The Hehschnihops

On Christmas Eve

Elise's Christmas Show

Long time no blog, its been a busy and great year!

This is Elise's entertaining appearance in her Christmas show with her classmates from Ahren's.

If you click on the video it will launch it in youtube where you watch it full screen.

video updates

here are a series of videos recently transferred from our camera to the computer and internet:

1) here Elise is dancing with the Monster which uncle Phil and aunt Kari sent her last year for christmas - as we phrase it, she is "dancing the monster":


2) here Elise is briefly running across the room in her "freaky chicken" pose, which she often uses as a dance, also she dances the monster:


3) here is some video of the christmas tree, presents, and Elise's reaction to encountering presents on christmas morning:


4) here is a video of our last morning up in Big Bear just before christmas (and the day after we got to make some powder turns at Snow Summit). Jessica, Jake, and Elise went tubing. Thats Jake with the white jacket and bangs, and thats Elise tubing and trudging along with her mom, all bundled into the lime green snowsuit pink hat and pink boots:


hope you enjoy these videos.
we wish you a very healthy, happy, and prosperous new year!

Before its too late...

Just in case anyone is still out there...sorry for the long hiatus. I knew it had been a long time since we blogged, but I didn't really realize how long until I saw the pictures I posted in my last entry. So, I was thinking I better hurry up and blog before its too late and the kids look so different you'd never recognize them. So, before a quick update on what exactly we've all been doing since Elise's last birthday, I thought I should catch you up with what the kids look like today, here they are...

This picture (above) was actually taken a couple of months ago. Eric had taken the kids hiking in the San Bernardino National Forest to an aspen grove. This picture was taken in a meadow where they stopped for a little snack break. A couple more recent ones appear below:

The above picture was taken at Forest Falls, just a little under a month ago (11/25/09). (And, yes, that is Jake under there!) This next one of Elise was taken on the day she turned 22-months-old (12/2/09).

Alright, so here's the scoop on what we've been up to...

First, as you can see, the kids have been growing like crazy! Jake is now about 6 ft 1, has surpassed his uncle Tim in height, and is now officially the tallest person in our family. As you can imagine, he's quite pleased. With regard to our recent move, I must say, he has handled the move to Redlands much better than what I would have at his age. He's a real trooper. Since we've moved here, he's taken up playing bass and is pretty darn good at it! He's made it half way through his sophomore year of high school - it's been somewhat of a struggle for him, but I think he's finally buckled down and taken on a more serious (and studious!) attitude. We'll have to keep you posted on that one! I am proud of him, though, and I am hopeful that he'll keep it up!

Elise - well, she hasn't been to the doctor lately so I don't know how tall she is or exactly how much she weighs, but I can tell you that she has definitely been growing lately. Eric has tried to weigh her and estimates her weight at around 30 pounds. I know she's gotten taller, but I haven't been able to get her to cooperate and stand in the doorframe so I can try to mark her height. Her 2T pants, which still require rolling the pants legs up some, are no longer 6+ inches too long for her to wear (at least not comfortably -and safely! - navigate in).

She's definitely made a lot of progress on the talking front - especially in the last few weeks. She's still pretty much in the "holophrase" (one-word) stage, but has been putting 2 words together more and more often. Jake, Eric, and I have been keeping a list of all the words she says, including: doggy, wa-wa (water), hat, shoes, up, baby, dubbily (her bear, a.k.a. bubbily-ubbily), tub, bubbles, book, seat (to refer to both a chair and the act of sitting down), bib, help, etc. etc. for a total of over 40 words.

She's also been trying to dress herself lately and is much more successful at the undressing part. She's getting better at putting her shoes and socks on, but still tends to get both legs in the same pants leg hole when trying to put on her pants. Shirts pretty much just get draped over her head or around her neck, but every once in a while she'll get her head through the neck hole.

Eric and I have been super busy since graduating and moving to Redlands - hence, such a long hiatus from blogging. I just finished my first semester teaching at University of Redlands. It still surprises me that I like teaching as much as I do. I never really thought I would. Anyway, overall, I think my first semester went pretty well. I have to say, though, that I'm definitely relieved to have made it through and am looking forward to filing grades and taking some time off to hang out with the family. We rented a cabin in Big Bear and are leaving for the snow-covered mountains in just a couple days. It should be a great time - Eric is looking forward to finally getting a chance to ski again, Jake wants to learn how to snowboard, and I'm looking forward to going tubing with Elise and spending some time in the jacuzzi!

Finally, saving the best news for last...Eric recently got a job offer from Chapman University! He starts in January and is pretty excited about the opportunity. It is a post-doc position conducting research alongside some experimental ecomonists as well as teaching a class in the psychology department. Overall, they (i.e., both the economists and psychologists) seem very interested in what he has to offer, so it bodes very well for him and is definitely well-deserved!

For more pictures of Elise and the family, check out my picasa album at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jahehman

I couldn't resist just one last thing before I go...We had the pleasure of having the Patricks (my brother Tim, his wife Liz, and daughter Brianna) come visit us for Thanksgiving. Here is a picture of Elise (on the right) and her cousin, Bri (on the left), giving each other a hug on Thanksgiving morning.

Elise is 1 year old!

Yesterday was Elise's first birthday - my, how time has flown by! She had her 1-year-old checkup at the doctor's today - she weighs 21 pounds 6.5 ounces, she is 28.75 inches long, and her head circumference is 18 inches (all of which are either slightly above or below the 50th percentile).


Last Saturday we had the Niehaus' over - Jeff, Jayne, and Kurt - to help celebrate her birthday. I made up some fingerpaints (which ended up being the consistency of mashed potatoes) and we let the kids go at it. (I was surprised that it was much less messy than I was anticipating.)

Unfortunately because my hands were also covered in finger paints, I wasn't able to get any good pictures of that experience. I did, however, get some pictures of the kids eating cupcakes...


...and playing.

Elise chased Kurt around, smacking him on the head and occasionally trying to give him a kiss. Fortunately, Kurt was a great sport about taking Elise's attention or else I'm sure it could have turned into a very ugly baby brawl mess! Kurt never got upset, though. He seemed to take the strategy of trying to ignore her, and, when that didn't work, he'd try to escape and get away from her. Unfortunately, for Kurt, there was only so far he could go and Elise was always right behind him!

Finally, here is a picture of Elise on her new bouncing zebra toy that she received as a birthday gift from Grandma and Grandpa Schniter.


I think she had a very happy 1st birthday!

Mobilizing

It took little more than a week for Elise to go from just a few steps to being able to cross the house on two feet alone.




The music is We're All Connected from MMW's totally awesome kids album, Lets Go Everywhere - highly recommended for parents and kids!

Toddling into the new year!

Its been forever since we have posted anything on our blog. The holidays consumed us for a while, with grandparents in town, and a lot of activities beyond the normal routine. This news event was quite worthy of a posting, though:

In the past week of this new year, and since Elise has turned 11 months, she has been taking her first steps! She seems to be quite proud at times, looking to us with a big smile after successfully taking two or three steps on her own. It seems like everyday she is spending more and more time traversing the house, usually with one hand out touching the wall on occasion for balance, but also with her new little push-toy/car/walker thing which she holds on to and walks behind (until it crashes into a wall).

Here she is going up and down the hall, and working on some of those first steps:

Cruising, crawling, and sloppy kisses at 9 months

Elise is 9 months old today! And, over the past month, she's been one darn cute, sloppy-smooching, raspberry-blowing, drum playing, cruising (walking while holding onto furniture, etc.), and crawling girl!


She's given up the belly crawl for crawling on all fours. She still loves to pull herself up to a standing position and has been cruising around the furniture, walls, baby gate, dressers, bookshelves, etc. for a while now.


She's also started giving "kisses" over the past few weeks -- big, sloppy, drooly, open-mouthed kisses. They are definitely kisses, though, because she occasionally even makes the "mmm-waa" kissing sound. Sometimes, when she's feeling especially goofy, she'll even blow raspberries on our cheeks, necks, arms, whatever piece of skin she can get her mouth on.


She still says "mama" and "dada" pretty indiscriminately, but it is starting to seem like its correlating more and more with the correct person. Jake is convinced that she is trying to say his name, too. It kind of sounds like "hike" (some combination of "hi" and "jake"?), but he may be right. She does seem to say it almost exclusively when he is around.

I love these next two pictures...

Elise's First Halloween

Elise got to experience her first Halloween out of the womb. She fell asleep just as the first trick-or-treaters were trickling by (kind of late - after 6:30 - our last group was by at 9:15 !), but was up an hour later, and in her "anatomically incorrect chimpanzee suit" (called such because it has a tail, but chimps and apes don't have tails). Dad was a spooky vampire, and mom was a gypsy. Jake who got back from a cross-country track meet in the evening was already in costume, and so he was a "cross-country man" for Halloween. Our pumpkin was even in disguise - as Jack Skellington. Here are some pictures of this year's home-based festivities.

Elise's 1st camping trip

Elise went on her first camping trip with her dad this past weekend, where we met up with on old friend of Eric's and new friend of Elise's: Geoff. Unfortunately Jessica couldn't make it because she had to conduct some research and was also volunteering along with Jake at the local senior center.

The camping trip was to Pinnacles National Monument. We spent Saturday relaxing at our campspot. Elise got to meet Geoff for the first time, and enjoyed her opportunities to pull on his beard, and to get some botany lessons. Hopefully she retained the most important message which Geoff kept repeating: "these plants are good for looking at, but not for eating..."


On Saturday, after getting our camp set up and getting Elise well fed and settled into the great outdoors we went on a little practice-hike with her in her new backpack carrier. It worked out great, she was excited to have a great vantage from up above and soon was asleep with the motion of her dad walking along.


That evening Elise got to see her first camp-fire which she was mesmerized by --but after about 15 minutes, she was out like a light. The night got very cold, but bundled in her bear-suit, lots of fleece blankets, and sharing her dad's sleeping bag, she managed to stay snug and toasty. The morning was quite chilly, and she was content to pass the first few hours tucked away where she knew it was the warmest:


We made breakfast, and let Elise play in her corral a bit before heading out on our hike.


On the hike, we saw tarantulas, and enjoyed many nice vistas from the high peaks.


Elise slept most of the way up, and woke up as we neared the ridge line. She was quite excited at the top and was hooting and making all sorts of happy-sounds. It was pretty cool to think that she was enjoying the same gratifying "on-top-of-the-world" emotions that drives us out-door lovers to climb to high places with beautiful vistas.






Now we are back to our usual. Elise is cozy at home, and mom, dad, and Jake are busy with their school work, and all the other demands of day-to-day humdrum. Fond memories of this outing just might be creeping into her daydreams- I know they certainly do with mine.

Elise is 8 months old!

Its hard to believe, but, yes, Elise is 8 months old today.

She is still doing her belly-crawl, but has recently started pulling herself to a standing position. Who knows -- maybe she'll start walking without ever crawling on all fours.

Besides standing, one of her other new favorite things to do is to crawl through her Ocean Wonders tunnel.

She's recently started cutting her two top teeth (consistent with her bottom teeth, they are coming in at the same time). The tip of the tooth on the right finally poked through the gum yesterday, and by the looks of it, the other one is not going to be too far behind.

Elise and I recently took a trip to Cincinnati to see some family. She was awesome on the plane -- actually, all 5 planes we rode due to layovers, switching planes, etc. She slept a lot, would wake up occasionally - smile, laugh, and talk to people around us - then go back to sleep.

On our first flight from Santa Barbara to Santa Cruz, there were very few other passengers so she got to sit by herself for a little while. Here she is intently watching the safety information video before takeoff...what a good little traveler, huh?


She seemed to have a great time in Cincinnati --playing with cousins and our good friends the Hooks, seeing aunts and uncles, and hanging out with Nana. And, of course, they all seemed to really enjoy spending time with her too. Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip, and as you'll see, she definitely was not lacking in attention.

Here she is being held by her cousin Marley...
Here she is being taken for a walk by her cousin Rainey...

Here she is with India (daughter of a close friend), who was reading her a story...

Here she is sitting next to her cousin Brianna, who (although you can't really tell) is 7 weeks younger than Elise...

and, last but not least...here she is hanging out with with my mom, her Nana...