10 Months Old/January

We started January off by going to visit the Miedemas in Grand Rapids.  You got to spend lots of quality time with your cousins, Jack and Caroline.  It was really fun, now that you are older, seeing you all play together.  You and Jack do a good job of playing together while Caroline is a great nurturer.  She would often stop playing to give one of you a hug or sing a quick song.  I love seeing you develop these relationships with your cousins.
When we got back from Michigan, you and I promptly came down with a horrible virus of some sort and spent about a week stuck in the house.
We also got to meet your second cousin Aidan, who is 6 weeks younger than you.  Though he is younger than you, he looks at at least as old as you, and is probably a little bigger. We went out for lunch and everyone thought you were twins.  Your Dad's Aunt Sharon and I have vowed to get you two together a lot more often so that you two can get to know eachother as you grow up.  Plus, Sharon and I will take any good excuse to hang out with eachother.
At just over ten months old you finally prefer to crawl than hold onto things and walk.  You have discovered that crawling is way more efficient for you.  This means that I have to wash the floors once a day to keep all the mud that Joka tracks in off your hands and out of your mouth.  You are a little more shy now and are more attached to me than you used to be.  You get nervous around people that you don't know or haven't seen in a while, and will often cry if they so much as talk to you.  This is funny to me because you started out as a very outgoing kid.  I'm sure you will go back to being outgoing once this phase passes, but your shyness definitely catches people off-guard now.  You still love music, and anything that can be turned into an instrument.  Your favorite toys are the ones that you can bang together to make a sound, or ones that play music for you.  You will often turn the music on on your exersaucer, crawl away and play until it turns off, and then go back and restart it. You like to dance along to music also, which is really fun to watch.  You are getting really good at making your words sound close to what you are trying to say.  It seems that your annunciation is improving.   Your newest word is Joka (said:Goka) which I think you learned from jack while we were in Michigan-he says it almost non-stop when Joka is around.  You crawl after Joka saying Go-ka, Go-ka, Go-ka.  You LOVE Joka so I think you are happy to be able to call him when you want to see him.