Prayer

Dakota has been learning to pray on her own. I try to say bedtime prayers with her every night and then before meals as well. She's been folding her arms and closing her eyes for quite a while but has recently wanted to assist verbally.

She repeats a lot of the prayer when I say it and also likes to throw in her own blessings from time to time.

On Sunday, some family came over for dinner and my aunt was asked to offer the blessing. Dakota folded her arms and as Betty was saying the prayer, Dakota started interjecting with her own statements like, "Thank you food. Thank you hungry. Bless Grandma and Dave..." Finally, Betty paused to let her say her piece and Dakota rounded it up with, "THE END!!"

By then, we all couldn't help but giggle. I still tried to help her end it the proper way, but we all thought it was pretty cute.

Christmas Karaoke

We sang karaoke at Gma Yuk's house for Christmas. Dakota gave it a whirl.

First, she sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider". I propped her up on a chair, handed her the mic, showed her the computer and told her when the music starts that she can sing into the mic. The music started and when I tried to sing with her, she shooed me away saying, "Go away, go away, go away!!"

Later, Doug took her up to sing "Twinkle Little Star" and she did the same thing to him. She then requested "Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer".

She wanted to star all by herself. And she did. She sang the songs pretty well and without reservation.

I was pretty proud of her for being so brave and showing an interest in participating in such an intimidating activity.

Tinkerbell Christmas

With Dakota this year, everything for Christmas seems to be themed Tinkerbell.

The Christmas lights glowing are "tinkerbells"
Candles lit are "tinkerbells sleeping"
Jingle Bells are "Tinker-bells"
She asked Santa for a Tinkerbell tent
And she received the tent as well as a tinkerbell snuggie

Oh my little tinkerbell...

Drive me Crazy

Lately I've been saying a lot of this:
"Dakota, you DRIVE Mama CRazy sometimes!"

Yesterday was one such time...

Her response:
"Link dries Dakota CRazy son-tines!"

I had to laugh..

(Link is her cousin)

Oak'ey be so dangerous..

Oak knows how to climb UP stairs but not down. So we've been trying to keep him away from the stairs when we are upstairs. Dakota even knows and as soon as Oak even looks towards the stairs, she scolds Oakley "NO NO Oak'ey. No no stairs!" And she'll try to shut the door to the bedroom so he can't get out, or she'll pull on his clothes or almost strangle him trying to get him to stay put. I've been trying to teach her to be softer with him and that she doesn't have to boss him around that much. It's ok, if he looks towards the stairs LOL. Just don't let him go down etc...

So this morning I am in my room putting some clothes away and I thought the kids were playing in their bedroom. I could see the hall by the stairs and never saw them cross it. Suddenly, I hear Dakota saying "Help me! Help me! NO NO Oak'ey!!!"

So I reply by telling Dakota, "Leave him alone. It's okay." (Thinking they are in their room and she is mad that he is looking at the stairs or going anywhere near the door). I continue to hear her scolding him and start to worry she might be hurting him, so I start towards their room when I realize Dakota is at the top of the stairs. Lo and behold, they had crossed the hall w/o me noticing and Oakley was suspended head first down the stairs with Dakota pulling on the footy of his PJ's like they are reigns and holding on for dear life!

Thank you miss Dakota. THIS time you were so helpful! If it weren't for her, Oak would have tumbled down a full flight of stairs head first.

After I grabbed Oaklely, Dakota says, "Mama, Oak'ey be soooo dangerous!"

I had to agree. We also gave her tons of praise for being a great big sister.

Guess I'll have to keep a closer eye on those two than I thought!

Kas and Bape

We spend a lot of time with the kid's cousins and Lucy calls me 'Kas' all the time. Dakota is so use to being around her that she's started calling me 'Kas' interchangeably with 'Mama'.

Similarly, I call Doug 'Babe' most the time.

So, this morning, we were all laying in bed together and Doug and Dakota were having a pseudo pillow fight.

Dakota turns to me and says, "Kas, Bape hit Koda with a pillow."

Hahaha...