Mason Shoma

My doggy is nice and cuddly, but I barely ever cuddle with him. To be honest, I am a bit too rough when I play with him. Poor doggy.

The weather was so nice that we went for another picnic today. And that meant Mommy and Daddy went crazy with the picture taking again. There were a bunch of nice ones, but one stood out. It was a pièce de résistance. It was magnifique. It was just…

Don’t I look like I’m doing the chef’s kiss? After all, I did just finish a very delicious rice cracker snack. It was oh so délicieux!

Here are some other pictures of me at our picnic in the park, enjoying my snack.

Today I tried oyaki. There weren’t any new ingredients, it was just stuff I have had before in a different form. Think of it as a baby pancake. It is suppose to help me work on biting, chewing and feeding myself. Mommy and Daddy were worried that I was going to wolf down the thing whole so Daddy is helping me out this time. I did pretty good with the biting and chewing. I even fed myself quite well when Daddy tore off small pieces for me and placed them between my thumb and forefinger just right. The main thing is that it tasted good and filled my tummy. Yum!

Sometimes I’m so tired that even though I wake up for my midnight bottle, I go straight back to sleep as soon as I finish it. Well, it’s not like I’m awake for very long. Recently I finish my 200ml (6.76oz) bottle of formula in less than 4 minutes. I usually get burped after, but tonight I fell asleep as soon as the bottle was empty. But it is that much different than my usual night. It is pretty much wake up, cry out, get bottle, chug bottle, burp like Homer Simpson, and then drift back to sleep.

Whew! Pulling up to standing is quite a workout. It is not as easy as it looks. Must rehydrate.

I tried green peppers today. They are one of the most common foods that kids in Japan don’t like. I thought they were alright, if not pretty good. Then I had a really good taste. Nah, this is not my favorite. In fact, I might not like them. I might have to agree with all the Japanese kids before me. Green peppers, not so great.

When I wake up and am set free on the floor, I make my presence known. I immediately play with my toys and effectively scatter them across the floor. Then I explore, or more accurately re-explore everything around me on the floor. There are still limits to where I can go, as there are barriers put up to keep me in the living room. But I’ll get around them someday. Or under them, or over them, or right through them. For now, I guess I’m floorbound and contained.

With all the solid foods that I’m eating now, two meals a day, I don’t get nursed as much as before. But when I do, I take it very seriously. Very seriously.

Ojisan had to go back to Tokyo today, so we went to see him off at the airport. I have never been to an airport before. It was not that exciting at first when it just looked like a lot of people pulling heavy looking things. Then I saw the airplanes! They are so cool looking. I saw some take off, I saw some land, and I saw some just sitting there looking cool. I can’t wait until I get to ride one of them.

But it wasn’t only the airplanes that I was interested. I was pretty curious about some kids that I saw. I might cry a lot when I meet grown-up strangers, but when I see kids, I just want to meet them and play with them.

With so many milestones in my development accomplished, I have to look forward to the next one, which is standing. I have pretty strong legs and can hold my self upright if Mommy or Daddy do the balancing for me. They have to be careful, because sometimes it looks like I am doing well holding my weight on my legs and then my knees just buckle. Balancing and keeping my legs straight is pretty hard, but I’ve been working on it. I’ve also been working at getting up to standing all on my own. The main reason is that there are so many interesting things (that Mommy and Daddy don’t want me to touch) that would be within reach if I could stand. So that’s my next goal. I haven’t quite got it yet, but I’m getting close.

I’ve been working so hard that sometimes I need a break from working on standing up.

It’s a bit embarrassing, but I don’t have much hair on the back of my head. It is quite common with babies during their first year. It usually comes from them rubbing their head when they sleep. I’ve been sleeping on my tummy every night for about a month so I hope my hair decides to grow back. Until then, I just have to cover it up with my top hair. If I don’t, it looks like I’m wearing a hair piece.

I had just finished my dinner and was brushing my teeth when I heard Daddy listening to some kids’ songs on his computer. I thought they were really catchy and I just had to dance along to them. Recently I’ve been doing this head shake thing. I usually do it when I’m just happy in general, but that often happens when I hear music. So I’m literally moving from head to toe when I am happy. Look at these moves!

With all the toys that I got for Christmas, I still like to play with random things around the house. I’m a big fan of the circulating fan. I always found it interesting. Nowadays I like to push it around like a toy car. It doesn’t do much else, but I visit it almost every day. It’s nice to have a fan.

Just shaking my head. Not to say “no”. It is just something I like to do.