Any new parent will tell you the first year of a child’s life flies by.
So imagine how Christa MacKinnon — mother of quadruplets Julia, Morah, Alex and Ben – must feel. On Saturday, Christa, her husband Joe and their eldest son, Matthew, will celebrate the quads’ first birthday with much of the town that’s helped to raise them.
“They have so many people more than us who love them,” Christa MacKinnon told Metro in a quick interview yesterday — during naptime, of course.
“They’re so lucky to have a huge community that loves them.”
Most Nova Scotians will remember the MacKinnon quads. Christa, now 30, was hospitalized in December; the babies were born by C-section Jan. 24, 2008. They weighed between two pounds, 9 ounces and three pounds, two ounces. All four were home by mid-May.
Shortly afterward, strangers from the MacKinnons’ small community of Kingston, Annapolis Co., started offering help. Neighbour Mary Norman comes three days a week, spending mornings and afternoons with Christa and the kids. And every evening, a couple from the MacKinnons’ street helps Christa and her husband, Joe, with the five-child nightly bath.
“They came to the door and said, ‘Our kids are older, we have some free time and we’d like to help,’” MacKinnon laughed. She didn’t really know them before.
“They keep saying they get more out of it than we do, but they don’t understand.”
All have very distinct personalities: Julia, her mom says, is the “princess,” while Morah, nicknamed Peanut for her small size, is the ringleader. Ben’s the snuggliest, while Alex is the family comedian.
Big brother Matthew, 3½, takes it all in stride, getting time alone with his mom when his siblings nap.
So when does MacKinnon get her alone time?
“After 7:30, when everyone’s in bed,” she laughed.
