It’s happened before…Pop Critics spun off from A Mike Life, then Haboobing spun off (although it barely lasted a week) and now it’s time for Mike Olbinski Photography.

Why the new site? Well, the more and more I grow in my love for photography, the more I realize I want this to become something amazing for myself and my family. There is a lot of work and effort going into some of these photos and I want that to pay off somehow.

I’ve sold a couple of prints now and have heard from several other people that they’d like to buy some in the near future. That alone is enough for me to truly believe this may be more than just a few cool pictures I’m taking. I’m hoping that more and more people will like what I shoot and become fans.

For that reason, I’ve decided to separate my personal blog from my photography (other than family photos of course!) to help create a more professional image.

I now have a blog that uses the old them I had here, which you can find (and bookmark/sub to RSS) by visiting MikeOlbinski.com.

I’ve also set up a permanent photo gallery that comes complete with a shopping cart for e-commerce. You can find it by clicking right here. I’m sure you’ll bookmark it! Also you can subscribe to the RSS feed for it and get updates on the new photos I add to the gallery.

Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive of this hobby I’ve slowly discovered. It’s amazing how much passion I have for it. This spring I’m going stormchasing in the midwest in which I hope to capture some amazing clouds and storm structures, and then this summer during monsoon season here in Arizona I have a few day trips in mind to really capture the many stages of the thunderstorm season here in the desert.

If you have any questions or want more information, please email me or contact me with the comments below! Thanks so much!

Funny, when I was typing her name above, I automatically put “Elyla” first and couldn’t figure out what was wrong for a second there.

Old habits die hard.

So like I said, she’s moving around a lot, but I haven’t been able to feel it again since that first time, no matter how often we try.

According to our handy baby size emails that Jina gets, Lyla is the size of a Papaya and wont be changing much size-wise in the next coming weeks. At least, we’re in the range Week 22-24 now, and this is the fruit we get to cover that time period.

Here is what is going on with her now:

“Watch what you say — baby is now able to hear outside noise from down in the womb. Studies show that baby finds gentle music and your own voice most soothing. Nipples are starting to sprout, and that little face is fully formed. And, baby’s starting to settle into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day. It shouldn’t be hard to figure out when — just pay attention to those kicks as they start and stop.”

It’s almost perfect timing really, because football starts in about a month and if she can already hear noises from outside the womb, then she’s going to be a NFL fan in just a few weeks.

Jina is doing great though despite some increasing discomfort. We’re starting to get to work on the baby’s room and I finally hung some blinds up last night to keep the hot afternoon sun out of there.

Other than that, life is good. I just finished my last class at University of Phoenix on Monday, so a few tests are in order and I’m done with school.

But in reality, we really don’t have much in the way of coolness to update you with. Certainly no new ultrasounds for another 10 weeks, which really sucks. We got spoiled at the fertility clinic with TWO ultrasounds within a week of each other.

Today the baby is 10 weeks old, which is a nice round number. That’s the same number as Leandro Barbosa wears for the Suns, but I really am trying to ignore them right now.

Jina told me yesterday that the baby is the size of a prune now. If you want to see what it might look like, the handy dandy little animation up to the right should give you all you want, and maybe more. It’s actually a cool little applet.

Jina is doing well, but still pretty tired a lot. We went to see Iron Man last Friday at 4:50pm, we got home, ate dinner and turned on Battlestar Galactica, and I looked over and Jina was asleep already.

It was like 7:59pm.

That’s our MO right now. And I say OUR, because I figure I should to endure whatever she is feeling right now. So I eat a lot, sleep a lot and pretend to be in pain so I can get sympathy.

Kidding about the pain part.

But it sure is nice to eat and sleep more than usual!

Honestly, it’s been interesting because they say 50% of fathers end up with sympathy pains as they go through this, and not just pain, but stuff like being tired a lot.  Jina started not being able to sleep through the night, and for about a week, I kept waking up at odd times too. And it made me incredibly tired during the days.

Ah well…

We had our first OB appointment on Monday, and we go back for another one in four weeks.

We’ll keep you guys posted if anything exciting happens, like if the prune suddenly starts talking to us and says “I want to know who’s in the coffin on Lost daddy.”

We all do kid…we all do.