The Cotta Family: Hello, Again.

I so miss writing. I miss the hour or so I would take every few days to go through the hundreds of images I had taken over the past few days and head over to this little blog to share our story... to share it with you all, yes... but also to tell it so that down the road (when I finally make these little bits and pieces into a book), I'll be able to remember it like it was just yesterday. So where did my hour or so go since my last post over two months ago?

Well, I lost it. Completely....

Not that I'm complaining. Instead? I've been soaking up my family.

And my children. That still makes me giggle every time I say it. We have children. Are the kids packed up in the car? I ask Philip... giggle. No, sorry, the little oneS can't make it today, I tell friends... giggle. It just sounds so... different.

So how's everyone doing? Well, Audrey Rose is the most laid back, easy baby. She eats like a champ (doubled her birth weight in just two months), sleeps straight through the night (nine to six), and allows me to dress her in absolutely anything I want (and we do... sometimes four or five outfit changes in just one day).

Yes, I'm madly in love with our second little and I also continue to be amazed at how easy having a newborn is. I laugh about how crazy anxious we were as first time parents with Jacob... and it was such a stressful time... constantly wondering if they are eating, sleeping, pooping, peeing, breathing as they should.

Not so easy if we are being perfectly honest? Balancing the two. Here lies the challenge.

It has to be such a difficult thing to learn to share your momma and daddy. And not that he doesn't love his sweet baby sister. He talks about her, tells his teachers about her, and would carry her around in his arms if I would let him.

He just is still adapting to life with another little one in our life. And by adapting, I mean he somehow manages to squeeze his little self into our bed every night around two or three in the morning for his one-on-one snuggle sessions. So yes, cringe at me, yell at me, tell me I'm doing it all wrong... but I'm not ready to fight this one yet.

He is a special kid, our Jacob Allan. I catch him looking at me when I forget to sing new songs and instead sing the same made-up songs I sang to him (now inserted with Audrey's name) and, as my stomach turns a little, scoop him up and remind him how much I love him.

And while things were a bit more hectic those first two weeks, we attempted to stay on schedule.. like our yearly trip to the pumpkin patch just two weeks after Audrey's entrance.

Would you believe me if I told you I had literally hundreds and hundreds of pictures waiting to make their debut? This is just the first dent...

The first peek at the first few weeks of life with two....

Lindsay continues to remind me how excited she is to acquire Jacob and/or Audrey's wardrobe when they decide to have a little one... and not to personalize too many things because then she will not be able to use them.

It's funny how much we deliberated back and forth between names... and just as I'm sure any parent says, I can't ever imagine naming her anything different...

My friends would ask me if, on the days that I would take Jacob to school, if I would just come home and photograph Audrey. Ummmm... yes. That's actually exactly what I did during those first few weeks.

Pops' corvette... that I can only imagine he will be driving her and her date in to prom sixteen years down the road.

I've yet to decide what photographs to print for her walls and what wall displays I want to create... I haven't designed one album, not printed more than ten of the shots I have taken. But at least, I reassure myself, they are there. They are captured... her sweet face, her itty bitty fingers and toes...

... and those gorgeous blue eyes. I think they are there for good, just like her daddy.

And speaking of her daddy... well, he's just as in love.

He's learned how to change a baby girl (yes, we had to teach him a few things), always gives both of them tons of attention the minute he walks in the door from work, and always, always gives me hugs and kisses in between it all.

{One of my favorites....}

And because Daddy's a soccer stud...

My hour that I snuck in (finally) is just about up... the warm bed is calling my name and I'm looking forward to another (relatively) lazy day tomorrow.