Top ten kid pics

This week's Monday Listicle theme is "top ten pics," which is perfect because the Monday Listicles founder queen, Stasha, is a professional photographer.

I opted to go with top ten kid pics, which were awfully hard to choose! I've loved children since I was one myself, and I find that they are wonderful photo subjects. These are not necessarily my top ten, but I like them.

1. These are my cousins Annie and Elena...I took care of them a few summers during and after college. When I left them to go live in Japan, I sobbed! Now they are grown, of course, and Annie has a delightful daughter of her own.

2. I took both of these photos when Mike and I were traveling through Asia after we left Japan in 1989. We have enlargements on our living room wall.

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Jaisalmer, India

3. One morning we came into the NICU to see our 24-weeker, Christopher, and his night nurse, Lorraine, gave us this photo. She'd dressed him in his first clothing (very special, small preemie clothing) and taken this photo of him with his toy duck. He was still on a ventilator and about 7 weeks old. It was a huge milestone that he was well enough to have clothing touch his very fragile skin.

4. This photo has special meaning to me, because when Christopher was battling for his life in the NICU for 117 days, I clung to an image of him running down the beach as a healthy toddler. This vision gave me hope...and there he is, doing just that:

5. Several years later (when Chris was six), Kieran came along, full of energy and zest. This photo was taken in London, at Somerset House, when he was a year and a half:

6. We have a lot of beautiful photos of our sons with my sisters' sons...here is Kieran with his cousins Ryan and Garrett, in the Chinese Garden in Vancouver, BC:

7. Here are all of our sweet boys in Astoria, Oregon, a few years ago--mine are the three on the left, and my sister's sons are on the right:

8. One of my favorites of my youngest, Nicholas, our bonus baby, taken on the shores of Railroad Creek at Holden Village, Washington, last summer:

9. Another photo shoot of five out of six of our boys, Mother's Day, 2013--they are very accustomed to posing for the camera:

10. And the professional shot of our three boys, taken by Tanya at Capturing Magic Photography, last November:

Join in the listicle fun by visiting The Good Life and perusing the other posts!