I hear shuffling of little feet and then a little male voice announces, “There’s someone at the door.”
Liam Lyons, otherwise known as “Little Chief,” a handsome four-year-old who looks like his father Desmond, stands at the door looking up at me. He is accompanied by his sister, three-year-old Ciara, a miniature version of her beautiful mother Kerry.
“Hello there,” I smile.
“Who are you?” asks Liam, not wasting any time.
I explain to the chief that I’m here to meet his three younger brothers.
“Well, they are sleeping. Do you want me to wake them so you can talk to them?” he asks helpfully.
“Oh no,” I say. I follow Liam into the living room and wait.
Liam and Ciara are the older siblings of identical triplet boys, Cormac, Declan and Kevin. Their birth, naturally conceived, astonished everyone, including their parents, Kerry and Desmond Lyons. The odds of having identical triplets come in at 100 million to one.
Since their birth on October 10, 2008, the triplets have become mini celebrities.
Now, a year later, Irish America decided to check in with the Lyons family to see how they are coping with the sudden addition of lives to their family.
While Liam proudly shows me his handstands and his sister Ciara emulates his moves, there is a distant sound of crying in the background.
“They’re awake now,” says Liam, jumping up and down, and within minutes Kerry appears in the living room, a bundle of joy in each arm, followed by the children’s nanny with a third baby.
Sitting the boys side by side on the sofa, Kerry embraces each of them one by one as they giggle with delight. I sit at the other end of the sofa looking on in awe. There is no telling them apart.
Noticing a speck of green paint on Cormac’s toe, I ask about it. Kerry tells me of the color-coding system she put in place at the hospital the day the boys were born. Cormac green, Declan blue and red is for Kevin.
“I had to have some kind of system,” says Kerry, who works for an Internet advertising firm.
“At one stage I had to do three feedings eight times a day and also feed Liam and Ciara.”
Liam, wanting to get in on the action, climbs on Kerry’s lap. When secured he plants gentle kisses on each of the boy’s faces and introduces me to his brothers.
The sound of the front door opening has everyone’s attention. Daddy Desmond has come home from work.
Ciara runs into his arms and Cormac, Declan and Kevin begin to shuffle around as they greet their daddy with warm smiles and giggles.
Kerry places each of them, one by one, on the floor. Within minutes five children under the age of five are crawling, running and playing in the cozy living room of the Lyons’ household.
In addition to the mix, Finnegan, the family dog, joins in the fun. Declan attempts to grab Finnegan’s tail as he shoots past, Kevin rolls on his stomach to avoid him, and Cormac is shifted on to his side as the canine swoops past.
Ciara is trying to give Cormac a hug—at least, I think that it’s Cormac. Not wanting to be disturbed from his play, he gives a little grunt and she moves away; Liam is hanging onto Finnegan’s neck for a cuddle while Declan and Kevin are crawling towards the door.
“It’s like this every day,” informs Desmond, a lawyer.
“We are so used to it,” adds Kerry, laughing.
Kerry gave birth to the boys at 36 weeks by Caesarean section at the New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. Although it was an extremely anxious and nerve-wracking pregnancy, both Kerry and Desmond were overjoyed when their three bundles of joy arrived last October. Kevin, the biggest, was six pounds, Cormac came out at five pounds, eight ounces and Declan was five pounds, three ounces.
“We are blessed and treasure each day that we have,” says Kerry while noticing Declan is doing something he shouldn’t.
It’s bedlam but it’s beautiful.
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