Annada Marie Vergo

Aaron chopping LOTS of strawberries.

Ah… I am happily exhausted. Today was Annada’s 3rd birthday party. Yes – we had one in Omaha too. :). But this was her ORLANDO one. Seize the day… or birthday in this case.

The YearOne men let us use their house for the party. We showed up at 2 pm to find they had spent the morning cleaning it for us. They unloaded our car, decorated the house, rearranged furniture and cut mounds of strawberries. It was a huge blessing.

Robin and her family.

The first people to arrive were Robin’s family. Robin is about 3 months older than Annada and lives across the street. Annada and Robin are adored by the older girls in the neighborhood who aww and oooo over Annada and Robin’s friendship.

Ms. Katrina

Then Ms. Katrina came! Annada had been waiting for this moment all week. The night before at bedtime Annada had gone over and over how Ms. Katrina would come to the door, Annada would open the door and then lead her inside.

Ms. Katrina has been teaching Annada music and art in Kindermusik for the last two years. She is Annada’s hero. Annada could hardly believe it when Ms. Katrina told her in class she would come to Annada’s party. “The for real Ms. Katrina? Not Daddy pretending to Ms. Katrina?” Annada asked breathlessly.

Lexi, Josiah and Brennan playing in Annada's ball tent.

As more friends arrived, the kids played with toys, decorated castanets and colored. I walked around giving out Ariel tattoos.

Rowing our boats down the river.

At 4 pm we started Kindermusik. Ms. Katrina did everything – lots of instruments, scarves, puppet show, dancing, parachute, bubbles, a huge ball, bouncing fish… Annada sat right next to Ms. Katrina.

Watching the puppet show.

Feeding the puppets bubbles. Annada was very serious about making sure her puppet got enough bubbles to eat.

To finish we put Annada in the parachute and sang happy birthday to her. She was so cute, settling right into the middle as we spun her around.

Then we had pizza, chocolate torte and ice cream. When I asked Annada what kind of cake she wanted she said, “chocolate torte.” I’ve never even made one before. I was a little nervous to make it for 40 people the first time. I don’t know where she had chocolate torte before, but it left an impression. Tonight when I was putting her to bed I asked her how today went.

“I was happy at my party, Mommy,” Annada said. “My cake was really yummy.”

Update: Tonight (4 days later) a friend asked Annada what her favorite birthday present was. “My cake!” she replied.

Heading into the theater.

Our local theater is running a musical made from the book Pinkalicious. In the book a girl eats so many pink cupcakes she turns pink!

Marc and I decided to take Annada. When we showed her the ad, she was excited. But after we showed her a clip of the musical, she became ecstatic – dancing around, singing and shouting that she wanted to be Pinkalicious too.

Even Daddy dressed up.

All week we had fun as a family looking forward to the show. Annada and I bought the stuff to make pink cupcakes and I even pulled out a new pink dress I had craigslisted for her. We had the whole day planned. We went to the library and tried to find the book. They didn’t have it, but Annada picked out other books with pink themes. And we watched a video of someone reading the book on YouTube everyday.

Hugging Pinkalicious.

The night before the play I got SICK. The most horrible stomach flu I’ve ever had. I was bummed to miss out. But the theater let me move my ticket, so Annada and I will get to go in couple of weeks.

Annada looked adorable. And Marc told me she was the pinkest kid around. Everywhere she went people hammed it up with her by calling her Pinkalicious and clapping as she danced for them. And Annada danced and sang her way through the crowd.

Ever since she has been climbing up on our coffee table and singing and dancing her heart out. She will call, “Mommy, Daddy, hurry! The show is going to start!” Then she spins around up there, usually ending with a dramatic dismount off the stage on to toys she stacked into staircase.

And we’ve eaten a lot of little pink cupcakes!

Making decorations for our front door.

At bedtime when we cuddle Annada often asks me to stay and sleep with her. Last week I told her I would sleep with her the next night Daddy is gone… which turned out to be tonight. (Marc is at a magic jam.)

I realized a few nights ago that Marc would be gone tonight so Annada and I have been planning our “sleep over.” We started by watching Timmy Time and a Dragon Tails with snacks in my bed. (And skyped with Meme and Pepe.) Then we read lots of books.

When it was time to get ready for bed, Annada brought her stuff in my room and we got ready together. Annada was dancing around singing. It was fun to go really slow and take our time.

When we were both ready I held her to start singing, but she asked to skip straight the talking in bed part. I checked the clock before laying down. It was a little after 9. I told Annada we had to be asleep by 10.

We laid down, shared blankets and talked about wolves, Pinkalicious, plans for tomorrow, crafts she wants to do… I was half asleep when right around 10 pm Annada said, “I think it is time to sleep now.”

She threw her arm over my neck, put her face partly on mine and held my hand with the other hand. “I want to cuddle close, Mommy. Sweet dreams, I love you!” Annada said chipperly.

Then I experienced one of the Annada mysteries Marc and I wonder about. Often we will leave her bedroom and night with her laughing, singing and loudly singing… and by the time we get down the stairs her room is silent.

Within 5 seconds of putting her arm around me, Annada went completely, arm-dangling, limp. We slept together for about an hour before I tip toed out. Ahhhh… this was a night to treasure.

Eating reindeer food, dry oatmeal, by the glass.

Showing off her new moves.

Annada has begun ballet. I’m pretty sure I was 10 times more excited about it than she was. And Annada was excited. The ballet school meets where her music class meets and every time she saw girls heading to dance class she would ask me when she would be old enough to go.

Yep. Cutest ballerina ever.

I think I may have been overly enthusiastic, though. Because the night before class she started crying and saying she did not want to go to ballet. She told me she was scared. I asked her to try one class and I promised to stay the whole time. I told her if she did not like it, she never had to go back. Inside I thought we would end up trying again next year.

Remember the picture of Marc doing that when she was a baby?

I was even more sure she wasn’t ready when we pulled up to the building and she started sobbing. I took her out of her car seat and Daddy and I held her. When she calmed down we realized she was upset because she saw the building and thought we were taking her to music class. “I want to go to ballet Mommy! Please, I want to go dance!”

Once we got inside and she saw the other little adorable girls in ballet outfits she ran right into the class room. They didn’t let me go with her. Especially since I promised to stay with her I would have expected that to be a problem. Instead, I watched through the blinds as Annada jumped happily right into class.

Stretching.

Annada did have trouble following along. And the teacher did not know her name and got frustrated when Annada didn’t respond. Annada didn’t seem to mind though. As soon as class was over she was begging me to take her back next week.

When we got home Erin, a friend and YearOne intern, came over. Annada practiced her leaps and chassés all around the block with Erin. Now Annada likes to pretend she is the teacher and teaches me to do the ballet they do in class (and some purely Annada moves like hanging upside down off the couch or spinning until she falls down).

At Annada’s second class she had improved a ton. Her teacher even found Marc to tell him how great Annada was doing. It was great to watch Annada realize her practice paid off.

Really and truly, I just want Annada to have fun and learn a little about being in a class. Getting to see her in totally adorable dance clothes once a week is just a sweet bonus :).

Imitating the Red Mango posters.

Every time Marc and I think Annada couldn’t get any more fun to live with, she grows up and becomes an even greater joy! Over the last couple of weeks Annada has grown up a lot.

Hot:
– Going to “school” – ballet, Sunday school, Kindermusik… without Mom and Dad. Not very long ago I worried she would never be comfortable going off without a family member or long term friend. Now she runs off with glee.

When I picked her up from Sunday school today she said, “Being a kid is rough. Being an adult is easy for me. I think I am ready to go to work now, Mommy.”

– Raw oatmeal. She ate at least a cup of dry oatmeal today. I kept catching her sneak back for more. She calls it “reindeer food.”

– Cantaloupe, blueberries, chocolate milk, gummy penguins, pez, buttered toast, ice cream.

– Cuddling in bed at night. Every night as I finish singing Annada calls out “cuddle night!” Then when I put her in her crib she scoots over and makes a space for me. I lay down next to her and we talk for about 30 minutes. She likes to kiss attack me by giving me as many kisses as she can all over my face. When it has been a while I tell her we can talk about “one last thing.” She draws the last thing out as long as she absolutely can.

– Matching games. It is normal for her to say, “Mom, can we pay High Five (or Brown Bear)? I am going to beat the pants off of you!”

– Long baths. Like 2+ hours. I have to reheat the water. She is so happy swimming around in there. And it gives me time to mend her princess dresses.

– Playing at the park with friends.

– Making decorations for the front door.

– Talking about heaven and death. She is still very curious about this. She has been asking a lot if we will be dead in heaven. When I explain you die on earth and are alive in heaven in a new body, she starting pulling on her body asking, “how does this body come off?” She is innocently excited for Jesus to come take her to heaven.

New:
Setting the table is her new chore.
Hiding her toys in my stuff so she can “work” with me.
Yelling “Potty Potty Potty!” when it is time to go.
Determining if things are real or fake. She studies pictures, statues, movies and then proclaims them real or pretend.
Sharing is a big deal. She tells me if she shares or the other kids share. She loves to share her things with Daddy and I. She even saved part of her cookie from Publix and carried all the way home to share it with Daddy.
Counting: she had 1-10 memorized, but now she is able to look at something 6 or less and tell me how many are there. At night when we cuddle she often asks, “How many is ___?” For example, how many is 3? And we come up with things that come in threes like our family (Mommy, Daddy and Annada).

Out:
Fish (so sad – she loved fish before)
Berries in her oatmeal (they must be separate)
Soup
Eggplant
Hamburgers
Sleeping past 9. (But she is still happy until 9:30, so no complaining.)
Size 8 shoes. She is a solid 9 or 10 now.
Help doing anything she can do herself.

Self-portrait

Meme and Pepe gave Annada a digital camera for Christmas. She loves to whip it out and take pictures of us just living life. (Note, I didn’t post them, but there are lots of pictures of my bottom.)

Meme

She tends to take pictures of people… and the carpet as she runs.

Mommy

All the pictures are blurry because she is in constant motion. Which I think is perfect – it captures the way she sees the world.