Why you need to keep taking those pictures ...

We all take pictures of our children - it's what parents do. Birthday parties, holidays, vacations and now with cell phone cameras, there isn't a reason we can't snap a picture at any time of the day or night. Sometimes we think we take too many pictures and sometimes our children don't want us to take their picture.

Well, the next time your child says No more pictures Mom! - think again.

Last night I was looking through old pictures on the computer and realized that sometimes a picture is worth more than a thousand words. Sometimes a picture, no matter how many times you have taken the same picture, same pose, same location ... is priceless.

The sign stayed the same, but boy did my son grow up! Not to mention the tress and the plants.

Yep, he always wants to pose in the tree by the hippos. I won't be telling him not another picture in the tree anymore.

This has got to be one of my favorite "then and now" pictures from the San Diego Zoo. Ever since he was a toddler, he asks to eat at the Treetop Cafe - at his table. Yes, he actually believes that this is his table and we always sit here. In all the times we have visited the San Diego Zoo, these are the only two pictures I have of him at his table ... now I'm wishing I had taken more.

So wherever your "picture spot" may be, keep taking those pictures. There is a reason you stop each time to take a picture here - and nothing is more priceless than watching your child grow up in photographs.