a boy who’s sweet on her. Diego is a tall, dark 2-something Annada meets at the playground. Today it was pretty adorable – Annada followed Brennan around and Diego followed Annada. Then every once in a while the order would switch and Annada would follow Diego and Brennan would follow her. It is neat to see how these older men look out for Annada (who looks at them with awe – especially when they go down the slide unassisted).

Diego likes to give Annada these gentle kisses on her head. I think it is great – affectionate kiddos are just passing on the love they have received. But it embarrasses Diego’s mom sometimes – especially when he tries to kiss Brennan. “Only kiss girls,” she reminds him.

Annada has her first chore: starting the dishwasher. She loves it! I will tell her it is time to start the dishwasher and she rushes over to push the start button. Then then she claps for herself and says “yea.” I love how Annada uninhbititedly cheers herself on – and makes sure the rest of of are cheering too.

She also flushes the toilet for me and gets her shoes if I tell her we are going outside. Annada seems to understand almost everything I say now. I can even tell her we need to get her jacket and she will start climbing the stairs. (Of course, anything that gets us outdoors is easy to teach.)

Annada is a climber. I put this step stool by the futon and she climbs up and down it many times throughout the day. The tricky part is that she has gained about 8 inches of trouble. For example, the box her toy instruments stay in is tough. So she will push it from her room, across the hall and up to Daddy’s nightstand so that she can play with his clock radio. Or she will use the oatmeal container in the pantry to find otherwise off-limits snacks.

Her most recent achievement, though, has been unlocking my cell phone. A few weeks ago I thought the times I caught her with my phone unlocked were accidents. But since then, everytime she has my phone I hear it start beeping.

So I locked it and watched – sure enough, as soon as she had the phone she turned it on and pushed the buttons to unlock it. I looked through the phone to see if I could make a longer passcode, but I can’t. So this week I had an appointment with hjhjhj at 10 am and Annada made several prank calls. So far she only calls Daddy, but if you get a call with babbling on the other end, feel free to tell her hi.

Thank you for reading to Annada, Grandma! What a treat.

Grandpa teaching Annada how to use a computer. Careful Grandpa, she is a fast learner!

Annada may not have a big brother, but she does have a boy who shows her how it is done. Every Thursday Annada’s goes to Brennan’s house (thank you Emily!!) while I go to YearOne meetings. Annada thinks Brennan is the greatest. In fact, this afternoon she completely forgot she was crying about more crackers when I reminded her Brennan was coming over soon.

I believe Brennan has taught Annada sign language. Annada started signing “all done” around 10-months-old. But it all started after Brennan had come over. Marc and I had been trying to teach her the sign for months without any progress. We do it one way, Brennan does it another. Sure enough, after their play date Annada started signing “all done”… just like Brennan! Plus last week Annada started signing “please.” The first time she ever did it was when she and Brennan were teaming up to ask for animal crackers – she watched him and started signing please too!

Brennan has also taught Annada how to play with her fridge animals, slide down stairs and open the trash can.

Annada has a spot in the pantry where I put her snacks. She frequently goes through them, pulling out all the snacks until she finds the graham crackers to bring me. She’s learned how to sign “please” (meaning: give me!) and “more” in addition to “all done.” So she will bring me the crackers and start signing for more.

If I look at her and ask her to say please, she will sign that and try thrusting the crackers at me again. If I ignore her, she starts pulling on me and signing “all done” (as in, “Mommy, stop what you are doing”). But what really makes me laugh is when she REALLY REALLY wants something, she will start going nuts flipping between all three signs as fast as she can.

Once she has had a couple of crackers I put the crackers on the counter so she stops asking for them. If she is still hungry, I will start making a real snack for her. Today I cut up some apple slices. Annada happily walked around eating her apples and then went back to the pantry. She couldn’t find any more cracker bags (there are a couple, I usually give her one or two crackers from each bag she brings me) so she just sat there for a moment. Then she picked up the dried apples and brought it over.

I’m kinda stingy about the amount of processed food she can eat in a day, so I told her no. She started to pout but then paused, looked at me, pointed to the apples and said “abble.” I held up a new apple slice and she pointed at it and said it again! Since then, it is clear the new word for today is apples :). By tonight it is even sounding more like “apple” than “abble.”

At Annada’s favorite spot – the playground. At about 3:30 the moms tend to take their toddlers to the playground in my neighborhood. All of the kiddos are obsessed with wood chips. This is a classic game for them: “Pick out wood chips to put on the green circle things.” They even work together!