Annada Marie Vergo

Annada's Christmas dress from Pepe.

No one is a blunt as a 2-year-old. When Annada does not want me around she is clear, “Mommy, go away!” Or, “Mommy, you stay on the carpet.” (A trick I use when I want her to stay away from the stove.) She has no problem telling me, “No mommy. I don’t want to play with you. Don’t touch me. And shut the door.”

At the manatee place Annada wanted to get off the path and into the forest. She told me, “I go mommy. It is okay. You can get another Annada.”

But I can easily wait it out, because when Annada is sweet she is amazing. And most of the time she is “my Annada” as she says.

There are a few Annada-isms that really melt my heart.

– Annada will run up to me while I am laying on the floor (usually after Jazzercise), throw herself into my arms and yell, “My mommy is home! Mommy, you are my mommy!”

– At night Annada loves to give me kisses before bed. Kisses on my hand are bunny kisses (from a Baby Bug story), rubbing noses is an eskimo kiss, fluttering her eyelashes on my cheek is a butterfly kiss and licking (or pretending to) my cheek is a leopard kiss (she saw a leopard clean her baby). She likes to say, “Mommy, kiss my neck! Kiss my cheek! Kiss my knees!” then laugh when I kiss her.

She also likes to nibble. As Annada would say, “Not a bite. Bites hurt. Nibbles are gentle.” She nibbles my nose then says, “Mommy, I take the teeth out!” Then she gives me a little kiss on the nose.

– If I am distracted, Annada will come take my hand and lead me to her toys saying, “Mommy, please play with me.”

– Before bed we have long told her, “God made you. He made you wonderful!” At some point we switched to asking, “Who made you Annada? Who is wonderful?” Annada used to say, “God made me. Annada!” Now she says, “God made me. Mommy is wonderful!”

– Annada likes going grocery shopping. She has figured out that Publix = better food to eat. So when we run out of something she asks to go shopping. She will say, “Annada shop with Mommy!” And if she gets grouchy in the store she will say, “Annada wants to whine! Mommy, we shop together.” (Thank you Meme!)

Annada has begun saying so many awesome things a day that I can’t keep up! But here are few highlights from today:

Or-gan-ate-ted

Meme and Annada went through her books and organized them. Annada is very proud of keeping her book basket clean. Each night before bed she shows me the basket and says, “I or-gan-ate-ted the books mommy!”

Daddy has a soft spot for letting Annada run to the playground in the morning in her pjs.

Neo-pole-a-tan

I let Annada pick out ice cream last week. When I asked her what flavor she wanted she said, “The one with both of them.” I explained that it was called Neapolitan.

Tonight was a left over night. I asked Annada what she wanted to eat and she told me she wanted an ice cream cone. I told her she had to eat her peaches first. When Daddy sat down she explained the system to him, “I eat all my peaches then I get NEO-pole-a-tan!” (You have to draw out the neo part to at least two seconds.)

She's a double-fisted carrot eater.

All About Manatees

Tomorrow we are going to a manatee festival. To help cheer Annada up (who has been so sad because Meme left – complete with laying her head down on the couch and moaning), I was talking up manatees.

At first Annada called them “mana-mermaids.”

Then we watched a couple of You Tube videos about manatees.

It is traditional for Annada to talk about everything that happened that day at bedtime. Sure, it is stalling, but it is also pretty wonderful so we encourage it.

Tonight I got an earful:

“I want to talk about Manatees. They swim in the water. Naked. They have babies. They nurse their babies. I saw a manatee nursing! Woman gave manatee baby a bottle. She had a swimsuit. I have a swimsuit. I swim in the bathtub with grandma. She had a swimsuit. But manatee is naked. I go see a manatee. Daddy go and Meme go. (Me: No, I’m sorry. Meme is in Texas.) I talk to Meme on the com-pew-tur. I like to talk about manatees. I take my baby to see manatees. My baby needs a diaper. I put it in the trunk. Okay, Mommy? I take my baby and put diaper in the trunk?”

Her first prayer

As I was laying her in her crib, Annada suddenly called out, “Wait. I want to pray.” It was the first time she has asked to pray on her own so I was excited to hear what she had to say. Normally she softly repeats after me adding in names of people she is thankful for. (As in, “Thank you for mommy, daddy…)

Tonight, she loudly exclaimed, “Dear God. I go see manatees! All done.”

It is mutual.

Nicely Done

This morning Meme was still here, so she told me this story.

Annada is working on saying, “May I please have _____?” Instead of, “I want _____.”

Today, Annada starting telling Meme, “I want gum! I want gum! I want gum!” Meme looked at her with her “okay. are you asking?” eyes.

So Annada paused, smiled and said in a very sweet voice, “I want gum Meme.” (Pause. The smile disappeared.) “I said it nicely!”

Mommy is Stuck

Annada has decided she doesn’t like to see me and Marc hug (or Meme and Pepe). When she see us hug, she starts to say, “No Daddy! Let go of Mommy! That’s MY Mommy!”

This makes us hug longer.

The other day Annada was protesting our hug when she suddenly burst out, “Mommy is stuck! Mommy is stuck! Get free Mommy!”

Annada's first snowman.

Tonight I looked over at Annada and she seemed lost in thought.

“You look thoughtful,” I told her.

“No!” snapped Annada. “Not thoughtful. I am GORGEOUS!”

I walked over to Meme, who is here watching Annada while Marc and I take a seminary class, and told my mom what happened.

Annada over hearing us, spoke up, “Very, very gorgeous.”

Annada had her 2-year-old check-up today. She is 36 inches tall and 26.6 pounds. And super healthy!

Picking oranges with Grandma while eating a cucumber from the farm. Life is good.

I had to wake Annada up early to go the doctor’s appointment. When she first woke up, she glared at me from the bed. Then she groggily said, “I get a sucker.”

“Yes, Annada, you will get a sucker after your appointment,” I replied.

“Okay, I get up.”

(She remembered getting a lollypop from months before!)

At the beach with Daddy.

Annada loves to chew gum. The other day she asked me for some gum. “I don’t have any gum,” I told her.

“I buy you some gum, Mommy,” Annada replied.

“How will you buy me gum?” I asked.

“With my money.” (A)

“How do you get money?” (M)

“I use my oil and water. See, here is my water.” (Annada points to sippy cup.) “I buy my Mommy gum.”

Looking at the treasures Annada collected outside.

A couple of weeks ago Annada walked outside with Daddy. She paused, took a big breath and said, “It’s gorgeous today!”

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Annada was a busy girl tonight. She was well behaved, just on the go. At one point she was jumping up and down pulling on her monkey balloon saying, “Silly monkey jumping on the ceiling!”

I caught her eye and laughed. She looked back at me and declared, “I feel feisty tonight!”