Mason Shoma

My face can look so different at different angles. It’s all about how gravity pulls on it and what my mood is. Here it looks like I’m pooping but I’m just making raspberries.

Being a baby can be tough. There is so much to learn, so much to do, and so much to explore. We are always on the move, so sometimes we need to relax. Thank goodness for baby massages.

We got an advent calendar. So as I understand it, we open these doors up every day as we countdown to Christmas. Cool! The advent calendar we got has mini ornaments behind the doors. They are very cute ornaments. I will be looking forward to the new ornament everyday.

I like being held a lot, sometimes I like to be on my own. I don’t have anyway to tell anyone what I want to do, so I just do it. And sometimes that surprises Mommy and Daddy, but they have fast reflexes to catch me.

As winter sets in, it has been getting quite cold, and I needed a winter hat. We found this cool dinosaur hat! Isn’t it awesome! I like it a lot! I’m a Masonsaurus!

Who is that blue-faced person?

Oh! It’s Mommy!

My keen eye and nimble fingers are always finding things to pick at. So naturally I am going to pick at the cover film on our floor mat. For the record, the cover film on our floor mat had been peeling long before I got at it. I’m just helping it along.

Today I was just sitting in my high chair and playing after eating my dinner. Mommy was getting my bath ready and Daddy was working at his desk beside me. Then I let one rip. What I mean is I farted. It was one of those long drawn out motorcycle revving farts. Daddy looked over at me and then I just cracked up laughing. Then he started laughing. I am such a little boy, laughing about farts. I guess Daddy is too. It was a funny moment of just us boys laughing about farts.

There is not much to do when I’m being carried around in my baby carrier. It is not so bad when we’re out because there is a lot for me to see. But when I’m being carried around the house, there is not much that is new. However, I found a foot today. I couldn’t see it, but I think it is either Mommy’s foot or Daddy’s foot. Or it could be a monkey’s foot because it was grabbing at my hand with its toes.

I’m just putting into practice the activities we learned at the community playtime event. This playtime was sponsored by all the packing paper in the Amazon boxes we get.

I checked to see if the table leg tastes good or not, just so that you don’t have to. The verdict is that it’s alright. A bit woody.

I am a very big eater and an eager eater. I swallow down the food I’m given very quickly and open my mouth wide for more. Grandpa has commented before that I look like a chick waiting to be fed. My big mouth sure makes it easier to feed me. I feel sorry for parents out there who have to pry their babies’ mouths open to get food in there. My parents never had that problem.

I tried persimmon today. It was pretty good. Not really my favorite, but pretty good. It is sweet and not very tart, so it is easy to eat.

Yep, I’m still interested in the cardboard box that the Christmas tree came in. It holds so many secrets and is a lot of fun to play with!

It is the first thing in the morning, but I am already choosing my bedtime book. It never hurts to be prepared.

There more fruits I try, the more I’m liking them. The apple I had the first time was a bit tart for me and may have given me a bad impression of fruits. But lately, I’ve been liking them a lot. I tried strawberry today, and it was really good! Mommy mashed it up and mixed it with some formula. It was a very sweet dessert!

Christmas came early this year in the form of the box our Christmas tree was kept in. I’m already at that baby stage where I find boxes fascinating. Mommy and Daddy were still finalizing some Christmas tree decorations so the box was still nearby. I found it and had a lot of fun exploring it. Many things were headed into my mouth before Daddy took them away from me. Party pooper. Still, the box itself was a lot of fun. I think I know what I want for Christmas now.

I’ve been going to community run play events for a while now. They are once a twice a month and very close to our home. There are several childcare workers there and a lot of parents come with their kids of ages ranging from a few months like me to over two years old. It is pretty much my only interaction with other babies. I’ve cried there because I was overwhelmed by all the toddlers who were very active, sociable, and loud. But I’ve also laughed a lot too.

Today Daddy got to go with Mommy and me because of a change in his work schedule. That was good timing because today we had an athletic event. A childcare worker who specializes in exercise and movement ran the event. For the toddlers, there was a lot of running around with parents. For me and a few other babies, the parents had to carry us around for each activity. It ended up being a very good workout for Daddy.

The activities were quite advanced for me. There were different ways of moving around the room, like walking with your butt. I can’t even crawl, let alone walk, so that was a hard activity. Daddy had to do it and I was just along for the ride.

We also danced around the room, looked for different colors, and learned about proper greetings and behavior. It was a good taste of what nursery school might be like. It was a wake up call for me to see all the different skills I will eventually have to pick up.

My favorite part of the event was when we got to play with paper and tape. That teacher really knows his stuff because all of the kids loved the activity. We each had a large sheet of paper and started off with folding and pulling. Then came my favorite part: the ripping! Boy, did I enjoy that! Mommy made me laugh when she ripped the paper over and over again. We are definitely going to play with paper and make a mess at home. It was so much fun!

Then we grabbed the scraps of paper and then taped them up into balls. Mommy and Daddy thought I would be excited about the balls but I was much more entertained by the sound the tape made when being pulled. It was so funny!

Since we made a mess, we wrapped up by cleaning up our mess. The older kids were a lot faster, but I did manage to pick up a few stray scraps of paper.

It was such a fun event! Mommy and Daddy got a good workout, I had a lot of fun, and we have a bunch of fun ideas for activities to do at home. The best thing is that I didn’t cry at all today and actually enjoyed seeing all the other babies and toddlers. These are great moments for all the kids. With the pandemic, a lot of these events were cancelled completely and only recently have been slowly reopening. Normally, these events would be more frequent, but we are all grateful just to have any community activities. I’m already looking forward to the next one!