1 year old and quickly moving toward 2!

Finally, another post. I hear all of the complaining from you Michiganders, but just so you know - its not my fault. I don't even know how to work this thing so I rely on them to get their butts in gear.

Its been a busy couple of months. First and foremost, I'm bipedal. Ya, this walking thing is amazing. Plus, you can even walk fast, which is called running. It's great, why the heck did I start out on all fours doing the crawling thing. Now that I've mastered that, I've added a couple new words to the vocabulary. I figured out "nigh nigh" (i.e. night night) allows the parents to know I'm ready for bed if they are too distracted. Another fun one is "bye bye" with the waving thing. I'm also better at saying "doggy" and the one that got the best response was "mama."

Another big change is that we moved. I left my tiny little room for a much bigger one in the new place. We are in a basement, so the sunlight has dipped a little bit. A bigger room = a bigger mess, which I think is funny to watch people clean up. At this new place no drawers or doors open, which is a bummer. I think it has something to do with dada putting some white things on them with his green spinny noisemaker (i.e. drill).

I still do the parents a favor and sleep through the night every night. When I'm up though, I spend most of my time causing mischief as usual. The coolest toy is one I never get to play with. Dada bought a video game with drums and that came with drumsticks which are the best thing ever. For some reason I never get to play with them, though. I also had my first b-day on Nov. 18th as you can tell from the videos. I was wary of the "cake" at first, but it ended up being a fun toy too. I got shots that day so I was quite groggy most of the time, which is why I look high in some of the pics. I was measured too; I'm only 20 lbs, which is only five lbs more than my cousin Brady who isn't even 3 months old yet. Weird. I'm getting taller though and finally hit 30 in. with a big head at the 75th percentile.

Thats about it for now, I'm heading home on Dec. 21 with Gramma D after Beth's wedding where I'll be the ring bearer. Mom and Dad will follow three days later. Until then I'll do my best to torment Chewy, continue mooching food off of anyone that will give it to me and adjust to these new "sippy cups." Man I miss my babas.

X

BTW, here is my new addy for all of those that want to send me stuff . . . I like stuff!

Xander Grice
1297 E. 810 S.
Alpine, UT 84004

Xander Aug-Oct 2008

My where has the time gone. I was shocked to see that it had been almost 3 months since my last post. Life's busy these days, so please excuse me. I picked up this new thing lately - walking. Its pretty sweet since I don't feel like a wild ape on all fours and my knees don't get so scraped up and callousy. Not to mention its a whole better view up here. My first go round with this walking thing was on Sept. 21. I'd been practicing "behind closed doors" for the big show, that was when mommy and daddy got home from their boat ride. So that night with everyone watching, I performed. I kind of dig the whole "performing" aspect since my Uncle Travis and Gramma Scooter were there too. I also surprised mommy with my first two teeth when she got home. No more sprouting as of yet though, so I'm just bottom bucktooth X-man right now. What else, hmmmm . . . I'm king of getting the hang of this whole "English" thing. I know "baba" which magically makes bottles full of milk appear, "baby" - which seems to stand for any little humans. Also, "dada" is the guy who's always around and making me laugh. Another big one that I say is "ball," man those things are fun. I either will kick it around, give it to dada, or put it in places to make "baskets." Another hobby of mine is climbing. Today I found out that I can get higher by climbing on things. This lets me reach the things that I usually can't get to.

I'm sure that there is a ton more to talk about, but I'm spent right now. I got a busy day of going to daycare tomorrow and flirtin' with the chicks there. I'll probably show off some of my new clothes tomorrow, since I'm more buff then even a couple of months ago. Anyway, keep checking the site since I'll be moving out of this house in a month and heading across town with mommy, daddy and the impossible to catch Chewy.

X

Mexican Riviera Cruise Pictures

My first planned hairdo!

Since I was going to a special event, I felt the need to do something special with my hair. Check it out, it's pretty sweet and I've heard people call it the "faux hawk."

X

The Xander Days of Summer!

My oh my how life is busy these days. As I quickly approach the ripe old age of 8 months, I am shocked by the swift development of my skills. Within a very short period I have gone from rolling around this place to get stuff, to sitting up unassisted, to doing what mom and dad call a "tripod" (check out the video), to pushing myself up to sitting, and finally a military crawl. Not only that, but it seems that the parents really have fun when I do something that they are doing. So I've been picking up this thing where I wave my arm and hand when they do, they seem to like it a lot. Everyone else does too, they say its "cute." Not really sure what that means, but I hope it's good. Sometimes I choose to copy sounds, but they seem to want it too bad, so I don't do it all the time. Why do I have to learn their language, why can't they learn mine? Food is getting interesting. Lots of stuff in my diet now, not just cereal and carrots. I've had mangoes, bananas, apples, sweet potatoes (which I love), butternut squash, broccoli, onions, peas, peaches, yogurt and corn. Corn is a no go, I got all splotchy with it so I'll have to wait for a bit, but it was delicious. I've also been trying tiny pieces of salmon and tilapia, which aren't too bad. I've been working on feeding myself tiny cheese bits and cheerios. It's much more entertaining though to hit my tray and watch them go flying in the air. I know what I don't like . . . avocados! You may ask how I know this, well when was the last time you projectile vomited something you love? That's what I thought. I've been starting to get some "formula" in my bottle, of which I'm not a huge fan. Mommy was sick for a little while and the "liquid gold" dried up a bit, plus I'm a bit on the slender side and they want me to bulk up. I'm glad they are doing it the au natural way, I'm not into the whole steroid scene. They have performance enhancing drug tests at daycare and I don't want to get fined--even though I want to impress everybody there. I love daycare and Liane loves to have me. I'm pretty excited though to see mommy or daddy when they come to pick me up. All in all, things are going well. I've gone swimming a couple of times and I don't know what to think about my new froggy pool. I'm not a huge fan of swimming in the large mouth of an amphibian. Just a bit too sketchy for me at this point since I'm sure I'm a tasty morsel. Anyway, that's the updated Tales from the Crib, check ya later.

X

Hello from Utah!

We hope all is well in Michigan. We are doing well out here in 2008. Xander has reached his six month birthday on May 18th and spent it on a road trip. He visited the Grand Canyon, the Navajo Nation, Four Corners, Lake Powell, and Arches National Park. He’s a great baby in the car and we all had a lot of fun with him. New additions to his arsenal of skills include eating food (rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots and bananas), which mom and dad have been trying to make themselves. Thus far, we’ve been successful. In addition, Xander is a rolling machine and is close to thinking about crawling. He is also sitting up well when placed on his bum and will hold the sitting position for quite a bit. Xander is also learning about his voice. He likes to scream for fun and babbles a lot. He has also learned that things make noise when you bang them. Xander is still sleeping through the night most nights and wakes up with a smile at 6am most mornings. He is now in daycare for four days a week and spends Tuesdays with Daddy running errands and taking naps. Liane, the daycare person, looks forward to seeing him each and every day and seems to value her time with Xander a ton.

Mommy and Daddy are doing very well too. Daddy has been getting about 20 clients a week, which is right at the ideal minimum. Hopefully, that number will increase a bit. Trevor is also still studying for the licesure exam, which is the last step in the whole psychology process. Trevor also plays softball on Fridays and in a couples league on Thursdays with Diana. Golfing has been pretty much a no go thus far this year and the tomato garden has yet to get planted.
Diana is back to work five days a week and really misses her Fridays with Xander. She is playing softball on Thursdays with Trevor up in Salt Lake City. Other than that, she is dealing with a changing work environment and a never ending desire to travel as opposed to work.
Included are some pics of us and our recent roadtrip. As you can see, Xander is getting big and is having a blast with life and with us. We will try our best to get to Michigan some time soon to see all of you.

Love,

Trevor, Diana, and Alexander

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

uvbn d dg bvbbbbbbbbbbb That was a brief message from me as I tried to type. I'm dictating to my dad, but I'm trying to figure out this typing thing. The major problem is that I don't know how to spell. So its been a busy few weeks since the last entry. I've gradutated to cereal and am loving it. I'm definitely putting on the weight and my weight/age percentile should be higher on my next visit. ;p//[opkzsxdisdd99foji. Dang it, I just can't do it. So I'm mobile now, I'm a rolling machine and pretty much do it just to show off to people. I'm very close to sitting up on my own and I've pretty much mastered the "High Five." Next is clapping and then after that my daddy says something about "unloading the dishwasher." Other than that, the green truck is gone and we now have another nice Buick Regal (with AC - but otherwise BORING!) to replace it. Since we made some extra moolah, we have another new addition to the family . . . Playstation 3. Daddy is very excited, plus Blu-Ray movies are the bomb. I'm very jealous though. More on that after I talk to my therapist about an appropriate outlet. I think I got some teeth coming in. My mouth is killing me, but a nice cold carrot feels good on them. Plus it tastes a lot better then my three item menu: breast milk, rice cereal in breast milk, and oatmeal in breast milk. Anyway, looks like I'm taking a road trip next weekend. I'll keep you posted on that since I'm gonna go see something called the "Grand Canyon." We'll see how grand it really is. Anyway, peace out y'all. Til next time.

X

March 2008 Pictures

Pictures of Xander: Jan/Feb 2008