Here's a couple new videos of Olivia trying to figure out what to do with the Christmas tree bulbs....

More Fun with Olivia

Here's a little video of Olivia having all sorts of fun in the kitchen and whispering sweet nothings to the camera. By the way, we finally found Olivia's original Halloween costume...it was in one of the boxes in the apartment. Go figure. Enjoy the video!

Chaos!

Holy cow! What a whirlwind the past month+ has been! We are currently living in an apartment on the southeast side of Kalamazoo and while it's okay for right now, we are really itching to get back into a house. Speaking of houses, our house in Amarillo has a buyer and assuming all goes well, the soon-to-be owners will close in late November. The date for closing down there is November 28th, but we're trying to get it moved up because we have found a house up here that we're all ready to move into! It's a brand new house in a new neighborhood on the west side of Kalamazoo in Oshtemo Township. It's a two-story, 1800 square foot house with an additional 900 square foot basement. All we need is the closing to go smoothly down in Amarillo and with any luck, we'll be moving into our new house in early December!

The move went pretty well with the opportunity for us to stay with our friends Damon and Laurie in Tulsa the first night and with my sister and brother-in-law in Indianapolis the third night. That was also the day that Olivia got to meet her cousins Clare and Conor for the first time. Most of the time was spent with Clare and Olivia interacting in one way or another. See below for some of the pictures.

Amanda and Olivia are doing well. All three of us caught a cold right after coming up here...and it's one of those nagging colds that just won't let go. Olivia got over it the fastest and I think I'm pretty much done with it too and for the first morning in the past couple of weeks, Amanda is starting to sound/feel better as well. No offense to any of you living in an apartment right now, but apartment life SUCKS!! Our apartment is right on the corner of the building next to the entrance. Combine that with this being a college town and plenty of college students live here...and we get people coming in and out of the apartment complex at all hours of the night. The door into the complex certainly doesn't help as it closes very loudly...and our bedroom is right next to the wall adjacent to that door. We can't get out of here fast enough! But through all of this, Olivia has really done well. She's been sleeping like a champ and continues to be a very happy and healthy baby. She really likes going on walks around the apartment grounds (we're nestled in the woods and there's lots of hiking trails all around the apartment complex). We drive by a lake near the apartment and she'll say duc-K (she always emphasizes the K) because there's a mean black swan that rather aggressively defends its territory along the lakeside. It is very pretty around here though. The fall color has been incredible and the weather has been quite cooperative for the most part...outside of the severe weather outbreak we had for my first day on air up here, but that's another story entirely.

Halloween was a bit of a problem though. When we moved from Amarillo, we had put Olivia's pink dragon costume in with the coats we were going to take with us to the apartment so we would have it handy when Halloween rolled around. Well, somewhere along the way, the costume got lost in the shuffle and we still have no idea where it is. So, we had to improvise and with some sunglasses, a summer hat, sweatpants, sweatshirt, and a towel, we made Olivia into a Winter Beach Babe. It ended up being okay though...we just went over to our new neighborhood and thought it would be the best way to meet our new neighbors and find out who lives in the neighborhood. Here are some pictures from the move and our first couple of weeks up here in Kalamazoo. Enjoy!

Olivia in the moving truck

Clare "putting on makeup" on Olivia

My new favorite picture! Cute cousins!

Amanda and Olivia in the apartment

Olivia enjoying her pumpkin

The improvised Halloween costume: our Winter Beach Babe!

We're Moving!

My sincere apologies for not updating the blog more recently, but things have been incredibly hectic in the Swiatowy household for the last several weeks culminating with the decision/announcement that Amanda, Olivia, and I are moving back to Michigan. I have accepted a weekend & morning meteorologist position at WWMT in Kalamazoo and I will begin working there October 17th...which means we have a ton of stuff to do in a very short period of time including pack up the house, attempt to sell the house in Amarillo, and find a place to live in Kalamazoo. Oy! We're just trying to keep our heads on straight through all of this, but it's going to be a very tumultuous time. Still, I wanted to post a few new pictures of Olivia since she is now a year and a half old. Olivia is at the point now where she likes to climb into her high chair on her own (and if you try to help her, she gets MAD). She also likes to move the chairs around and rearranges everything else you can possibly imagine. Several things have been "accidentally" thrown away because Olivia thinks the proper place for some things is the trash can. Enjoy the pictures and wish us luck as we move cross country...again!

Olivia and Amanda at the playground

Olivia and me at the playground

Getting ready to ride the slide!

Action shot!

Climbing into the highchair by herself

Success!!

New Olivia Videos

Here's a couple new videos for your viewing pleasure. The first is of Olivia dancing her own special "turn in circles dance". The second is Olivia's reaction to a part in Baby Dolittle (one of the many Baby Einsteins available). Enjoy!

Amanda's Birthday

Yes, Amanda turns another year older today. It's amazing to think it's been a year since we were up in Tulsa for Laurie and Damon's baby shower and had a little birthday surprise for Amanda at P.F. Changs. This year is going to be quite a bit more laid back with a day of rest for Amanda then an early dinner at Tacos Garcia. She wants to have an "Amanda Day" sometime soon with a trip to the hair salon and a massage...which in my opinion should have happened several more times prior to now, but with Amanda's workload pretty heavy right now and my freaky schedule, it makes it more difficult for it to transpire. But it will happen soon.

Anyway, an update on Olivia...and everything is going along really well. As the videos have shown, Olivia is walking very well now and getting into just about everything imaginable. Keeping up with her and her seemingly endless energy supply is a daunting task, but it's also very fun. She is saying quite a few more words...some she'll say a lot (like "shoe") and others come and go. Last night, Amanda and I were getting her ready for bed and we were playing around the love seat. Olivia came out from behind the love seat and Amanda said, "There she is!" and Olivia repeated that phrase perfectly with the exact same tone and inflection! Amanda and I just looked at each other with our mouths wide open. That was the first time she even tried to say something like that and it came out crystal clear. Go figure. Olivia has four teeth completely in with her two front teeth almost all the way in. She's got several swelled spots on her gums where more teeth are about to poke through...especially farther back. She's had her rough days when it comes to teething, but overall it's gone about as well as can be expected.

I've posted quite a few videos in the past couple months, but I haven't posted any pictures recently. Sorry about that. So, here are a bunch of pictures from the past couple months...a kind of "best of" from June and July. Enjoy!

Having fun with bathtub foam!

Just relaxing and pondering life on the love seat

Doing her best "Hannibal the Cannibal" impression...okay, it's really ketchup.

My two favorite girls

Dressed in yellow

At the waterpark

Olivia's messy hair

Olivia and Logan

Looking cute (and rather big-bellied) outside

Trying on dad's shoes

Focused and playing hard at the Discovery Center

If you play hard, you sleep hard

On the Prowl...Again

Olivia is on the prowl again. This time you get to see her as she randomly goes from one thing to another and one room to another. It gives you an idea of what it's like trying to keep up with her and the attempt to clean up after her.

Trying to Talk

Olivia has gotten the walking part down decently well and now she's working on saying a few more words.

Olivia on the Prowl

Hide your Tupperware and your toilet paper...here comes Olivia!! Listen for the attempt at saying "bye bye".

A New Walking Video

Here's another video of Olivia walking today. The whole "getting up from a fall and start walking again" thing happened for the first time in this video. She's picking it up quick! It's amazing and so much fun to watch her learn how to walk!

It's Official...

Olivia is now walking!! Here are the videos to prove it:


Now that Olivia is mobile on two feet, will y'all please do us a favor and say a little prayer for us! It seems she's gaining confidence by the second and it won't be long before she'll be walking all over the house. We'll just do our best to keep up!

Olivia's World

She laughs, she cries, and thankfully she doesn't hurl. Enjoy!

14 Months Old!

Olivia turns 14 months old tomorrow...so I thought I would put up some recent pictures. We're still waiting on her to take off and walk on her own, but she hasn't quite done it yet. Otherwise, she's "talking" more (she's gotten to the "uh-oh" phase) and we're just having a lot of fun with her. Without further ado, here are the pictures:

A Couple Videos

Okay...I know I've been slacking on the blog recently and I'm really sorry about that. But, for those who know me know I've been busy busy busy. Three storm chases from late March through early May and 14 tornadoes seen so far. It's been one of those severe weather seasons. So, I've decided to post a couple videos of Olivia on here. She's doing very well...teething and almost walking. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful little girl. Enjoy the videos!

"Professional" Pics

We took Olivia to Sears for her one-year pictures. This time, I got the CD of all the pics. We ordered a few sheets of pics to pass out to friends and family, but there were so many good pictures, I didn't want them to go to waste. So, here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy and have a very Happy Easter!

Olivia Turns One!

Can you believe it? A year has already come and gone and little Olivia is not so little any more. To think about all the things that have happened, all the milestones that have been reached, all the fun we've had, all the sleepless nights we've had to endure, and all the love we've shared...it's truly been an incredible and amazing year! A huge "thank you" goes out to all of our friends and family who have done so much over the past year. We are so very blessed to have such a wonderful support group around us.

We celebrated Olivia's birthday last weekend with nice little party. Olivia made a nice mess of her birthday cake (pictures below) and she got some great gifts! Amanda and I made sure to celebrate the fact that we survived the first year of Olivia's life as well. So the party wasn't just for Olivia! Damon, Laurie, and baby Elisabeth also made the trip down from Tulsa making the birthday celebration that much more special.

As for Olivia herself, outside of a couple minor colds, she has been a healthy and happy little girl. She's right on the cusp of being able to walk...she will "walk" from one piece of furniture to the other, provided they're close enough together that she can immediately let go of one and grab the other. She, like all other babies, has her own language too. She says dada and mama quite a bit, but also babbles on about God knows what and it is so cute.

Here are some pictures from this past week and weekend. There will be plenty more to come as Olivia goes through her second year with us! Enjoy!

Standing tall...with a little support

Sound asleep

Olivia and Elisabeth

Such a precious picture!

Aloha!

There's the birthday girl!

Happy Birthday to you!

Yay!

Mmmmm....Tasty frosting!

Yummy cake!

Aaaahhhhh dadadada mamamama

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Have a happy and safe St. Patrick's Day!! Thanks Grandpa Warren for the cute St. Patrick's Day onesie!