Marshmallow pictures - Months 7 & 8

Once again, we took Marshmallow pictures a little late. As you can guess by the title, I also decided to continue with the two-months-at-a-time blog post. Trust me folks, these are worth the wait. The lighting was tough when we took the seven month pictures, but I think we got a few good ones. We also snapped photo a cute, but way too blurry to share, photo of the first time Cora ever sat up on her own. Suffice it to say, it was very adorable, if not mostly accidental. In case you missed it, I believe I explained in the Spring Break and milestones post. So without further delay, here are our favorite marshmallow pictures from seven months. Remember to click on any pics to view them full-size.  

Marshmallow pictures - Months 5 & 6

Cora turned 5 months old right at Christmas time, but we didn't get a chance to take her marshmallow pictures until after we got back to LA. Then, when we did get around to taking them, our card reader broke and we couldn't get them off the camera! So here's a big pile of pictures from both 5 and 6 months old.

Marshmallow pictures - Month 4

My fall semester has ended, and I am looking at 5 weeks off to stay home with Cora!  We decided to change her daycare to a site closer to home, so if one of us is late coming home, the other doesn't have to drive an extra hour to pick her up.  With the timing of the change, we decided just to keep her out of daycare for the month I'm home so I can spend some time with her, and so we can save a few bucks.  So far, things are going pretty well.  I'm learning my way around full-time daycare, and Cora's learning her way around full-time Dad.  After a rough couple of days, I think we're finally coming to an understanding.  Of course as I type, she is fighting going down for a nap, so maybe we're not as understood as I'd like to think!

One perk of being home is having time to take pictures.  Once again, we are a little behind, but here are a few of Cora's 4 month marshmallow pictures.  I believe she was actually 4.6 months old when I took them, but who's counting?

Marshmallow pictures - Month 3

Another month older, another month cuter.

It is hard to believe that our little Coco is 3 months old now. She's gotten a lot bigger and changed quite a bit. Her motor skills are improving, but her spacial awareness isn't quite there yet:

She follows us with her head and eyes when we move around the room.

She makes a lot of direct eye contact, but she hasn't yet learned to mug for the camera. I think I like it better this way.

She's very expressive. 

She can hold herself up for a long time.

She notices and explores her surroundings.

She drools. A lot.

And she tries to eat things. A lot.

She's learning to use her hands more and more. She's got quite a grip, and it can sometimes be a challenge to get her to let go.

Her hand use also includes bringing things up to her mouth.

Mostly, though, she's just a sweetie who likes to smile and cuddle. 

Marshmallow pictures - Month 2

At random times during the day I will look at Geoff and comment on how big Cora has gotten. She's filled out, grown longer, and has the adorable chubby cheeks to prove how well she's growing. Our baby girl is 2 months old. 

In the past month, Cora has started becoming more aware of her surroundings. She makes more eye contact and moves her head toward our voices. She recognizes our voices when she hears them through the phone. Sometimes she'll chatter at us and sometimes she'll just smile. 

Smiley times tend to be in the morning. By the time we're all home from work and school, Cora is mostly interested in eating and sleeping. She's a great sleeper; we put her down at 8 pm or so, and she doesn't wake up until around 3 am. Then she's back down until we get her up and ready for the day at 6:00.

So far Cora is a good baby. Crying is a rare occasion and usually occurs when she's very hungry or very tired. Mostly she's content to kick around on a pallet on the floor with Geoff, Soup the cat, Clark the dog, and me nearby.

Toys aren't really a big part of life yet. She'll hold onto things we put in her hand, but she hasn't yet mastered the fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination required to reach out and grab objects.

My favorite bit is that Cora loves to cuddle. Holding her and patting her back with her face buried in my neck is one of the sweetest things in the world. I could spend all day just hugging and cuddling my darling baby.

Cora's also gaining strength and holding her head up more and more. The evidence is in Geoff's favorite picture from our 2 month photo shoot. 

One Month

Cora is officially one month old today! Hard to believe.

In the past month she has:

• Gotten a lot of hiccups (we both have them right now).
• Started looking directly at us and following us with her eyes for a few seconds.
• Developed more predictable eating/sleeping/playing patterns. 
• Started staying awake and alert for several hours at a stretch. Thankfully she's still a great sleeper and lets us get our shut-eye at night!
• Developed better head and neck control. Cora can now hold her head up stably for a good 10 to 15 seconds at a time.
• Given us a few precious smiles.
• Finally lost her umbilical cord stump, just yesterday. I kept it instead of throwing it away so Geoff could see it when he got home from school. I just new he'd want to see that shriveled up little piece of nastiness. Which reminds me, I think it's still sitting on the changing table - must remember to throw it away.
• Learned how to read and to solve differential equations.

Okay, that last one may not be strictly true.

Anyway. One of my coworkers gave me this really great idea of a way to document Cora's first year of life.  It's called "Marshmallow Pictures" and it's meant to capture your baby's development not only in growth, but also in her ability to interact with her surroundings. Here's how it works:

On her monthly birthdays, set her up in the same place. Same surroundings, same furniture, same everything. In front of her, set a marshmallow with an unlit candle in it - one marshmallow for each month of life. Then take a picture (or several). My coworker loves looking back at the pictures of her 3 kids and seeing them change from sleepy newborns who don't care about the marshmallows to inquisitive babies trying to grab them and shove them in their mouths.

It was a fun little photo shoot! Clark (the dog) just observed for most of it, but then decided to see what all the fuss was about for himself.