Annada Marie Vergo

Thanks for dinner, grandma! This is the high chair my Daddy used when he was a baby.

So good to see you, William and Lucy!

She LOVES this cat!

We ate mushroom soup in Austria, fish and chips in the UK, escargot in France, mealie soup in South Africa, and shrimp stew in Brazil. We saw Big Bad Voodoo Dolls (big band) and a Celtic rock band (complete with moshing AND man skirts) live. I got to introduce Marc to the new friends I am making on Fridays. And Annada was practically an amusement attraction in her own right.

Despite doing her best to steal our food, Annada got sweet potatoes, apple raisin granola and escargot for dinner. Yep, she likes to eat snails!

Thanks Richard and Diane! Annada loves her caterpillar. And she dances when twinkle twinkle little star comes on.

And look what she did to me!

Doesn’t look like she’s sleeping?

I guess learning to crawl and getting new teeth is more important than naping. When I put her in her crib (asleep), as soon as her knees hit the matress, she wakes up and starts crawling around. I finally got her to take a nap (this is day 3 of no napping) a few minutes ago by laying my hand on her head so she couldn’t look around to crawl!

I love how determined Annada is to explore her world.

Last night was the first time Marc and I noticed something strange. When we tried to put Annada to bed she would fall asleep in our arms and then cry in her crib. She is a really good sleeper – most nights are tearless – so after a couple of tries we gave her Tylenol thinking this was the beginning of teething. After that, she slept fine.

Then this afternoon I tried giving her a nap, but she would sit in her crib and cry again. The last time I went in she was sitting up but falling forward with her eyes closed crying. It was so sad: she was exhausted. As I changed her diaper, I decided to check and sure enough: her first tooth has come through!

Now that I am wise to what is going on, she is getting to chew on frozen wash cloths, bananas and teething biscuits. Already, she is a happier little girl. Congratulations Annada!

Annada decided to reveal her secret crawling talent. Up to now, the only times Marc and I had seen her crawl was when we walked in on her or watched from a crack in the door. As soon as she saw us, she would stop crawling. It was quite the mystery to both of us.

Today, she crawled across the living in front of both of us. And since then she has been on the move.

That is, unless I get to close. Then she stops crawling again. I think I figured why trying to video tape her crawling. She had just crawled across the floor (to find food scraps under her high chair, but that is another story…).

So I picked her up hoping to video tape her. As soon as I got close she sat up and laughed happily when I picked her up. But when I sat her down she thrust her feet down and started walking. When I sat her down to crawl, she started crying sadly like I had dashed her dreams!

So I think she wasn’t crawling around Marc and I because she prefers walking. If we wouldn’t pick her up, she would grab our pant legs and walk along.

Oh no, I can’t crawl. I am just sitting here…

Annada is doing so well. She’s fast – when I hear a cackle from her I know I need to run at hyper-speeds to find out what she has found. So far she’s managed to eat toilet paper, a dead fly, ants and part of my breakfast before I could stop her. As Meme says, the fact she laughs manically when getting into something she knows is off-limits is not only cute, it is very useful.

Annada has become quite the eater. She likes black beans, olives, oatmeal, apples, plums, nectarines, chick peas, carrots, bananas, avocados, egg plant, egg noodles, rice, broccoli, squash, rice crispies, cheerios, teething biscuits, wheat tortillas, grapes, watermelon, toast, chicken, rice cereal, mango and sweet peas.

She much prefers to feed herself, though. If she isn’t super hungry, I end up playing a “game” with her. She tries to grab the spoon and splatter food around. I try to feed her. I’d say we tend to have tie games.

As a result, I mostly feed her naked now. I try to feed her one thing each meal she can’t feed herself and then I let her eat finger foods. It takes her a long time to fill up on diced grapes and beans, so it gives me a chance to clean up the splatters and eat myself.

Annada also LOVES using her walker. Fortunately she has become quite good. Marc and I have decided she can crawl – we have both caught her crawling across the room – but prefers to cruise.

The best thing Annada learned last month: kisses! She will run up to me with her walker and give me a great big kiss. She will also give me five and has learned to initiate peek-a-boo by covering her face with a toy or blanket.

Happy birthday Princess Lavender!

Bed-head beauty. These are some rockin’ curls!

Whew. Mom, its hard work investigating all these toys. Nap time please!

Or as Bill said, “What’s the problem Annada? Its just a huge, blue scary looking alien that wants to kiss you!”

This is seconds before a full out scream…

Today was Annada’s first day at Disney. Every Friday we will spend time connecting with the 8,000 students in Disney’s college program. Disney actually invited Campus Crusade for Christ to come! I am grateful Annada and I were picked to join Disney’s first missional team and I am excited to find out what God has planned.

Annada is a trooper. We went through training and orentation all day. And while it was fun for me, to Annada it meant a lot of meetings, scary large animals that wanted to kiss her, no nap and less toys than normal. But she made friends everywhere she went by smiling and laughing. Except for the characters, of course. Mickey made her scream from 5 feet away.

Up until Labor Day Annada had given away about 5 slobbery, wonderful kisses. Marc and I reveled in each one and enjoyed that they seemed to be reserved for Mommy and Daddy.

Monday we went over to Emily and Gabe’s house to grill. Marc runs with Gabe and they take Brennen (18 months) and Annada with them. Emily goes to play group with me and watches Annada on Tuesdays so I can go to YearOne meetings.

Annada and Brennen play together like most kids under two – meaning they ignore each other unless someone has a particularly cool toy to steal. But apparently all this time together has created magic:

After dinner Brennen walked up to Annada who reached out and gave him a kiss. Brennen stopped, turned around and gave her a hug!

And yesterday while Emily watched Annada, Brennen spent a great deal of time going through his toys, picking out various ones and giving them to Annada to play with. I’ve never seen anything like it.

I’m not counting on this sudden selflessness in toddlers to last, but wow, it is so sweet!

Today Marc and I were enjoying some tortilla soup in honor of his birthday. Annada was playing behind us and watching us eat. After a while we were talking more than eating so Marc brought Annada into his lap and let her chew on his spoon.

A minute or so later, Annada reached out and put the spoon in my mouth. I smacked my lips and jokingly said, “Mmmm, sweet peas.” (A food I’m still trying to get her to appreciate.)

Annada burst out laughing! Then she pulled the spoon back, looked at it, and put it back in my mouth. I pretended to eat again and she giggled.

That started our first game of pretend. Annada fed me. Then Daddy. All the while she was laughing as we begged for more sweet peas. It was so much fun. I can’t wait for tea parties!

PS: God gave Marc an awesome birthday present – Annada is now calling for him by name too. A couple of days ago it was hard to tell if it was random or not. But today she is reaching for him and calling “Da Da!”

Look Mom! I made it all the way over here and into your folder!

This is my toy shelf. I like to walk along it and play with the toys. Right now my favorite toy is a pretend car and camera.

I decided to see if Annada would like black olives. So I cut some up and added them to her usual finger foods (cheerios, grapes and chickpeas). A minute or so later Annada started banging on her tray, which she normally does when she has run out of food to eat. So I chopped up some more food and walked over to put it on her tray. To find plenty of food – just no olives!

Since then she has eaten at least a can of olives. And when I clean her tray, there are never any olives left over!

Picking up the mail by myself: 5 minutes
Letting Annada walk there: 15 minutes
Stopping to check out every sidewalk crack on the way: 10 minutes
Trying to pick up ants and wood chips: 5 minutes
Doing it all in Orlando: 1 cup of sweat and a change of clothes
Watching Annada jump and laugh as she realizes she gets to walk to the mailbox: priceless

She calls for Ma Ma when I am distracted.
She breaks out in a huge smile when I come to rescue her from her crib.
She turns the page of her book 50% of the times I ask.
When she is mad at me she will pause, look at me defiantly, and rip off her socks with a smirk.
She dances when the counting song is played by her mailbox or table. She will even dance when I sing it!
She would rather feed herself. To get her to eat cereal I have to wait until she has eaten all the other food first.
She wants to be held and play at the same time. She can’t have both, so she dives for me then immediately dives back for her toy. She is never afraid of landing on her face.
She wants to walk and doesn’t mind that she falls over every time she tries.
When she is mad I won’t let her eat tissues while I change her diaper, she starts throwing her toys off the changing table.
When Daddy gets down and encourages her to walk to him (with my help) half the time she runs to him. The other half of the time she squeals and laughs manically as she tries to run away.
When Marc gets home she dives for him out of my arms.
If I am the one coming back, she dives for me.
If she is hurting she sticks her lip out and sends huge silent tears down her face. (Ugh, shots.)
She smiles and charms people as we walk through the store.
She can only crawl backward. The more excited she is, the faster she goes. And the more frustrated she gets. So the faster she goes. Until she backs up into a corner and I rescue her.
She can see my feet under the coffee table when I am sitting on the couch watching her play. So she commando crawls under it to get to me – and gets stuck halfway every time.
Her curls and her eyes… so beautiful.
She spreads her toes when I kiss her feet.
She laughs when I kiss her ribs.
She still reaches for me to kiss her hand when I nurse her before bed.
She is content just about anywhere if Marc or I are with her. And she loves the interns.
She tries to eat bugs off the ground.
She hides her head in my shoulder when we walk outside into the sun.
She smells good.
She used to cry when I cleaned her face. Now she just purses her lips and stares at me waiting for it to be over.
No toy is as cool as something Mommy or Daddy uses.
Occasionally she gives me a kiss! (Wide-open and slobbery goodness)

Thank you, Jesus, for my little girl!

(The hardest part of being her mom: knowing her family is too far away.)