Reflections Contest Winners and Dakota-ims

YAY! Both Brooklyn and Makenna won the Award of Excellence (1st Place) in their division for their Reflections entries. We went to the Awards Ceremony last week where each of them received medals and cool prizes. Makenna received a $20 gift certificate to Mapleton Floral and Gifts. Brooklyn won 2 tickets to the Utah Regional Ballet to see "La Coquette" on Saturday (the 17th) and 2 tickets to the Art City Playhouse to see "It's a Wonderful Life" during the Christmas Holiday. The donors were very generous this year. The lady in charge of collecting donations received over $5,000 worth of prizes. WOW! The participants and winners all got several other coupons from various places for free stuff, as well. But, Brooklyn and Makenna were most excited about their medals. Darin has pics of the event on his camera. I'll try to post them soon.

Until then, I have some more Dakota-ism:

This morning I was pouring cereal (Honey-nut Cheerios) into Dakota's bowl. After I added the milk (and no sugar) she said, "We can't put sugar on this cereal because it has holes, right?" I said, "No, it's because it already comes with sugar on it." "But we don't put sugar on it because it would fall through the holes," she concluded.

Two nights ago, Darin found Dakota sleep walking in the middle of the night. She was downstairs wandering around the family room in the dark. He said it took him a few minutes to wake her up, and then he put her back to bed. Last night, I questioned Dakota about it. I told her that she was sleep walking and asked if she remembered it at all. She said, "Did I have my eyes open?" "Yes," I responded, "but the lights were off and you were downstairs walking around in your sleep." "Oh, I was just looking for my bear blankie, my leopard, and my baby. And I scooped them up in my arms and went to bed." I said, "No, you were just walking around mumbling in the dark, by yourself and Daddy had to come get you and put you to bed, but he had a hard time waking you up." "I was all by myself? downstairs in the dark? with no one else?" she asked surprised. "Yes, you must have been sleep walking," I responded, because she wouldn't be caught dead in a dark room all by herself. She gets too scared. Dakota could not understand the concept of sleep walking. She kept saying that she remembered getting up and doing this or that (all with the lights on) and some re-tellings even included her sisters playing with her, knocks at the door, Liam walking behind her, real people on the couches, and lots of people bringing cereal into the house. "No," I said, "you were all alone, in the dark, walking around and talking to yourself. You were sleeping with your eyes open and walking around in the dark." "No! I wasn't sleep walking!" she finally yelled! "I was trying to find a drink of water!" I decided there was no need for further questioning. Dakota could not accept it, nor do I think she could really understand the concept of sleep walking.