The Harris and Alston Family Go to the Zoo!!!

While Steve and Angie were here they got a Houston City Pass and saw a lot of the sites here in our southern town.  I didn't go with them to any of the attractions because I was too chicken to take Desmond to that many places, that far away for that many days.  I did, however, brave it with Wes on Saturday to hit up the zoo.  It was awesome, seriously one of the best days ever.

One of the first things we did was go to the petting zoo where Steve enjoyed sharing a story with us about some friend of his who was on death's bed practically after getting sick at a petting zoo.  Thanks Steve...thanks.  Really comforting.  They had these little (and incredibly nasty) brushes that the kids could use to comb the goat's fur.  Scarlett thought that was pretty fabulous.

Scarlett learned one of the perks of being a "big sister" while Kaitlyn was here...bossing the littler ones around.  You can see her imperious look here, I'm sure she felt she was showing Kaitlyn how it's done!

It started to pour down rain, so we headed for cover and got lunch.  These bursts of rain showers continued the rest of the day.  It would be sunny and pretty for an hour and then rain for 15 minutes.  So, please remember that as you take note of Scarlett's matted ratty hair in all further zoo pictures.  The rain ended up being kind of perfect because it kept us nice and cool in the July Houston heat.

The best part of the day was when we fed the giraffes.  That was pretty great!  I worried that maybe Scarlett would be scared, but it was definitely not a problem.

I couldn't believe how long their tongues were...and black.  They also had really cute long floppy eyelashes.  Overall, they were pretty adorable!

This is what Desmond and Wes did while we were feeding the giraffes.  The towels and blankets were to protect him from the rain.

The rest of the trip he did this.

I was a little worried it was because he had heat stroke but Wes assured me he was fine.  Turns out, he was right.  Thankfully.

Here's Scarlett checking to see if the zoo gift shop had anything good.  She decided that this drum was pretty much the best thing in the store.  After watching her bang on it for about 15 minutes (we were hiding out from the rain), I decided it was definitely NOT coming home with us.

Angie and I took the two girls to see Dora's 4-D Adventure.  Scarlett saw this wall and just about had a caniption.

 She went over and touched the wall for the entire time it took for us adults to buy tickets and decide who was going to stay with Desmond and who was going to go with the girls.

 She is currently obsessed with Dora and so this was the cherry on top of her zoo sundae.  Or so she thought, after Swiper the Fox sent a little robot butterfly out to take all of the rainforest's habitats, things took a turn for the worse.  Turns out having a little demon robot butterfly use its go go gadget arms to swing nets toward you in 3-D is a little scary for a two year old.  She climbed into my lap and refused to wear her 3-D glasses again.  A very large part of me hoped that this might cure her from her Dora obsession.  It didn't.


The zoo has this really cool aquarium with a tube going through it that the kids (and adventurous adults) can crawl through.  Its really cute and Scarlett enjoyed doing a circuit going through it and around and through it again about 20 times.

We found Nemo!

Here we are on the way to the car, right before she completely passed out the entire way back.  She was super happy and flushed with excitement from her day at the zoo.

This was one of only a handful of times that she's missed her afternoon nap in her lifetime.  She held up really well, we're just glad it didn't go down the way it did at Alcatraz when she missed her afternoon nap while visiting my dad .  I should have blogged about that trip.  Below is a little sample of what that day went like.

Happy Independence Day!

Our friends, Steve and Angie Alston are in town visiting us.  So, we decided to brave the early morning heat and go to our local 4th of July parade.

Hey Steve and Angie!

Their daughter Kaitlyn and Scarlett got prime seating for the parade.

Little Desmond slept through the whole thing including the bands, sirens, and music blaring at full volume.  It was pretty impressive.

Wes once again got very excited about the ambulance (called Waaambulance for some unknown reason) that was on big wheels.  So, we got a picture of that.  You can see it over Wes's left shoulder.

We also caught the fireworks display that night, Desmond slept through that as well.  He was pretty unimpressed by the 4th of July.  Scarlett and Kaitlyn, on the other hand, had a great time watching fireworks.  I wish we had gotten pictures of them, but we didn't.

I hope all of you had a great Independence Day as well!

Pictures of Desmond?

So, today my lovely mother was complaining about how I haven't posted very many pictures of Desmond yet.  I'm sure that many of you may feel the same way.  Let me demonstrate why there are so few pics of Desmond.

First of all, right now he has 3 main modes.

Mode 1 - Eating - I have no picture examples of this mode.

Mode 2 - Sleeping

Mode 3 - Screaming

For the rare, rare time I am able to actually catch him awake, such as in this picture...

Well, then a little phenomenon called Scarlett occurs.  You see, Scarlett really likes the camera and she is unable to even look at one of us holding the camera without falling to pieces.  Which makes it difficult for me to get pictures of her or Desmond.  Here is her little melt down she had today during my Desmond photo shoot.

I can only take so much of it before I just put the camera away and wonder why I do this to myself!


On an exciting note, today while Scarlett and Wes were off at the store I was able to have a mini photo shoot with Desmond. Here is what I got!


This is Desmond's bouncer.  He really loves those two birds.

He very carefully studies them anytime he's put in the bouncer.

Even here, he is still staring at that bird.  Isn't he so adorable though?  Enjoy these pics, who knows when I'll be able to get more!

Energy, Energy, Where have you been for the last 9 months?

The other day, before I had Desmond, I was talking to Wes and I said, "Either I am much more wimpy than the average woman, or pregnancies are just a lot harder for me than most women."  Now, I'm not sure which it is.  I guess the truth is, I don't want to know which one it is.  What I do know is that I hate being pregnant.  It's a testament to my love of Scarlett that I was willing to do it all again.  The morning sickness hit me even earlier this time at 6.5 weeks pregnant.  That's a whole week and a half sooner than it hit me with Scarlett.  From that point on in my pregnancies, my life is miserable.  I spend the next 8 months in a tired, nauseous, painful haze.  I think the last time I cooked a meal was when my in-laws were visiting in March.  I can't even remember the last time I did a load of laundry before having Desmond.  Poor, poor Wes had no idea what he was getting himself into when he married me and decided I was the one he wanted to procreate with.  To be fair, I didn't know either.  I'm very lucky to be married to the kind of man that Wes is.  Someone who's willing to go to work all day, then come home and help me cook, clean, bathe Scarlett, do laundry, etc. etc.  Toward the end of my pregnancy, I had honestly started thinking that I was just an incredibly lazy person.  I couldn't even remember what it was like to have energy and to feel good.  Wes would kindly remind me of my pre-pregnant self who would have dinner ready when he got home and do dishes while he played with Scarlett.  I was even following the Fly Lady's schedule and keeping our home very clean and organized.  All of that went to the wayside when I got pregnant.  However, the point to this sad tale is that this is no more!  While I am still very tired from getting up 2-3 times a night feeding a newborn, it is a normal tiredness.  Not the unnatural tiredness I felt during my pregnancy.  Our house has been clean all week, there are no dirty clothes in the laundry bins, I even changed the air filters today!  That's progress, people!  I'm excited to have my old self coming back.  Scarlett and I may even plant flowers in the front of the house next week!

A Family of Four

Last week, we added Desmond James Harris to our family.  He came on May 28th, one day before his due date.  Wes was out back with a friend working on installing a spa we recently acquired (for free!).  Scarlett was taking her afternoon nap and I decided to shower.  Afterwards, I felt super exhausted and slightly nauseas.  So, I called Wes to come get Scarlett up from her nap and take her outside with him and Victor.  Wes VERY reluctantly agreed because they had all sorts of tools and saws they were using laid out everywhere.  After he left, I laid down for about ten more minutes and then guilt set in about whether or not Scarlett would hurt herself or slow them down too much.  So, I got up, went down stairs and decided to quickly return an e-mail to my friend Lesly Morton when I had my first contraction at 4:05pm.  It immediately took my breath away and lasted for a minute.  The next one came 4 minutes later.  At my last appointment, my doctor told me that once they were 4 minutes apart, I should wait an hour and then go in.  I sent the e-mail and Wes came in right as I was having my 3rd contraction.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to wait an hour.  So, I told him to grab our bags because we were going to the hospital.  We left Scarlett with poor Victor who very graciously rose to the challenge and we headed out the door.  My sister and Alexsis were staying with us so they could watch Scarlett when I went into the hospital.  Luckily, they were only about 20 minutes away and were able to relieve Victor of babysitting duty.  


We walked through the doors of Labor and Delivery at 4:26.  They asked how long I had been having contractions and were very unimpressed when I told them 20 minutes.  They sauntered me over to a triage room and had me get into one of their lovely hospital gowns.  She checked on me and I was already dilated to a 7 and had a "bulging bag"—which means my water was about to break.  At that point they kicked into high gear.  After seeing me to the triage room Wes had quickly moved the car from the entrance to the parking lot.  He barely caught them wheeling me to a delivery room.  They kept telling me that I was the exception to the rule and that if I told my friends how fast I had come in they would have seventy moms coming into the hospital way too early. 


They debated on whether or not they should call the doctor.  My doctor wouldn't be coming since it was Memorial Day, so I  had to use the on call doctor.  Which was fine with me.  As long as she could get the baby safely out of me.  At 5:15, I got the epidural and that slowed me down a lot.  The anesthesiologist gave me a large dose because they knew I was going to be having the baby very soon and he wanted it to take effect.  However, it took a little too good of an effect, because I got the chills, my lips turned blue, my blood pressure dropped drastically, and I couldn't move my legs at all.  So, I had him come in and lower the amount of medicine he was giving me.  He wasn't very gracious about it.  I don't think he liked that I wasn't 100% happy with his administration of the epidural.  He did as I asked though, and immediately everything leveled back out and I felt better about having control of my legs again.  


At 7:07pm the doctor came in to break my water.  At 7:17, Desmond was born.  He's got a head full of peach fuzz, white eye lashes, and white eye brows.  He's got a perfect little nose, a perfect little mouth, and a perfect little round head!