Party of Five

Andrew thumps Raymond on the head with a plastic shovel. Patricia stuffs two giraffes into a microwave. Tiffany and Kimberly cram dolls into the washing machine.

Then Andrew, the strongest, pulls on the toy stove until it topples over onto all of them.

A chorus of squeals and wails. Tears and giggling.

Andrew is giggling. And searching for another challenge.

Life at the Ramon and Marcella Quezada household in West Hills is almost never dull.

It also is almost never quiet.

The din comes from the Quezada quintuplets, who on Sunday will celebrate their second birthday--entering “the terrible twos,” as some parents call it.

“This past year has been hectic,” understates the quints’ mom, Marcella. “The first year went by so fast, I didn’t have time to think. I would wake up, run around all day, then the day was over. But the second year has been harder.”

Chronicles of the past 12 months include a move to a different home, Marcella’s return to work, with a daily 92-mile commute, a disappointing visit to Disneyland, the loss of medical insurance and a revolving door of baby sitters.

“Some came the first day and the next day they didn’t come back,” Marcella said. “I think the kids scared them.”

The year also has brought about a widening gap in the individualities of five little people, born so close together yet now surprisingly far apart. They range in weight from 20 to 32 pounds and wear clothes from sizes 2 to 5. Each is unique in appearance and personality.

When they crowd into their 8-by-8-foot playroom loaded with toys and stuffed animals, the noisy scene resembles that of any ordinary day care center. Except this family is a care center all by itself.

The key to managing it all, Marcella says, is organization.

She buys supplies in bulk: 10 gallons of milk, eight dozen eggs, cartons of yogurt. A supply of 1,900 diapers is kept on hand. A clothes washer and dryer hum steadily. Every regimen is repeated five times: Change diapers, wash hands, brush teeth.

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The initial attention paid to the Quezada family when the quints were born Feb. 9, 1995, has all but disappeared. They have been overshadowed locally by the year-old Shier quints of Westchester, who appear regularly on a family television show, receive weekly support from about 20 volunteers and even have an Internet site reporting their monthly progress.

Universal City’s CityWalk feted the Shier family last month to mark the youngsters’ first birthday, but the Quezadas will celebrate their second with a party at home.

Meantime, in the last year the Quezada quints have become mobile, vocal and even more expensive: Two baby sitters help with the daily duties--to the tune of $1,400 a month.

In October, Marcella went back to work, supplementing the income her husband, Ramon, earns as an industrial parts deliveryman.

She drives 46 miles each way to manage a Carl’s Jr. restaurant in Ventura, earning enough, she said, to pay for child care, health insurance, car expenses and the family’s groceries. “So I guess it’s worth it,” Marcella reasons.

She said many people were skeptical when she decided to return to work. “They thought that the fact that I’m a mother of quints, that I would not be able to work,” she said. “I needed to prove that I can do my job. My kids are OK; they need me to work.”

She applied for the Ventura position, she said, because she felt the company’s district manager there--a mother of two youngsters--would be of a more liberal mind in hiring.

The district manager, Vicky Egidi, said that, as a mother, her own priority is that “your family comes first.” She said she understands the need to occasionally care for a sick child, but that Marcella regularly puts in the required 45-hour workweek.

“She is a wonderful manager. She is very organized and she can handle multiple tasks,” Egidi added with a laugh.

In March the Quezadas moved to a rented house in a quiet neighborhood that they felt was safer than their previous home on a busy street. The house is impeccably kept, with a large backyard for a playground.

In the mornings, the youngsters are taken on a walk for at least an hour “to wear them out,” Marcella says, before they are put down for a nap.

The family follows a strict routine. The day begins well before 7 a.m., when Ramon leaves for work. Marcella gets the children started, then two baby sitters take over when she leaves for work, about 8:30 a.m.

One of the sitters leaves at 3 p.m., when the children have free run of the backyard and after the daily cleaning, dishes and washing is done. The other sitter, Ramon’s sister, stays until Ramon returns from work at about 4:30 p.m. They prepare dinner and feed the children, then Ramon is left to supervise five kids in a tub and put them to bed.

Because of her varied work schedule and long commute, Marcella arrives home anywhere from 6 to 8:30 p.m. If she needs to take a child to the doctor or other appointment, she can adjust her shift, working as late as 1 a.m.--a practice she started last week for one of the youngsters--Patricia--who needs physical therapy because her leg muscles aren’t well developed.

Like any toddler, these occasionally wake up in the night. Multiply that times five and it’s no surprise that the Quezadas are awakened at all hours. “I sometimes feel like I’m not getting a lot of sleep,” Marcella said.

Other than the daily walks, the family rarely goes on outings, opting instead for one parent to stay with the children while the other does the shopping or marketing. Marcella said they make ends meet by bargain hunting and negotiating discounts with retailers to buy items in multiples, such as Christmas and birthday gifts.

Their one big splurge since the birth of the quints--a trip to Disneyland--is a painful memory. Ramon and Marcella, along with Ramon’s sister, packed up the troupe in October to see the famed Main Street Electrical Parade before its closing. But they said gate officials prohibited them from bringing their two three-in-tandem strollers into the park, saying the long strollers presented a security and safety problem in the crowds.

After attempting to manage five toddlers and supplies without the strollers, the family gave up in less than an hour and returned home, feeling they had wasted the cost of admission.

When contacted, a spokesman for Disneyland apologized for the family’s experience and offered to invite them back. Saying the action “may have been very well intentioned as a caution,” Robert Deuel said the park has “no regulations which limit the size of baby strollers.”

The Quezadas are also hopeful that Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Woodland Hills, where the quints were born, will soon reinstate their medical insurance.

In December, they were told that their medical insurance had lapsed because of nonpayment in October of the $22 monthly premium. Marcella said she has the canceled check to prove she made the payment.

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Without medical coverage, the Quezadas said they were forced to pay out-of-pocket for several doctor visits for the quints, as well as $900 for leg braces for Patricia. Linda Quon, spokeswoman for Kaiser, said the insurance will be restored at a special low rate if the premium payments are verified. The insurance “could be reinstated very easily,” Quon said. “There’s no problem.”

Once they cross that hurdle, the Quezadas’ next problem will be balancing the terrible twos with two full-time jobs.

Keeping baby sitters has been exceptionally challenging, Marcella said. “Some came by just to look and see the kids,” she said. “There are five of them and they do get into everything. It is a lot of work. But now they know the meaning of ‘no.’ ”

Marcella admits that it has been harder since she went to work, then adds with typical positive reasoning: “In a way it’s easier.”

With their organized routine and schedule of shifts, Marcella is confident that the team can meet any situation.

“There’s always somebody I can count on.”