Three and a Half

My little buddy Drake turned three and a half years old on Monday, August 11th. He is such a funny little ball of energy. He can be a little shy when he is in a new environment but will warm up quickly. He especially loves to be around older kids and thinks that he is able to do anything that they can do. Drake is one of the sweetest boys that I have ever met and really loves his little sister.

Try as we might, we rarely have found a way to burn his energy resources. He attends gymnastics once a week and will continue to do that into the fall. He is very strong and has amazing body control for someone his age. It often scares me to death because he can scale rocks and will do a flip over any bar he is able to reach (he especially tried my nerves when doing this over concrete). We have been trying to swim a few times a week this summer and he has made huge strides. At the beginning of the summer he did not want to get his head wet. Now he is able to jump into the pool, blow bubbles, go under water, and do basic swimming motions. He still is dependent on his water wings, but we are really happy with what he was able to do this summer.

Drake is in the 3 year old room and his main teacher is a woman named Ms. Robbie. They do a great job of letting the kids learn through creative play in addition to circle time where they read, learn numbers, and letters. Drake has started to form friendships with some of his classmates. His best little buddy is a boy named Marcos and he also really likes Marcos' brother Elijah (who is in the 4 year old class). Drake constantly talks about Marcos and Elijah and based on what their parents have told us, the feelings are mutual. 

We are starting to see that Drake has an amazing memory (I think it is going to be even better than mine). He is able to tell us things that he saw or did months or even years ago. A couple months ago we were driving by the elementary school and he said, "That's where I saw Santa". He was exactly right, we went to breakfast with Santa there...in 2012! It is comments like that which is is constantly making and they always seem to surprise us. He also is a creature of habit and can direct us almost anywhere in town and does not like when we stray from his regular routes.

Drake still loves to go to zoos and has really enjoyed the children's museums that we have gone to lately. He has started to get into superheros (Superman, Batman, and Justice League) but Wild Kratts and Go Diego Go are still his top preference for TV shows. He also really loves books and would love for us to read him a dozen a night if we would let him...which could also be a stalling technique. This past week when we were visiting his older cousins, he started playing with Lego's and fell in love. He is not really able to follow the directions yet to make the design, but he likes watching us do it while he works on a side project.