A Day in the Life of Herbert

I have been waiting a long time to have something written about me on the blog. After all it is called Tyson, Karen, Lilly and DON’T FORGET THE DOG. Well apparently I have been forgotten. The only time I am mentioned is part of a side story for Lilly….Lilly, Lilly, Lilly. So, since I have obviously been ignored I decided to do my own blog posting. Here we go…

A Day in the Life of Herbert Harris
6 years old - human years
42 years old - dog years

This is me

Hi, I am Herbert. My family calls me Herbert, Herbie or poopers. I use to be the head honcho here in the Harris household but now I am only ‘the dog’. I start my day off by going potty outside. That’s right, I am a real dog now and I go potty outside on the lawn. After my potty break I come in and stand next to Lilly while she is eating her breakfast. She is really messy and it is my job to clean up whatever she drops, even if I get in trouble for eating people food. 

After Lilly’s breakfast I spend some time sleeping on the couch. I like to sleep on the arm rest, up on the back of the couch like a cat, or on the blanket. If I get too close to Lilly she starts yelling at me…”No, dog, no” and pushes or kicks me out of my spot. She isn’t very nice to me sometimes. That is why whenever she tries to cuddle with me I start growling at her until she goes away. We have a hate/love relationship.  

See hate/love

After my morning nap on the couch I go upstairs and nap in the bed. A dog can never have enough sleep. Once I am done with that nap I am ready to spend some time eating and playing outside. I follow Lilly in and out of the house. I bark at any other dogs that are outside and I chase people that go along the path at the back of the house. I use to be able to get under the fence and really chase after the people on the path. I would give them a good scare. But then my sneak-out spot was found and blocked off.

This is me enjoying the new backyard.



I also spend a lot of time during the afternoon following Lilly around. She often carries around treats. I have to make sure nothing falls on the floor. Every once in awhile she will have something in her hand and if she gets it really close to my face it is my chance to pounce and eat it. I know she would eventually drop it so it is my responsibility to eat it. After I eat it she yells at me again, “No dog no”.

This is how I watch Lilly to make sure she doesn't drop something.

Once Daddy gets home and we all celebrate it is time for more napping. Once Lilly goes to bed I have free rang of the house, I can sleep anywhere I want, and sit on anyone’s lap I want. At bedtime I get to sleep in the big bed. I usually cuddle with Mommy and she likes it.

Without Lilly to bug me I can cuddle with any toy I want.

My hardest time during the day is when everyone has to leave. I get locked upstairs. I have a couple of accidents downstairs and next thing I know my wondering rang is restricted. I do try to be a good dog but I am a Chihuahua – really, what were they expecting?

Riverboat Cruise

We went on a riverboat tour of the Mississippi River. It was a lot of fun! It was hot and I had to chase Lilly around the boat but it was still enjoyable. They even played old riverboat music. We had a free ticket from the summer reading program so it only cost $15 for our whole family. Here are some pictures.

Our stylish Lilly

This is the bridge Tyson drives over every day to get to work and we drive over on Sunday to get to church.

These are some things we saw on our way.

She is pretty cute.

This was our boat.

I have been enjoying living on the Mississippi River. There is a lot of history in this area.

Lilly's Tricks

A Day in the Life of Lillian Louise

A Day in the Life of Lillian Louise
At 19 months

It has been a long time since I got to blog and tell you about myself. A lot has changed in 15 months. I am walking, talking, going to nursery, fighting with Herbie and sometimes being naughty. I no longer sleep all day long. I only take one nap.

I start off the morning with Mommy coming and getting me around 8:00 am to 9:00 am (yes, I sleep that long). I am still a really good sleeper and I still smile whenever I see Mommy come in. Once I am awake Mommy and I go down stairs while she starts work. I need about 15 minutes to wake up before I am ready for breakfast. For breakfast I have a yogurt, a handful of cereal or toast and jam, and some milk.

After breakfast I sit next to Mommy and watch some cartoons on TV while she is working. I love Mickey Mouse’s Playhouse and saying “Oh Toodles” whenever the rest of the characters do. I also love watching Pluto the dog jump up and down. It makes me giggle. Usually I watch about 15 minutes next to Mommy and then I get board so I start playing with toys.

My favorite game is to get an empty basket and some small toys and filling up the basket with the toys, dumping them out, and then filling it up again. I also like to pile as many toys as I can right next to Mommy while she is working. Some toys that I like are dolls, stickers and coloring, balls, puzzles, and my baby stroller.   

Sometimes while Mommy is working I get kind of lonely so I want to sit on her lap or sit on the armrest with her arm around me. It makes it very difficult for Mommy to work and she starts getting really frustrated until she moves me back to my spot. However, overall, I do pretty well during the mornings.

Around 12:00 pm I eat my lunch (usually a sandwich) and then Mommy puts me down for a nap. I won’t go up to my nap until I find my binky and give Herbie a kiss.

I sleep for about 2 hours and then I am up and ready to play. By this time Mommy is done with work so we can do fun stuff. Some things we do together are playing outside, going to a friend’s houses, running errands, going swimming, or hanging out at the Family Museum. Mommy does a pretty good job at keeping me entertained.

After some play time we head back home and clean up the house and get ready for dinner. I am an excellent helper with both. I help with wiping the table, changing laundry, and picking up my toys. I can also throw things in the garbage when I am asked to. When it is time to make dinner I like to help pour and stir things. If I am not helping, I cry at Mommy’s leg until she picks me up and lets me help. I am a little naughty at dinner time.  

Once everything is ready to eat I make sure to remind Mommy and Daddy to say a prayer before eating.

After dinner I play for an hour or so until it is 7:30 and time to get ready for bed. Then comes bathing, teeth brushing, pajamas, book, prayers, kissing goodnight, singing and bed. I liked to be tucked in bed tight and surrounded with stuffed animals.

On the weekends I spend time with Mommy and Daddy working on the house or exploring the Quad Cities. On Sunday we got to church. I am getting better sitting quietly during Sacrament. I also go to nursery. I still cry a little bit when Mommy leaves but then I calm down and have a good time with the other kids. It is way better than sitting through the adult classes. 

Happy 4th

We had a very hot and humid but nice 4^th of July. We started the day by going to the parade. Lilly was so good at waiving at everyone as they went by and putting the candy in her bag. Sometimes she would get so wrapped up in putting candy in her bag that she would miss something in the parade.

After the parade and a nap we went to the carnival. It was so hot that we only spent about 30 minutes there. We let Lilly play in the bouncy house.  She was too scared to move past the door.  It is times like this that we really miss older cousins that can help. She also spent time in the little petting zoo and took a ride on the train. We called it quits after that and went back to our cool house.

We had scheduled to go to a BBQ with some members of the ward but earlier in the day we noticed that Lilly had an odd rash. Since she had a fever the day before we figured that the rash was semi serious and had to cancel our plans so we didn’t spread her disease. (We went to the doctor on Thursday and Lilly has Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. This is extremely contagious so I am glad we didn’t go.)

Since we canceled our plans we ran to the firework stand and got some sidewalk fireworks. Lilly didn’t like them much. She was a little scared of being too close. She held a sparkler for a couple of seconds but that was as daring as she got.

Father's Day

On Father’s Day weekend we took Lilly to the John Deere Pavilion. The Pavilion is a free attraction and has John Deere equipment that people can touch and climb in/on. There is also a kids learning section that had a craft, toy cows they could milk, video games, free treats, and table puzzles and play tractors. It was nice to be able to walk in, let go of Lilly’s hands, and let her run around. Lilly’s favorite part was climbing into the really big machines especially if she had to climb up stairs to get there.

After exploring the Pavilion we went over to the John Deere gift shop and let Lilly play with all the John Deere toys.

For Father’s Day Tyson requested that I make him potato salad and rolls to go along with his BBQ. I said no to the rolls since I have no desire to make rolls from scratch. However, I said yes to the potato salad. My family knows how much I love my mom’s potato salad and since I live so far away I thought it was time for me to learn to make it.

It was a success. I think it was easy for me to get the flavor right just because I am so ‘in-tune’ with the flavor. Haha. Tyson maybe had one bowl full of the salad and I eat the rest myself.

On Sunday it was such a beautiful day we spent most of the afternoon outside, in the backyard. I brought out a blanket and was relaxing. Next thing I knew Lilly had went inside, climbed the stairs, found her blanket in her dresser, came back down the stairs, and laid it out next to mine.  After another couple of minutes she went back inside and gathered some dolls to sit with her on her blanket. It was so cute. Look how happy Lilly and Herbie are.

Moved In