January 2, 2012 by Jen.

Hello all! We’ve had a good year here in the Payne household.

Juliana has grown to a staggering 20 lbs and 31.5″. What a big girl! She has started talking and says the following words regularly:
Mama, Dada, Nana, Papa, Meme (for Megan), Robby, yep, no, go, bye, hi, apple, baby, bus, bath, beep, hot, hat, bite, off, and she signs the words for more, water, all done, please, and thank you. She does the animal sounds for cow, dog, cat (kinda), sheep, lion, tiger, and monkey. She attempted something like “ama” for Grandma, and this morning she said Katie. She has loads of other words that would not be recognizable to a stranger, and many that are not recognizable to us. She is also getting more willing to repeat the words that we say. Yesterday she said “Memphis,” the name of the Herrs’ dog who is staying with us. She also sings, in tune, the alphabet song (although not all the letters are clear), and her own special bathtime song. Occasionally something will come out that really sounds like a sentence. “That’s my cousin!” (pointing at Ellis), “What is that?”, “No, I didn’t.”

Since her 2nd birthday in October when she received refrigerator magnet letters from her Nana, Juliana has been learning her letters. She loves it! She can now identify most of the letters of the alphabet, and she says about half of them. Her favorites are B, D, and E. Sadly, she hasn’t even yet attempted J, which is the official letter of our household. She also seems to have a fairly consistent grasp of all the colors. She can regularly identify them, although she doesn’t say any of their names yet.

She loves Christmas trees and lights and her latest obsession is the moon. Reading is her favorite past-time, and she still loves dogs and cats. She climbs up on her rocking horse all by herself and loves to rock it. She loves coloring and made her first craft this fall with her OT: a leaf with bits of red and orange tissue paper glued on to it. Of course it is up on our fridge. She has recently discovered sticker books and loves matching up the sticker with the pictures and then tapping it to stay down.

Her palate is still not very sophisticated. I’m afraid we stick to the following menu 99 times out of 100: mac & cheese, apples, bananas, oatmeal, cold cereal (Raisin Bran without the raisins), yogurt, grilled cheese sandwiches, grapes, frozen peas, and whole wheat Ritz crackers. She has however discovered that she loves hummus, so this gives me hope for a future of more exotic tastes. She guzzles water like it’s going out of style (I think she drinks more oz per day than I do!), and she loves orange and apple juice, although she gets these in very rare doses.

Juliana was sick for the first time on the nights of December 23-24 and 24-25, and for most of the day on Christmas. She threw up several times and was downright miserable. She was so quiet and sweet and endured her pain like a champ. Mostly she wanted to snuggle on the couch with me, which was fine!

Thanks to Monika Bliss Morris for a fantastic fall photo shoot!

We spent Thanksgiving in Michigan with the Paynes and Great-Grandma Kinyon. For Christmas, we traveled to Tennessee to visit with the Minner side of the family. We had a very happy holiday season, and we wish you all well in 2012!

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November 2, 2011 by Jen.

Here are some Juliana-isms for you:

“Maaaaa” = I’m being gentle in petting the kitty / This feels so soft / I am deliberately NOT hitting you.

“Eeeessa doooggy!” = I love that random dog so much and it makes me so happy that I am going to squeal until you two break down and get me my own.

“Howoooo!” = I have just discovered how incredibly awesome the moon is, and I think that I will try to howl at it like a wolf.

“eee” = meow

“ahh, beee, ceee, dah” = Yes, I am singing the alphabet song.

“Mroo” = Please take me down to see the cows in the back yard before they disappear to their “happy home in the country,” because I love every animal so much, even if they don’t know I exist.

“Key-key” = I just saw Sophie run by as she was trying to escape from me, and she totally made my day!

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October 5, 2011 by Jason.

I’ve been reading a lot about ethics and utilitarianism lately, particularly Practical Ethics by Peter Singer. His logic and presentation of Preference Utilitarianism, particularly as it pertains to the person-hood of creatures, is compelling. Because of this, I have decided to change my own behavior and stop eating most meat excepting fish which I’ll address in a moment. Here are my main thoughts on the matter:

• The small pleasure that I receive from eating meat requires the real pain of other sentient creatures.
• I don’t want to support the factory farming that supports the vast majority of meat production in this country.
• I’ve excepted fish and other seafood because I don’t think it meets the criteria of sentience and person-hood of the other most common forms of meat.
• This isn’t the final answer. As I think more about the ethical ramifications of my life, I may revise this in other directions.

I’ll be happy to answer any questions in the comments.

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August 22, 2011 by Jen.

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August 16, 2011 by Jen.

Welcome to the world, Ellis Mark Partlo! He was born on July 14, 2011 weighing 8 lb 2 oz. He’s a sweet, beautiful baby and we are so happy to have a nephew! Juliana’s first cousin! Congratulations to Katie and Justin who are wonderful parents!

Hmmm . . . look familiar?

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August 12, 2011 by Jen.

So, I have obviously kind of abandoned the blog. It wasn’t intentional, I promise! We’ve just found that uploading photos from our phones onto Facebook has been so much easier than downloading and reformatting from our camera. However, we have dear friends who aren’t necessarily on Facebook who still want to see recent pictures of Juliana. So, here are a few more pictures for you all! We’re thinking of getting a different blog that will be easier to use, but we will let you know if/when we make the switch. Thanks to you all for keeping up with Juliana and for caring so much about her. We love you all!

Juliana will be 2 this October. How time flies! We have had a busy summer: we went to the beach with friends, visited new baby cousin Ellis Mark Partlo and the Minner side of the family in Tennessee, visited Michigan to see friends and the Payne side of the family, went to the zoo with Nana and Papa, went to Lake Michigan, played in the wading pool and learned to run! Click on the thumbnails to see the large versions of the pictures!

For extra fun, match the captions with the photos:

1. Juliana and her own private yacht.
2. Juliana, Mommy, Daddy, and John Ball.
3. Juliana, Nana, and cousin Alex.
4. After a close taste test, Juliana decides that mint chocolate chip is her favorite.
5. Juliana pets a goat.
6. Juliana thinks that goats are just about the right size to ride.
7. Juliana, Nana, and Papa.
8. Juliana and Aunt Kelly.
9. Juliana thinks the dump truck is her own personal vehicle and Uncle Justin (favorite person of the year) and Grandma Minner are her chauffeurs.
10. Juliana finds that sheep are softer than she originally thought.
11. Juliana thinks the white hat makes her look really cute.
12. Juliana runs like the wind away from the corn. That corn is waaaay too tall.
13. Juliana can’t be bothered to look up for a photo because “this sand won’t just dig itself!”
14. And again.
15. And again.
16. And again.
17. Juliana takes a stroll through the John Ball Zoo with Daddy and Nana.
18. Juliana loves her Great-Grandma Kinyon.

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March 23, 2011 by Jen.

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February 11, 2011 by Jen.

So, this has been the week of milestones. On February 8 we celebrated one year of having Juliana home from the hospital. On February 10 we celebrated the anniversary of her due date. I pointed out to my students in class: remember when we had Juliana’s birthday? Back in October? Feels like a long time ago, right? Well, this is when she SHOULD have been born. So, the difference between those two dates is how much longer she was supposed to stay in her warm, snug little womb-home. But, instead, she arrived too early, and many challenges entered her life as a result. (Which seems so unfair, because we ALL have challenges in life, but she had to start out with so many more than most.) But, over the last 15 1/2 months, Juliana has been conquering challenges. She is not just surviving, she is thriving.

Juliana’s days are spent playing with her gazillion toys, reading books, talking walks and playing with Baby Isaac Herr, destroying Mommy’s laptop keys, wishing for her own iPhone, chasing after (and sometimes catching) Sophie, crawling everywhere and getting ready to walk. She isn’t super interested in food at the moment, although she really wants to bite into an apple, and she loves flavored puff cereal. She is on the verge of saying her first words, and she has been working diligently to try to say “kitty-cat.” This will probably be her first word, as we seem to be hearing a cute little whispered “key-ca” coming from her. However, whenever Sophie runs by, Juliana is generally too excited to talk. She also says a lot of dadadadada, but we’re not yet sure if she is associating the word with Jason. She will point to the light or fan when we say the name, and her favorite thing is her mobile, specially made by Alban and Evan. She points at it as we rock in her chair or change her diaper.

At her most recent doctor visit she weighed 16 lb, 11 oz and was 28 inches long. To put this in perspective, most babies are expected to triple their birth weight by their first birthday. Juliana tripled her birth weight before she even left the hospital. She is now (at 15 1/2 months) 12 times her birth weight. She is still extremely small, but her physical therapists and neonatologists are happy with her development. She is following her developmental age really well, and she seems to be advanced in a few areas. For example, she loves to turn the pages in her books, which she has been doing for 3-4 months now and is an advanced skill.

She has been teething off and on for months, and she now has two bottom teeth and a side top tooth. There is no sign of where the next one will come in, but we are rooting for top front. Her teething also makes her rather grumpy at times. But in general, she is the sweetest, happiest baby.

We are working on sleeping through the night. She is currently waking up 2-4 times a night, but we’ve been trying some tips that might be working. Our main obstacle is that we do not want to let her cry, so the “cry it out” technique doesn’t work for us. The other techniques seem to take longer, but we are willing to wait. In the meantime, she goes to bed at 7:30 and (if we’re lucky) sleeps in until 7:30 with a few interludes.

As Jason posted on his Facebook page, this has been the best year of our lives. Every day we wake up to hear her precious little voice and clapping hands and we know that no matter what else goes on, we are blessed.

Thank you Daddy for the roses and ribbons for Eden and Zoe’s trees. It was a nice remembrance. And thank you to the Bauer family for the beautiful roses to commemorate Juliana’s milestone. Thank you all for keeping Juliana in your prayers.

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December 13, 2010 by Jen.

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December 9, 2010 by Jen.

Juliana is 13 months old! She is crawling! She has a tooth coming through. She is such a big girl! We are thinking that she is about 16.5 lbs now. She desperately wants to walk and loves pulling Sophie’s fur. She loves to visit with baby Isaac Herr, and she loves her special mobile from Alban and Evan Howe. Her favorite foods so far: squash, sweet potatoes, bananas, pears, plums. Foods she dislikes: peas, asparagus, apples, and carrots. Favorite toys: her piano and her books, especially her musical book, but most of all–Mommy’s laptop. She is still not sleeping through the night. We are usually up 3-4 times every night. That is something we will be working on in the new year, but she still is really only 10 months old developmentally.

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