About Juanna

Juanna Buchanan Migliore died peacefully on a beautiful and sunny late fall morning in her hometown of Price. Juanna was born to June and John Miller in Helper in 1914 and, with the exception of seven years back East, lived her life in Price.

Juanna eloped in 1933 to marry her beau Francesco Antonio Migliore (Doc to his friends and patients) in Washington, DC. They lived there and in Chicago until 1940 before returning to their roots in Price where Doc used his Chiropractic skills to support his family including Michael and Launa (Harvey). Doc died in 1983 and Michael in 1994 as a later-life consequence of service to his country in Vietnam. Juanna also mourned the loss of her sister Bertha (Spratling) and brothers Harry and Robert (Buck).

Juanna was an exceptional seamstress who made beautiful clothes for Launa, many friends in Price, and costumes for her grandchildren Brandon and Megan. This interest led her to work for many years selling materials and sewing notions in Price Trading where her skills and outgoing personality gained her many friends. Juanna and family spent happy times at the cabin Doc built in Scofield, a magical place now used by her children, grandchildren, and great grandson Elliot.

Juanna was a beautiful, independent, friendly, and honest lady who dealt cheerfully with life’s many challenges. Her family would particularly like to thank her neighbor Norma Petrie who helped Juanna achieve her wish to live independently at home in her later years, and the amazing and caring ladies at Hospice especially Jessie who helped make that independence possible. A special thanks also to Drs. Etzel and Boyle. Juanna will be dearly missed by her family and friends.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday Dec 1st at Mitchells Funeral Chapel in Price at 11 am, with a viewing at 10 am. In lieu of flowers please donate to Rocky Mountain Hospice at 60E 100N in Price, or the charity of your choice.

Have I told you?

I'm not sure I've mentioned that Elliot is now very fond of reading. He makes the sign for book and then goes and gets a book and then crawls into my lap to read the book, and then I die from the sublimity, every time.

Friends: we have given unto the world: a new reader. Once I teach him how to swim, I feel that my work as a parent will mostly be done (since, as I've said, I already taught him how to lick batter off a spoon).

So, that's the most important thing to say, except that he's recently been making a word that sounds a lot like "book," too, which is awesome. And then today, two more reading breakthroughs. One is that he knows the part of this one bathtime book he like which is about a shark, and at the appropriate part of the story he actually points to his teeth, in recognition of the discussion of the shark's teeth. And then also, today he was readingOlivia Count with Brandon, and the first thing that Olivia counts, right before "two bows" is "one ball." And when reading, Brandon said "One...????" and Elliot totally said "ball."

The signs of his personhood are coming fast and furious, these days. It is so much fun.

This morning's update

Elliot has recently learned some important skills, namely: unsnapping snaps, and unzipping zippers.

To wit: this morning, I got Elliot dressed in one of my favorite one-piece outfits: it snaps down the front and up both legs. He looked very cute. I went in the kitchen to eat my breakfast. A second later, Elliot came running in not wearing his outfit, but rather waving it triumphantly above his head. I'm not kidding. It was like a flag. I stood staring at him, slack-jawed, while he ran past me to the cupboard with the pots and pans, opened the cupboard, wadded his outfit/victory banner into our soup turreen, turned around, and ran out.

I'm not sure that "clothes removal and rejection" is a normal developmental milestone, but I guess that's where we're at.

Dance Dance Revolution

I like to call this medley "Crank Dat One Year Old."



note: Hold Steady in honor of Kate and Catherine; I recorded that part the morning after the concert ya'll went to.

I am such a good mom.

You know what I did today? I taught Elliot how to lick batter off a spoon. Yep! These are essential skills, people, and you have to start teaching them while their brains are still really highly receptive.

In other news, have we mentioned that Elliot now has, like, 15 teeth? Maybe 16. At his twelve month appointment, he had a mere six. That is 9 or 10 teeth in a mere two and a half months, and when I look at it that way I understand why I've felt so busy.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Pictures

Sorry we've been wrapped up this fall, and quieter blogwise. But there are some new pictures.

P.S. I am so proud of what he is willing to eat now. I guess "relieved" is the word I'm really looking for, and maybe "proud" is really a common parental euphemism for "relief". "I'm so proud I could burst" is maybe just another way of saying "I was so worried I thought I was going to pop. But now I'm OK."

Being the one who is mainly in charge of breakfast and dinner for most of 2007 -- and there have been many trying dinner hours -- I am still relieved/proud when he eats a good meal at all. Relieveder/prouder still that he is growing: due to having eaten! He is getting a little taller, a little lankier.

He ate a bunch of dried blueberries tonight. (Used to spit em out.) Ate much of a (Trader Joe nitrate-free nitrite-free protein-packed) hot dog. Protein! And breakfast? A bunch of peanut butter (straight off the spoon, chip off the old block), some loose Cheerios, and lots of milk. More protein!

Protein.

(Whew.)

He says four words.

Which is a lot. Relatively speaking. It's way, way more than zero.

I suppose we were expecting a big moment when Elliot said his "first word", but that didn't really happen. He's been using some extremely reasonable-sounding syllables (e.g. mamamamama) for months and months. But he's been using them in pretty unreasonable ways. You couldn't let yourself get too excited about how he used amamamamama when Sarah arrived, because he would also talk in very similar terms about a blanket, a paper bag, or some applesauce.

But he's been improving his aim. amamaomamama usually means Sarah, though sometimes it means me. K'hhh and kiiii and k'uh indicate key. (Or toy, or object.) Da might mean me, though it's vague. It sometimes means Ada. The crown jewel, though is tuuf, which he says while pointing to his teeth (which hurt him right now, a lot).

Right now Elliot is standing in my shoes, trying to wear them.