Life is crazy busy and it's EASY to stay focused on the to-do's of it all and miss the littlest moments that mean the most. My camera is my tool to slow down, reconnect with the present moment and savor WHO my kids are right now in their current stage of life AND what makes MY heart happy with joy. When life is busy and I see something that makes me light up with a smile, I stop, grab my camera (iPhone or SLR - it doesn't matter because what does matter is that I capture the moment...), click what I see and savor the FEELING of that LOVE. My camera helps me stay focused on what fills my heart up with love and captures a visual reminder of WHO my kids are and what they love, so they never disconnect from themselves as they grow older, like I did.

Last week, after our forting around fun, Luca had some fun with Cs mixing bowl toys for her kitchen. Well, technically, they're his now, too! Ha! Don't tell her I said that. ;)

Right now, at 17 months, this is WHO Luca is...our little mixer, eater and cleaner upper!! The joy on his face while he's mixing and mixing away and then running over to us showing us how he mixes and then pretending to eat what he's mixed up...the best ever and melts my mama heart big time!!!

I'm SO excited that he's at this stage, because, one, he's starting to turn into a little boy, and, two, I get to sit back and relax more while I play and snap with him. My favorite thing to do ever when it comes to capturing WHO my kiddos are with my camera!!

Hooray for this moment...one where he didn't run up to me and try to eat my camera!! YAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!! (hope I'm not jinxing myself here...ha!!)

P.S....I have NO idea what C was doing during this time. LOL! :) :) But, no trouble was to be had...which was GRRRRREAT because I got some time to SAVOR him up for a bit...something I wish I could do more of...ya know, the kind of SAVORing you do when you only have one kiddo, because you only have one little one's needs to think of, not two. Aaaaaahhhhh, those were the days. ;) But, nah, now I get double the savoring...which, in the end, is even better!! SO thankful for that!!

I mean, what a guy...the ladies are gonna LOVE him because he cleaned up his mess!!! Woohooo!! Go Luca go!!I gotta teach him right so he keeps it up as he gets older and becomes a man!!

And, yes, did you see how I said "I" and not "we" ...because I'm way better in the "clean up my own mess" department than my hubs is...oh, and don't tell him I said that, either. :):) But, he knows I'm right!! :):)