sisters and sons

my best friend (who happens to be my sister) had her second baby boy, eli, just 15 days after reece was born. this means she is on maternity leave this summer and we are taking full advantage of it.

there have been quite a few days spent letting the big boys play in their backyard while we hang out on the deck with the babies and make sure everyone gets fed at the right time.

the beauty of being at one of our houses is that everyone can lay down for a nice afternoon snooze.
for the big boys,

the babies,

he IS my child!

and (if we're lucky) the mommies too. although, we usually end up with little ones who catch wind of the possible all-house nap and ring their dinner bells. oh well. we both know all too well how quickly these days, weeks, months, and years fly by and we have no problem slowing down and relishing every moment with our sons.

four

my firstborn is four.

how did this happen? each year seems to go by faster than the one before.

the events of his birthday captured every facet of his personality.

EXHIBIT A: birthday breakfast

miles is sensitive.  he's shy and easily embarrassed.  he doesn't have the confidence (yet) to go in front of a large group of people.  he doesn't like to be laughed at and will cover his ears when he feels uncomfortable. he cries easily and gets frustrated when things don't go as he had planned.  but, he can snap out of his "funk" pretty quickly.  he is quick to admit that he's changed his mind and has decided he does like whatever he just despised. (thank you Sam I Am for that little life lesson)

EXHIBIT B: baby brother

miles is gentle and sweet. he loves to hug his baby brother, not kiss him, just hug him. he ever-so-gently puts his head against reece's and closes his eyes. he likes to talk to him in a little tiny voice, "hi little reecey!" and explain to reece what he's holding/doing/etc, "I'm your biggest brother. this is my super why reecey!" it melts my heart.

EXHIBIT C: the cake

miles likes things to go a certain way. I'm not sure what exactly sparked this little meltdown, but I'm pretty positive it had something to do with the timing of the cake eating/candle blowing. he had probably planned on doing something else at that moment. this exhibit also mimics exhibit A quite closely.

EXHIBIT D: the hat

miles is funny. he loves to be silly. he makes up stories and words. he loves to tell jokes (the same three knock knock ones over and over and over and...). he has the most infectious giggle.

EXHIBIT E: the gift

a quick demo by daddy

miles is cautious. he is deliberate and likes to feel safe while trying something new. he works hard, but needs encouragement to continue trying something he isn't so good at. when he figures it out, he excels at it and is, in turn, encouraging to others.

EXHIBIT F: books [not pictured]
miles is a quick learner. he has always loved books and we knew at an early age that he was incredibly good with letters, phonics, and numbers. in the last few months his ability to read grew like wildfire.  he can sit down and read a mercer mayer book like he's in first grade. his daycare mom reported to us one day that he had read 72 sight words that day.  he would've done more, she said, but they needed to eat lunch. I'd love to pat my own back and say that my teacher skills are super human.  but I cannot. this kid was born to read. we truly believe it's a gift. as a teacher, I can say, it's a wonderful gift to have.  the downside?  no more skipping sentences in those crazy long bedtime stories.  shucks.

we feel incredibly blessed to call him ours.

The arrival of our third

Everyone, our third baby has arrived, making us a family of five. Robin and I would like to introduce Reece William Kroening. He was born at 6:31am and is 21 3/4", 8lb 0oz. Mom and baby are both doing well. Reece has even had breakfast. Anyone trying our cell phones please note we don't have cell service in the room. I'll post more later about phone/visitor info.

9pm, about 15 hours old:

The baby is... coming

We were scheduled to arrive at the hospital for the baby's c-section at 7am this morning. However, this conversation happened at 1:50 am:

Robin: "Kyle, wake up."
Kyle: "Huh... Wha?"
Robin: "We have to go to the hospital. My water broke."

It took until our third child was set to be delivered for us to have this happen. So, since I've never been in that situation before and being really tired I asked, "So I hate to be a jerk but are you sure we can't sleep for another 5 hours?" Robin responded with a hearty laugh. So I knew she was still feeling alright but the laugh also told me that this was really happening. We both had time to shower, and then I found out Robin had already called her mom and sister, so we followed through with our plan to drop the boys off and have Nancy drop us off at the hospital, only it was 5 hours earlier than scheduled. It is 4:30am and we are waiting for everything to get set up so we can start the c-section. Stay tuned.

january fun

normally, january in minnesota means sledding, shoveling, snowman building, bundling up, and all other things winter. minus one good snowstorm early in the the month...

we've have a serious lack of snow.  we've had to improvise on ways to beat the cabin fever that is inevitable once the post-holiday season sets in.  luckily, we had no trouble finding fun in our community.

starting with pip squeaks - an adorable (and CHEAP) indoor play place for little ones.  what can be better than a gymnasium full of toys followed  by a kid friendly lunch at mcdonalds?

there has been plenty of living room fun around here:

puny pirates v. captain hook (the cap'n didn't stand a chance):

reading books to our stuffed friends:

dress up:

making breakfast:

celebrating a special little one year old:


SIDE NOTE: back in december, henry managed to ram into the upholstered arm of our living room chair. we noticed immediately that his front tooth had pushed back slightly. I was terrified that it was going to fall right out and my sweet (not yet) 2 year old would be left with a gaping hole in his smile for the next 4-5 years. lucky for us, it stayed intact...but did begin to discolor a few weeks later. here you can see that it's now a lovely shade of gray.

the dentist said there's a chance it will lighten up a bit, but we aren't holding our breath. we just figure it's a battle scar and shows how "brave" our little climber is. gotta love that big ol' smile!

brotherly "love"

for the most part, big brother and little brother get along famously.

miles is a gentle and kind teacher and henry responds sweetly to his brother's guidance. they give hugs, share toys, play games, read books, and giggle uncontrollably.


we love to sit back and watch their relationship blossom.

reality check
I know that brothers fight.  I have two of them.  they are good buddies now, but man could they pound on each other.  kyle is one of three boys - they tell some awful stories about beating up on each other.  and while we are doing our best to foster a nurturing relationship between these two, I'm not oblivious to the fact that a good scuffle every now and then is inevitable...and even a little healthy.  so it should have come as no surprise that we were about to experience our first black eye...courtesy of the little brother.

just after the injury


a few days later
 
the conversation went like this:
[miles screaming]
me: henry, did you throw a toy at miles?
henry: no. I frowed a car!
so there you have it folks...he frowed a hot wheels car and miles got a mini-shiner.

let me leave you with this more frequent sight of the brothers. I love these two so much!