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

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

Home for Christmas

Xander is home

We brought Xander home from the hospital the following day (Monday, November 19), which was also his Uncle Mark's birthday. We wanted to bring him home even sooner, but we weren't comfortable checking out of the hospital until he was able to nurse.

Trevor got really sick with the stomach flu that same night, and I nearly broke down with the overwhelming responsibility of taking care of a new baby. Luckily, my mom came to the rescue and flew out to visit and help out just a few days later. Trevor's mom came next, on the same day that my mom left.

Xander is here!

I started noticing regular contractions (lasting 30 seconds, 3 minutes apart) while I was at work at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, November 16th. Alexander finally made his appearance at 2:55 a.m. on Sunday, November 18th -- over 36 hours later! It was a long and exhausting labor, but with Trevor's amazing help and hypnobirthing skills, I was able to deliver Xander anesthetic-free as planned. He was a big and healthy baby, measuring nearly 21 inches long and weighing 8 lbs, 9 oz.

I guess I’m like my Uncle Mark’s bills--overdue! (Jeeves)

As indicated in my subject line, I guess I'm late for some date that I was supposed to meet. I don't know what that means. Heck, I don't even know what gender I am, why would I be concerned with being on time. What I do know is that this freaking apartment I'm in is shrinking. Like Indiana Jones I've been trying to find the little latch that will make the walls stop closing in, but its hard cuz I'm on my head and can't flip around. I feel that this may be my last blog entry ever cuz if these walls keep closing in I'll surely be crushed. On a lighter note, I guess I have a place to move to when I bust out of this joint. Sounds like a lot of people are excited to meet me when I come out which is cool. I'll drop a line and give a shout out when I can get cell phone reception. Anyway, I'll be in touch shortly everyone.

I'm getting stronger (Jeeves)

So I've heard upstairs that my mom has finally felt me . . . its about time as I've been banging down here for a while. Anyway, she knows I'm here now. The other day my mom did something pretty stupid - she golfed in 100 degree heat. I think it was stupid cuz I was roasting down here and very thirsty. I keep hearing my dad say "Are you okay?" and "I'm fine." I think he has issues to enjoy golfing 18 holes in 100 degree heat. Oh well. So I'm prepping for my close-up at the end of this month. I guess another ultrasound is in the works and I want to look my best for it so I'm working out and stuff. Got to get buff. I guess the dudes (thats what I call my parents) could find out whether I'm a boy or a girl at this time, but they don't want to. This is a huge identity issue for me since I know what I'm seeing, but I don't know what it stands for. I guess I'll hold off until D-day. Oh by the way, I guess D-day will occur without drugs, which is pretty cool as I'm not into that whole scene. Something about natural childbirth and hypnobirthing - whatever, I don't care I just know I won't be buzzed out of my gourd when I come out of this cave. Sounds good to me, I'm pretty sure I'll still have the munchies though.