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See the 5 babies in the WKYT baby boom together for the first time.

First playdate! The five babies in the WKYT baby boom meet.

Since April, four on-air journalists in the WKYT newsroom have had babies, one having twins. We were there for their first meeting. By
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Since April, four on-air journalists in the WKYT newsroom have had babies, one having twins. We were there for their first meeting. By

Verasette Puente, closing in on six months old, seemed a little puzzled.

Here she was, calmly lying on a blanket and surrounded by four people actually smaller than she is, some of them periodically squalling and thrashing, one of them with a diaper than needed changing.

Verasette, aka Vera, is the daughter of Victor Puente, a WKYT anchor, and his wife Mandy. She was the first of the 2018 WKYT baby boom to be born, on April 25. Tuesday morning, she was surrounded by four other babies born to WKYT on-air personalities since then:

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Five babies recently born to reporters and anchors were photographed Tuesday morning at the WKYT studios on Winchester Road. Lauren Minor’s twin sons, Finn and Nash are at the top. Hillary Thornton’s daughter Hadley Smith is bottom left. Victor Puente’s daughter Verasette (Vera) is in the middle. Kristen Kennedy and Lee K. Howard’s son, Kingston Howard is at bottom right. Charles Bertram cbertram@herald-leader.com

▪ Kristen Kennedy and Lee K. Howard, reporter and sports anchor/reporter respectively, had son Kingston Howard on Aug. 18. Kingston’s big sister Meg is two years old.

Howard described his and Kennedy’s son Kingston as “kind of a relaxed calm guy.”

▪ Anchor and reporter Lauren Minor had fraternal twin boys, Finn and Nash Gray, born Sept. 5 to Minor and her husband Mark Gray. The boys have an older brother, Landon, 6.

Minor said that her son Landon is old enough to be an assist in the care of his little brothers.

“It’s a little much, sometimes, with all the screaming, but he’s been a big help,” Minor said.

Minor said that with the twins, “We sleep three hours at a time, so that’s been good.”

▪ Reporter Hillary Thornton gave birth to daughter Hadley Smith, Sept. 24. Hadley’s parents, Thornton and Max Smith, said Hadley weighed in at an unexpectedly hearty 8 pounds, 12 ounces.

That’s not the end of the baby boom: WKYT photographer Barton Bill and his wife had a baby girl in August, and longtime anchor Barbara Bailey became a grandmother for the second time in early October.

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