Annada Marie Vergo

Meme, Pepe, Uncle Kevin, Annada and I went apple picking. Annada must have eaten at least three whole apples as we picked. They are soooo good!

Annada and Uncle Kevin pretended to be birds in the metal nest.

Meme and Pepe took Annada to see “Ferdinand the Bull” at the Rose. It is the story of a bull who would rather smell flowers under a tree than fight. The play embellished the book a lot and my favorite part was when Ferdinand and the bull fighter decide to dance instead of fight. Annada stood up as high as she could in her chair and danced too.

A week later Annada and I were walking to get the mail. I give Annada all the junk mail as “hers” to play with. As we walked back Annada held up one of her envelopes.

“This is my money, Mommy,” she said.

“What are you going to do with your money?” I replied.

Annada stopped walking and thought. Then, very slowly, she said, “I am not going to buy ice cream.”

Annada paused again. “I am going to buy a tree. And with my imagination I will put Ferdinand and Cochina (Ferdinand’s pig friend) under the tree!”

Marc, Annada and I went back to Omaha recently to visit our families. Ron, Marc’s dad, just had surgery for cancer and Marc wanted to be there to help when Ron got out of the hospital. Actually, Marc thought he would be there while Ron was in the hospital, but Ron is doing so well he was let out early and hardly looks like he had surgery at all!

Annada and I went over to the Vergos one day to visit Grandpa. Annada decided to put a bandaid on her and grandpa’s head so grandpa would feel better 🙂 (above).

Then a few days later Marc and I drove our new car home (the old one was stolen in May) while my parents watched Annada. Thursday Grandma (Marc’s mom) flew Annada back to Orlando and went to a math conference. I think Annada really bonded with Marcia on the plane because Annada has been asking why Grandma and Grandpa can’t live in Orlando.

Cancer

Marc and I weren’t sure how to broach the whole cancer thing with Annada, so we told her Grandpa was sick but not much more. Leading up to Grandpa’s surgery she often prayed for him before bed but I figured it was no different than when she prays for herself or us when we have colds.

When we were in Omaha one day, out of the blue, Annada said, “Mommy, Grandpa is sick.”

“Yes, Annada,” I replied. “He is getting lots of sleep so his body will heal.” (We had told her our body heals when we sleep.)

“He has cancer,” she said.

Oh… I thought. What do I say? “That is true,” I replied. Annada didn’t say anything more so we went back to playing.

About 10 minutes later, I said, “Okay Annada, let’s go kill the bed.” (Killing the bed is what my family calls taking off the sheets and washing them.

Annada followed me upstairs and started helping me pull off the sheets.

“The bed has cancer,” Annada said resolutely.

It dawned on me she was connecting “killing” the bed with cancer. I stopped and swooped down to pick her up. I realized we both had tears in our eyes. How does she know these things?

I didn’t know what to say, so we just hugged.

Stalling Songs

At night before I leave Annada’s room I ask her if there are any more songs she wants me to sing or anything she wants to talk about. Until recently she was all about the songs and I usually had to put a limit on the number of “last songs.”

She would dictate elaborate stories and then ask me to turn them into a song. Usually the stories end with her pushing cousin Isaiah in the grocery cart to get sprinkle cookies at Publix. The baker gives her both cookies, but she decides to share with Isaiah.

A few days ago I was helping Annada put her baby dolls to bed. I started singing to one and Annada stopped me.

“She’s already sleeping,” Annada told me.

“Oh, I was singing her a goodnight song,” I replied.

“No mommy, there are no goodnight songs, only stalling ones,” she said.

Annada is flying around the room as Princess Stellaluna. It is a combination of Cinderella and a baby bat separated from its mommy.

Let’s Talk About You

Recently, though Annada has started telling me “we need to talk” or “there is something I need to talk with you about, Mommy” when it is time for bed.

A few nights ago Annada and I had talked for about 20 minutes when I told her I would “see her in the morning light” (From Tot Fox).

“No, mommy. Mommy, I need to talk with you. Talk with me Mommy!” Annada called out desperately.

“What do you want to talk about?” I replied.

“Let’s talk about… let’s talk about… let’s talk about…” Annada was clearly searching for something worth keeping me there. “Let’s talk about.. let’s talk about YOU Mommy!”

Meeting My Husband

Tonight Annada said, “Let’s talk about Grandpa.” She’s been asking to talk about Grandma or Grandpa the last few nights.

“Why do you want to talk about Grandpa?” I asked.

“Because he is my husband,” Annada replied.

“Grandpa is not your husband, he is your grandpa,” I answered (brilliant logic, I know).

“Daddy is your husband, so Grandpa is my husband,” Annada replied.

“You haven’t met your husband yet, Annada. You will meet him when you are bigger,” I said.

“Who is my husband, Mommy?”

“I don’t know, Annada. We can pray for him.” (We stopped and prayed for God to bless Annada’s husband.)

When we finished, Annada stood up in bed, “He is waiting for me!” she exclaimed. “He is waiting at the airport. But I won’t go now. I need to be bigger.”

Annada paused.

“He is excited to see me. I will drive to go see him. I will drive and then ride in a plane.”

Annada laid down. My heart was aching, both because of the beauty of Annada’s happy innocence and knowing the journey to her husband may not be smooth.

“Mommy, tomorrow can we go visit my husband? Not so he can be my husband. We can just play together.”

Marc is visiting his parents. (His dad is doing great – he even got released early from the hospital today!)

While we would rather have Marc home, Annada and I are taking advantage of the time we have together. Today we went to Epcot.

It was a great day to go. There were very few people there, it was about 90 degrees and it was “bonus” character day (I made that title up). Throughout the park there were a bunch of forgotten Disney characters. Like Tarzan’s ape friend, the penguin from Mary Poppins and a cat from The Aristocrats.

I think Annada’s animal highlight was dancing with the penguin. Tonight she wanted to sleep in her penguin pjs.

Annada loved it. And it was so much fun to be there with her. She has grown up since spring when I took her last. She knows what she wants to ride and she is very helpful with our stuff. She gets in and out of the stroller on her own and walks holding my hand most of the time.

Figment is out, tasting soda at Club Cool is in. And so is visiting Africa. In fact Annada wanted to spend most of our time wandering the Africa part, talking to people and looking at the buildings. She spoke in Arabic and did a little belly dancing. On the way home she asked if we could fly to Africa tomorrow.

I have to admit, I almost started crying when we walked into the area. There is something about these people I love. I invited one woman over to our house for dinner. I hope she comes, I would be very blessed by it.

Tonight as I was rocking Annada before bed she said, “Mommy, I think God likes ice cream.”

“In heaven I will get two ice creams! And they will have bubbly candy eyes. I will get one for God and one for you and one for Daddy. I will hold it for God. (Annada sat up and pretended to hold up an ice cream for God way above her head.) In heaven there will be lots and lots of ice cream!”

NCO Smoothie Day!

All of this talk about ice cream may have started because today is smoothie day! I told Annada that instead of breakfast we were going to work to get smoothies. When she got up this morning she literally ran for the door yelling, “Smoothie Day!”

When we got to work we found a feather on the ground on the way in. Annada used it to tickle herself and the YearOners we talked with. But mostly she very seriously picked out her smoothie then sucked it down as fast as she could. About 5 minutes after we got there she had full body shivers, so I let her wear the jacket I keep at my desk.

We wondered around work together for a while and then started toward home. On the way to the car she realized she had lost her feather.

“Mommy, we need to find the feather!” She cried.

We looked around on our way back to car. We find a feather about once a week, so it was worth a shot but I didn’t think we would find one. There weren’t any at our house when we left. As we drove home she kept trying to convince me that we really did need a feather.

“Annada I can’t make you a feather. The birds leave them behind. Only God can give you a feather,” I said. I regretted it immediately. There are no Bible verses promising feathers. I felt like I set Annada up to think God failed.

Sure enough, Annada stopped arguing and prayed, “Dear God, may I please have another feather?”

She opened her eyes and started looking all over the car. She was confident there was going to be a feather.

“Annada, God can say yes or no. We ask for what we want and then God has freedom to answer how He wants,” I said.

I stopped the car in our driveway and opened the door.

There were 6 feathers on the ground right by Annada’s door.

Here are a few more stories that show how Annada views the world.

A couple of mornings ago Marc pulled out several boxes of cereal for Annada to choose from. She grabbed the one pictured and exclaimed, “I want the one with the spoon about to make the girls all wet!”

She started laughing. Marc was a little confused so he asked her what she meant. She pointed to the box and said, “The giant spoon is going to pour milk all over them. They are hugging because they are scared!” And she burst into giggles again.

Chinese Buffet dinner with the YearOners to celebrate Aaron's birthday.

Isn’t this supposed to start in junior high?

2 days ago Annada and I were driving to pick up vegetables at a farm when she suddenly yelled out, “I want pink hair!”

“Why do you want pink hair?” I asked her.

“So I can dance loud! Please, please, please, please Mommy can I have pink hair?” Annada replied. A couple of the YearOne interns have streaks of color in their hair.

“Annada you can dance loudly or softly with any hair color you have,” I said. “You have beautiful blonde hair.”

“But I want Hannah pink hair,” Annada started to cry (not a whiny cry, but a real sad cry), “So I can dance. I don’t like blonde hair. I need pink hair!”

(Already she doesn’t like her hair?!)

Celebrating Marc's birthday with breakfast in bed.

Adult Earrings

I was singing to Annada before bed tonight and she was playing with my earrings in a sleepy self-soothing way when she suddenly sat up.

“You have adult earrings,” she said. “My earrings pull off. Do your earrings pull off, Mommy?”

“No, my earrings go in a hole in my ear,” I replied.

“My earrings clip on and pull off. They are kid earrings. I want adult earrings,” she said. (Annada has started objecting to the word kid. She wants to be called a big girl. NOT a little girl.)

“When you are older, if you want to, you can get a hole in your ear and get adult earrings,” I told her.

She was silent and grabbed her ears and she thought about what that meant.

“Okay Mommy, tomorrow I will be big and I can get adult earrings.”

Annada's favorite part of our birthdays.

Be Respectful

I have been trying to teach Annada not to talk when people are praying. When she was an infant, the YearOne interns nicknamed her Holy Spirit baby because whenever someone started praying she would begin babbling loudly.

Now that she uses words like “dehydrated (May I have some water? I am so dehydrated!), douse (I am going to douse you with water, Mommy) and catapult (I catapulted my toys out of my bed!), it is no longer so cute when she decides to give personal speeches when others pray. There is no mistaking it for praying along.

So when I pray with her before bed I say, “Are you ready to be respectful while I pray for you?” Sometimes she says yes. Sometimes there is one more thing she wants to talk about first, so we talk.

Tonight when I asked her, she put her hands up and grabbed mine to hold them together. “Mommy, are you going to be respectful while I pray for you?” she asked.

Of course I was. So Annada began, “Dear God, thank you for Mommy. And… thank you for me!”

She paused. “Okay, Mommy, are you ready to be respectful while you pray? I will do your hands. Be patient.” (She likes to fold my hands for prayer.)

I prayed.

“Now, be respectful and pray for Doaa and Daddy,” She said. 4 times she told me people to pray for and each time she reminded me to “be respectful Mommy!”

Marc took Annada to the petting zoo with Daniela and Dayanara (her “sisters”) and their mom and dad. Annada loved it! I didn’t go, so I can’t fill you in on the details, but I can let you see some cute pictures. 🙂

Since the petting zoo, Annada has been sick. I thought it was just a cold that held on, but it turns out she has strep! Really badly. So badly the coughing was because her throat was swollen. And her feet were blistering and peeling in an awful way. I had no idea blistering and peeling feet were a sign of strep, but her doctor knew right away. So now you know!

With that knowledge you can avoid the guilt of waiting to take your kiddo to the doctor until the strep is so bad you think she has pink eye (yeah, seriously, I did that). I feel terrible about it, but Annada has been happy and sweet the whole time.

However, now that she is feeling better, we can tell the difference. In fact, she seems to have a destructive streak now. I have been told I was that way on antibiotics too.

Tonight as we were putting her to bed she looked right at me, smiled, then deliberately poured a cup of water over her toy chest. I asked her, “Did you know that was not a good thing to do?”

“Yes, I did!” she squealed and ran laughing down the hallway.

It was so “wild thingish” Marc and I laughed a little before catching her. She sat on Marc’s lap in time-out with a distinctive air that said “you may have captured me, but I am not subdued!”.