New Camera!

It's time to show off the new camera! First, though, a BIG "thank you" goes to Grandpa Jim and Grandma Sylvia in Albuquerque for the camera. Seems Grandpa Jim didn't fancy the camera after working with it for a little while...so we are the lucky recipients of the purchase gone awry. After toying around with it, I got it to take (what I feel to be) some pretty darn good pictures. Judge for yourself!

Another big "thank you" goes out to Carla and Billy Dunham. Their son, Chip, lived across the street from us when we were in Amarillo the first time around...and we were invited by Chip, Carla, and Billy to go up to Fritch, Texas for a 4th of July celebration. We had a lot of fun and we definitely plan on going back up there for a mini vacation sometime soon. Here are some pictures from the festivities...using the new camera, of course!

Olivia with a balloon

Outside being protected from the strong Texas sun

Mama and Olivia

Olivia's attempt at getting a drink

Sitting on the edge of the inflatable pool

Olivia and dada with a sparkler

Olivia playing with dada's sunglasses

Olivia in da hood :-)

Pic Update

Here's a fresh batch of pictures from the past couple of weeks...

Father's Day 2008

Finally! Things have settled down at least for a little while. We've got ourselves situated about as well as we can be for the time being...just waiting on our house to sell up in Kalamazoo. Everything else is carrying on at reasonable pace with no major developments taking place in the past month and a half.

First off, a big Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there! I sent my dad and grandpa Father's Day cards with some fresh pictures of Olivia. Dad was happy to get some updated pictures, but I was also informed by him that I have been derelict in my duties in keeping the blog updated with pictures and videos. He is 100% correct and my apologies go out to our friends and family members who use this blog to keep up to date on Olivia's growth and what's going on in our world. So, I will be renewing my efforts to update this blog more frequently with pictures and videos. In the future, if you don't see an update in a while, kindly drop me a line and remind me to get back in gear.

As for Olivia, she's talking so much more. Her favorite question is "What's that?" My best approximation would be she asks the question at least 100 times a day. That's fine by us...she's learning and even though she may not understand it all, she's making an effort to grasp the basics. Teri and Carl (Amanda's mom and step dad) got Olivia one of those battery-operated Jeeps for her to drive around in the backyard. She's still trying to figure it out, but she really likes it. You'll see a video of her driving it around for the first time posted below. One big difference you'll see very quickly is that Amanda decided to get Olivia's hair cut. Sandy (the girl who cuts my hair) took about 3.5 to 4 inches off bringing Olivia's hair back up to just above her shoulders. She definitely doesn't look like a baby anymore...she looks much more like a little girl. Okay, without further ado, here's some fresh pictures and videos of Olivia.

Before the first big haircut

After the haircut

Eating some cheese and strawberries

Happy Father's Day!!

Such a cute face!

What a pretty smile!

Olivia-zilla!! (At the Discovery Center)

As promised, here are a couple videos as well...

Moving Sooner

Well, things have changed again...and the change involves moving up our relocation time. Instead of moving down to Amarillo in mid to late May, we should be down there by the first weekend of May. If you want to know the details of why this happened, email me and I'll give you all the details. We look forward to being back where we truly feel like we're home.

Here We Go...Again

There's a lot to talk about in the Swiatowy household. Besides the obvious that Olivia has turned 2, I have plenty more to say. After a long and brutal winter, Amanda and I have decided that we simply don't belong up here. So for the health and well-being of my family, Amanda, Olivia, and I are moving back to Amarillo in late May. I won't get into the details too much, but if you know anything about the TV business, contracts are part of being on-air...and I had to fight tooth and nail to get out of mine. It was a struggle, but I feel it's worth it in the end. We are going back to a part of the country we really liked. It's warmer, sunnier, the people are friendlier, and to us it feels more like home than any other place we've been. Once we get settled *again*, I'll make sure everyone gets our new contact information.

As for Olivia...she is so much fun to be around. She is a source of happiness and humor every single day. She loves being outside and pointing to animals (dogs, cats, ducks [geese], etc.) and she's saying some colors as well (a lot of things are yellow...and she says lellow). Here are a few pictures from her birthday party and a video from a week ago or so.

Birthday money is awesome!

So cute with her blue balloon.

Birthday cake is good!

Mr. Potato Head is still a kid favorite.

The family picture - March 29, 2008

Pics, Pics, and More Pics

I've been very neglectful of this blog...and for that, I apologize. With moving, (STILL) trying to get settled into our house, and an incredibly active winter up here, there just hasn't been much time to tend to this site. So, here's a quick update on Olivia. She's talking a lot better. She says some really cute things like, "Oops! Sorry!" and "Okay Dora TV?" when she wants to watch Dora. We're getting to the point that there's a power struggle when we take her out to the store (or anyplace else in public, for that matter). But Amanda is working on getting her in more social occasions and interactions and educating her on proper behavior when out in public. It's a work in progress. Here are some pics from the last couple months...

Olivia in the Snow

We have found Olivia loves to be out in the snow. This was toward the end of a rather long stint out in the snow. I'll post more videos of her out in the snow when the conditions are decent. And before anyone starts yelling at us for not having gloves on her, she doesn't like wearing them right now...but she is starting to understand the concept that mittens on your hands actually helps keep them warm...so she is starting to warm up to the idea (please excuse the pun).

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