Michigan or Bust!!! What the crap is Michigan? (notice the subtle Utah lingo interjection there)

Hello everyone, Max here. I felt the need to use "what the crap" one last time in the title cuz I'll be living in Michigan soon and dropping F-bombs like nobody's business. There are two photo slide shows. The top one is of a professional photo shoot we had done in November, the bottom one is our pics.

So I'm like twice as old as I was the last time I posted. I blame it on my mommy, but not like we haven't been busy. Lots of stuff has happened, including the fact that we are leaving Utah.

October went rather well, Big Bro Xander enjoyed Halloween dressed as a turtle, I slept in my monkey costume. It was fun cuz Papa Trent was there during that time. Not much happened with me as I grew and stuff.

November had things start to get interesting. We all went on a rather last minute trip to Michigan in the middle of November cuz my daddy had an interview in his hometown of Caro, MI. When we went, he already had a job offer there, but chose the second one of the two he interviewed. This meant we were moving to a place I just visited. Since this time, we've been wrapping things up. As I write today, Xander and I just had our last day with Liane at daycare, which is a bummer cuz she ROCKS!!! Nonetheless, mommy and daddy spent all day packing cuz we leave for Michigan tomorrow, but we aren't moving yet . . . confused? Let me explain.

So since this all happened in November, we had already purchased our flights home for Christmas from 12/22-12/28. So now we are doing that and Xander and I will be staying in Michigan with Gramma Donna and Papa Norm, Gramma Scoot, and Uncle Brian and Aunt Jen (Keri and Brady too). Mommy and Daddy are flying back alone and then Papa Trent will follow them a few days later to pack up the moving truck with all of my . . . our stuff and then drive that truck hauling a car and the other car with Chewy back to Michigan. Ya, complicated for sure!

Anyway, to all of y'all back in the Midwest, we look forward to seeing you soon. To the peeps in Utah, we'll miss you and try to visit at some point. Uncle Travis, Aunt Taryn, Aunt Beth and Uncle Dane don't have any plans to follow us . . . YET! So they should be reason enough to return in the near future. Not to mention, Utah is the "motherland" for X and I. Thats it for now everyone. I . . . we hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Check ya on the flipside . . . of the calendar.

Maximus Aristotle Napoleon Octavius Augustus Grice (sounds way better than Maxwell Casmere Grice)

Getting used to this whole "outside the womb" thing

Aloha peeps! Your favorite recently born son of Trevor and Diana here to give you an update on the past 5 or so weeks. Mommy goes back to work on Thursday, which means that I'll be going to a place called "daycare" with my big brother, X. Don't know what to make about this, but X seems to like it. He even cries when mommy and daddy try to pick him up sometimes. Speaking of which, he took a header the other day. Daddy had to go pick him up and then mommy and I met them at the doctor's office. He ended up splitting open his eyebrow and since it was such a smooth split, they just glued it instead of doing something called "stiches."

I'm still sleeping in the bassinet next to mommy and daddy, which will likely continue for another couple of months I hear. Not that I know any different however. So being out of the womb has its advantages. I really like to be held and also to eat. I hear I eat twice as much as X did. Also, I've been watching this movie called "Ratatouille" over and over again. X likes to watch "the rat" and requests it all the time. Mommy and daddy have tried to mix in "Nemo" and "the toys" (i.e. Toy Story), but to no avail. Daddy wishes that X would like to mix in the movie about "cars," but he has yet to be successful.

I've had some visitors, with more to come. Gramma Scoot came first and helped mommy and daddy for awhile and made some food . . . so thank you for that Gramma Scoot! Then a week later Gramma Donna came and did the same . . . so thank you for that Gramma Donna! I hear that Papa Norm will be arriving in a few weeks and then after that Papa Trent will come for a week at the start of November. I'm looking forward to seeing them, as I assume they are to see me.

Overall I'm really healthy. I do have some instances of projectile vomiting and can be quite gassy at times, but no big deal. We were a bit scared the other day as mommy was diagnosed with an infection from the childbirth. Apparently it can be serious, but its all better now. As X would say "doctor fixt it."

Thats the scoop thus far. All is well. I get lots of kisses from X, mommy and daddy and like spending the day with mommy. I'll be sad when that ends, but I'll get some days with daddy during the week. Just a matter whether X will be there with Daddy and me.

Make sure you check out the pics connected with this and the videos on the right. Mommy fixed the videos so you can view them now.

Max

I'm here!

The long awaited arrival of me and the pics that go with it are here. Thankfully, the hospital has wireless internet so daddy can post them. Check out the slide show below.

As most of you know, me, Maxwell Casmere Grice was born at 2:22 am on August 27th, 2009. I weighed in at a healthy 9lbs. 0oz. and 21 inches long. Like my big brother, I had some trouble breathing so I was away from mommy and daddy for a bit to get all oxygenated up. I hated the masks and stuff so I fought it most of the time.

Since I'm officially known to us as "Mr. Flippy Floppy" due to my uterine gymnastics. I was induced into this world starting on Wednesday, August 26th after I did my last flippy floppy and ended up head down. In the weeks up to my arrival, I had flipped up, down and sideways numerous times and I guess I kind of forced the issue on this induction.

Mommy delivered me "au natural" and as Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch said so eloquently "I'm drug free, so put the crack up!" Anyway, I'm just chillin' and eating like a champ. I hear that I'm eating much better than big brother did at this time. Thats good, I intend on being a good competitor for him in some areas . . . so far its Max =1, Xander = 0. We interestingly tied on our APGAR scores (seven) so you know what they say, a tie is like kissing your sister . . . but I don't have a sister so we'll just forget about this tie and move on.

You may be wondering if Xander will still leave some posts on here. Maybe . . . if I let him. This is my blog now and I intend on using this honor to the best of my abilities.

For those of you who may not know. My middle name, Casmere, is the first name of my great grandfather - Papa Norm's dad. So like Xander's middle name, I too have a middle name that is in honor of a great grandfather that is no longer with us.

That is it for now, time for a nap. Stay tuned as the videos will be up soon!

Max

Hey everyone, I'm still alive! I know that I haven't updated in a while, but I have a good reason. I'm communicating better through actual words. I'm up to sentences now and can speak your language quite well. Don't have a complete grasp of it yet, but I'm understanding verbs and such. In other news, we are within days of my brother/sister arriving. I know that there is a baby in mommy's tummy and supposedly this baby will be here some day. In the mean time, I'm trying to make the most of this only kid situation. I think my pics tell some of that story. I've learned to swim a bit. Jumping into pools is fun. I have a big boy bed, which I sleep in about once a week. Also, I have a mild shoe fetish. I'm still peeing on the potty about 1-2 times a day, but no real pooping yet. I have once, but mommy and daddy don't know that it was just luck. I'm also getting really good at feeding myself. Of course that comes with getting really good at getting food all over as well.

Now that I know how to get out of my crib, I go and wake mommy and daddy up in the morning. They seem genuinely happy to see me when I do that. Plus, they wake up when I wake up, as opposed to me yelling for 5 minutes before they show up to get me out. Overall, its been a great summer and I've had a lot of fun. I'm getting better at counting. I got the 6-10 thing down, but keep forgetting 3 and 4. Grrrrrr, so frustrating. Enjoy all the new videos and pics and we'll keep you posted on the baby in mommy's tummy and how things are going with that.

X

Not a whole lot has changed

Hey guys, not a whole lot new in our neck of the woods. We just came up with a bunch of videos to show you all my sweet skills. As you can see, I have dancing skills, gymnast skills, comedian skills . . . just a lot of skills. I also learned a new word - "do do." No, get your mind out of the gutter, basically if I say "do do" things get done. Like my Jack-in-the-Box, just say "do do" and mama or dada make it "pop" out. I am also experiencing this new thing called "timeouts." Not a big fan. I keep trying various things to see if I'll get a timeout, typically I do. Very frustrating. Basically I can't climb cool things, hit mama or touch cool electronics. Oh, and I can't throw things at the "kitty" either. He likes it, I don't know what the big deal is. Geesh! Anyway, check out my videos and pics and I'll give you an update in about a month with some info on Chaz the Fetus.

X

Big News! Plus Updates on Christmas.

Howdy y'all! Your favorite child of Trevor and Diana back to report on the past couple of months. Well, that previous statement won't be all too clear in the near future as I am going to be a . . . BIG BROTHER!! I have no idea what this means, but mama and dada are excited so I should be too I guess. I do here them say "baby" and I know what that means, kind of . . . so I think they will have another me. I guess the "baby's" name right now is Chaz. Aunt TT says that used to be her cat. I'm very confused about all of this. Not to mention, supposedly I used to be "Jeeves." I don't get it.

So I was a big fan of Christmas. All the people I've seen a few times were there . . . which I guess was a place called "Michigan." The airplane trip was okay. I went with my "gamama" and Aunt Vickie. I missed mama and dada though, but they came in a couple of days to get me. I got to play with my cousins, Keri and Brady, while I was there too. Brady wasn't much fun cuz whenever I hit him, he cried.

The ride home was pretty rough. It was my bed time and I couldn't sleep that well on that airplane thingy, but we survived . . . well at least I did - mama and dada looked tired. Since this trip, I've been practicing a lot of things. I'm getting the hang of this English language thing. I'm at about 40+ words and am understanding a lot more. Also, I love to feed myself, which is easier now that I have 7.5 teeth.

The biggest thing I've done, according to mama and dada, is going "peepee" on this big white chair thing. They get so excited when I release my fluids in this thing. Its fun to "flush" it though. I'm also digging this whole climbing thing. It gets you to new heights and I can touch a lot of stuff I'm not supposed to touch.

Last week we went to Las Vegas. Definitely positives and negatives to this trip. Negative - riding in a car for a long time. That was not fun. You get strapped in to a seat with no one to play with and try to stay happy. Geesh! Postives were more numerous. There were a lot of pretty things to see and the house we stayed at had a lot of open space to run, fall, spin and dance. Plus, they had a "doggy" who let me play with her.

I can't think of anything else to report. I know, its been like 3 months and only this much to say. Check out my videos though and see what else I've been doing.

X

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