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IT’S seventh heaven in the Koohpaima household as the family once again celebrates the birthdays of fabulous foursome Anya, Connor, Aidan and Rory.
The energetic quadruplets celebrated their big day with proud parents Zall and Cynthia and big sister Arianna 22, at Chili’s Restaurant Bahrain.
“This year they decided what they wanted to do for their birthday like the little grown-ups they now are,” said Cynthia from the family home in Budaiya. “Their favourite eating place is Chili’s and they all ‘collectively agreed’ on going there … which is a rare feat indeed! In fact, they insisted that’s where they wanted to go, so that’s what we did. It was a lovely evening.”
The partying mood will carry on tomorrow with the fantastic four jumping for joy and eating cake with their classmates in the first grade at Modern Knowledge School.
Although they may have grown a little taller and a lot cuter, little has changed in the personality stakes. Anya is still adorable and keeps her brothers in line while Connor is the deep-thinking charmer with a big heart. Rory continues to talk his parents’ ears off and Aiden brings tears of laughter to their eyes.
Cynthia said: “Funnily, their personalities are much the same as they have been since they were small. Anya has an amazing talent for sarcasm, I will say that! They are at an age where they are truly testing their boundaries as often and in as many imaginable ways as possible. Consistency is the key to handling it, but it isn’t an easy feat by any means.
“They are definitely more than several handfuls. I keep thinking they will mellow out a bit with each passing year, but no. Maybe when they’re 20?
“Having four is challenging, extremely so at times, but in an ultimately beautiful way. However, honestly there is no such thing as silence in a house with four young children the same age – with an often completely exasperated big sister.”
Arianna, a student at Bahrain Polytechnic, is finally getting around to taking her driving lessons which will come in handy when she needs to escape the fearsome four.
In 2009, they were the first quads born in Bahrain for 15 years and made their surprise appearance at the International Hospital of Bahrain and on to the front page of GulfWeekly.
Zall and Cynthia were overjoyed to find they were expecting after many years of trying for a sister or brother for daughter, Arianna, who was 14 at the time.
It was a momentous occasion for both Zall and Cynthia as they had been suffering from the heartache of miscarriages for years before their bundles of joy turned up.
Cynthia, a board secretary for a telecom company, recalled: “I had a miscarriage 10 years earlier and after that I just couldn’t get pregnant. I tried IVF years ago but it didn’t work but we weren’t ready to give up.
“I went back to the International Hospital of Bahrain intending to try IVF again but my doctor had left and I saw a new man, Dr Mohammed Rocca. He said that in his opinion I didn’t need IVF and asked if I would be prepared to try his way which involves monitoring the cycle and assisted ovulation and then just letting nature take its course.”
But the arrival of four in one go came as quite a surprise. Zall said: “All along we had been told we were expecting triplets. Initially, they said a girl and two boys then they said three boys so we took back all the girlie things we had bought!” The four were born on February 1 and GulfWeekly will continue to update readers on their journey to adulthood.
