Lyons Den Mom

Hurricane Irene spares us - sighs of relief as storm passes with little damage

The "little beach" we left behind before Irene hit

A missing tooth, a missing Tooth Fairy and Tooth Fairy extortion

Liam in simpler times, after the loss of tooth #1
The tooth fairy has officially visited our home five times.  Our six-year-old has officially lost six teeth.  As you may have noticed, there is a discrepancy here.  As far as I can tell, the issue was the loss of tooth #5.

I can’t recall where or when it fell out and neither can Liam, the aforementioned gap-toothed six year old.  The fact he can’t even remember the details of this little tooth makes me feel a bit better about my own vague recollection. I do recall that when it came out, it eventually ended up in a little “treasure chest” – one of those little hand-painted projects which, for some reason, ended up on top of our entertainment center (yep, we still have one of those!) several weeks back.  That’s when my mind goes blank.

Summer vacation with five kids - what this Mom learned

We just got back from a week on Cape Cod,MA.  A lovely, sunny, laid back, relaxing week where we did little more than hit the beach and then hit our beds shortly thereafter.

Now it's back to reality.  Before dinnertime on day one, I had unpacked everything, done about five loads of laundry and reorganized the basement; the basement wasn't on the agenda for the day but, since I spent so much time down there with the laundry, I couldn't stand tripping over the bins of hand-me-downs and had to do something about it.  As I reached the height of my organizational frenzy, my six year old, Liam, wandered down and asked me to play with him.  When I said I was busy, he whined "But Mom, why don't you ever play with me at home?!"  Which made me realize that I learned a lot over the course of our week away and first day home.

1. My kids like to play with me.  And I like to play with them too.  And I really need to do it more often, not just when we're on vacation.  While we were away, I made sand castles, went on walks (without my phone!), and totally tuned in to the five tots that I'm too often tuning out.  It's so easy to use the "busy" excuse but it's amazing how appreciative they are when I slow down, pay attention and really focus on these amazing little people we're so blessed to have.  There was one night when Ciara just wanted me to sit and snuggle and watch Peter Pan.  And I did.  And she was thrilled.

Diner time - end of highchairs signals the end of an era for a mom of five

We recently crossed a significant milestone.  The three highchairs that have been cluttering our kitchen for two years have officially been kicked to the curb; two of them, in fact were literally put on the curb because they were beyond redemption with the stench and stains of caked on mac and cheese and mushed grapes and who knows what else.  The third chair is now tucked away in our basement, patiently awaiting visits from the offspring of my sister and cousins, all of whom now have tykes tinier than mine.

Saying so long to these kitchen mainstays leaves me with mixed emotions.  On the one hand, I appreciate our newly streamlined and less cluttered living area. I'm impressed that Kevin, Declan and Cormac will sit in chairs and more often than not, stay there through the course of a meal. On the other hand, I'm having some emotional angst.  Saying so long to high chairs is part of saying good bye, once more, to our baby days.

I've survived other small rites of passage with less emotional fallout.  I was thrilled when they traded the bottle for the sippy cup. While I lamented the loss of the snuggle time that accompanies breast or bottle feeding, I was glad to no longer face the dilemma of how to snuggle and juggle three babies at once. I was fine when we traded up from those bucket car seats to the "big boy" car seats -- especially since making three trips in and out of the car with the combined weight of tots plus seats was no easy task.  I will admit I was bummed out the day the wheels literally fell off their triplet stroller but, it really was getting tough for me to push almost a hundred pounds of kid and stroller up the steep hills where we live so, we put that stroller on the curb and never looked back.