Color Wheel

After requests from loyal followers, I have changed the color template of Dragon's Digest. I hope you enjoy the new scheme and all of our "elderly" readers get a break on the eye strain that was occuring with the brown color. Now you can easily enjoy reading about all of our adventures!

Where the Wild Things Are

Saturday we took a trip to Hollywild, which is an animal park north of Greenville. The name Hollywild came about because many of the animals are movie and TV stars! As we walked around the park, each enclosure had a list of appearances for the animals, many of which we had never heard of. A lot of the park is like a petting zoo where guests have a chance to interact with and feed the animals.  

While Drake is still a bit young to take in all of zoos or animal parks, he is becoming more interested with each visit we make. This trip, he was especially interested in the horses and the peacocks. 

The park also takes guests on a safari ride through a 70+ acre area where the animals are roaming free. Our safari was a bit delayed because Baby Girl, one of the buffalo, had escaped when the gate was opened for one of the other safari buses.

Baby Girl was finally corralled again and we were off! When I was little, we used to go to a animal park in Texas where they had a safari, and I was expecting something similar. I remember that park being more African animals and while this had some, there were also deer, cows, and horses.

Genevieve, David, and Drake's head

Drake watching the cows in the pond while we wait on Baby Girl to move

Apparently emus have very bad eyesight an, so the crackers had to be put on the ledge to prevent the loss of a finger!

Swing, Playground, Zoo, Playground, Swing, Hole in the Hose

We did not have much planned this weekend, so we were able to spend a lot of time playing and working around the house. Saturday was a day of swinging, the playground, the zoo, the playground (again), and finally the swing (again).

Our morning started with breakfast at the Pendleton Cafe. When we tried to go last weekend, the ONE highchair that they have was in use, so we walked out. This weekend we had a bit of an early start and were able to procure the highchair, so we were able to enjoy our breakfast.

After breakfast, while David was watering the Greenhouse, Drake and I went for a walk that ended at the playground. We were the only people there and Drake showed me that he is really perfecting his playground skills. He did more alone then he ever has before, including going down the slide by himself and getting off the slide. Once other kids came, he was more interested in observing their activities, but he seemed to enjoy himself.

One of Drake's playground skills is climbing up the slide

My softball game Saturday was canceled, so after the park and Drake's lunch (and his inability to take a nap), we got in the car and headed to the Greenville Zoo. This was the first visit that all three of us made to the zoo and Drake seemed a bit more interested in the animals than when we first went in March.

The leopard seemed quite interested in Drake

In the evening, we went outside of our daily post-dinner swing. Drake has a lot of fun with his swing and just flies through the air!

Yesterday, while David was feeding plants, Drake found a hole in the hose. At first he just stood near the water and slowly inched closer. As his clothes got wet, I pulled them off and let him have fun. Who knew a hole in a hose could be so much fun?

15 Months

It has been a while since I have given an update on Drake's growth and development. We went to the doctor this morning for his 15 month check, so I have some new stats!

Height: 32.5 inches (90th Percentile)
Weight: 22 pounds 15 ounces (57th Percentile)

So, as you can see from his size, Drake is a big boy. He really looks more like a 2 year old than a 15 month old and everyone always guesses older than he really is. He is wearing 2T shirts and pajamas and 18-24 month pants. He still has a little waist, although his belly is the biggest that I have ever seen it to be!

He know has eight teeth (four front top and bottom) and just this week, one of his bottom right molars starting to come through. The doctor said today that all his molars are coming in now, so I guess he will soon have a mouth full of teeth.

By his size and maintaining his weight, you can guess that Drake is a relatively good eater. He does not like meat too much but loves fruit. I think he would eat fruit all day long if we let him. I need to be more creative in my meal planning for Drake, but it is tough when I spend time making him something that he then he has no interest in eating.

Drake is very busy. I do not think that he slows down, when he is awake, for more than a minute. As he always has, he loves to be outside. As soon as we get home, he wants to walk right back out the door to play. We now have a swing in he backyard, which will hold his attention for a long time. As you picture it, think baby swing on steroids. While it is a baby swing, it is on a rope that is fixed to a tree about 50 feet in the air. Our neighbors say they love watching him swing because form when we push him to when he comes back to us, they are unable to see him for a good 4 seconds.

We have also learned that Drake loves music and to dance. On the rare occasions that we are inside, we turn the music on and Drake just dances. He has a move where it points his index finger (sometimes with one hand, sometimes with two) and moves his arm up and down to the beat and bounces at the knees. It really is an amusing sight.

Drake still does not say many words, although he talks almost constantly. He can say dog, car, ball, bye, mama, and dada. He knows a lot of signs though, so we are typically able to figure out what he wants. He waves bye bye and has started to blow kisses.

Drake has so much personality and still loves to be around other people. He get s bit shy for a few minutes when he sees people that he is not familiar with, but that does not last long and he is soon smiling at everyone he sees. He is going to keep staying with the woman that has watched him since I went back to work at 8 week through the middle of July and then in August, he will start a daycare center with other kids. I think he is ready to have more social interaction and although he will be the youngest in his class this year, it will be the only time that he is the youngest in his classroom for the rest of his life.

Drake has so much personality and is so much fun to be around. We love this little guy so much!

First experience eating a Firehouse sandwich (Free on Sundays!)

Your Little Hands Wrapped Around My FInger

We went to Florence this past weekend to visit David's parents, so I was able to take recreate a picture that we had taken almost to the day last May. It is amazing to see how much Drake has grown in a year!

May 7, 2011



May 6, 2012

Soak Up the Sun

Last summer, my sister, Genevieve, gave Drake a baby pool. When he first got it, he still could not sit up all on his own and then when he could start to use it, we just never pulled it out. Finally, this past weekend, I got it out of the box, we got it blown up, and filled it with water.

At first, Drake wasn't too sure about it. Although he loves the bath and has started blowing bubbles in his bath water, I'm not sure if he could understand the whole outside pool with cool water. He finally started to splash around and loved to get in and out of the water. He had a great time, and it is nice to have a little pool to cool off in. I'm sure we will also crash apartment pools this summer, but for now, this will work great!

Picture Page

We have not really done anything exciting of late, but here are a few pictures from the last couple of weekends.