April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
12 YEARS LATER
Catching up with the Cusato quads
Catching up with the Cusato quads
These days, "we're just four siblings who share a birthday," said 12-year-old Robert Cusato, sitting at the dining room table in his family's Schenectady home.
Six weeks premature, the Cusato quads came into the world Jan. 26, 2004, spaced one minute apart. Robert weighed 3 lbs., 12 oz.; William, 4 lbs. 2 oz.; Gabriella, 4 lbs. 8 oz.; and Victoria, 4 lbs. 10 oz.
Now, Robert's the tallest of the quartet, and the most reserved. He, William, Victoria and Gabriella keep tight schedules as rising seventh-graders, all involved in different sports and school activities at Guilderland Middle School.
"We used to color-code the calendar," said Karen Cusato, mother to the foursome and older siblings Francesca and Anthony. "It's gotten a little bit easier."
Remember when
Mrs. Cusato can recall a time when parishioners of St. Gabriel the Archangel Church in Rotterdam were bringing home-cooked meals to the family and volunteering to rock the newborns and babysit their siblings, who were ages five and four then.
"Our family has become this year's confirmation community service project," she said in 2004, when 10 teenagers at St. Gabriel's were pitching in with baby duty.
Just a few years away from confirmation themselves, all four of the quads have done Tae Kwon Do for several years now. Robert and Victoria both swim, while Gabby and William run cross-country and track. William also plays baseball, though a broken ankle kept him out of sports last season.
"We're not really alike at all," Gabby explained. Well-spoken Victoria loves to cook and has a goofy sense of humor; Gabby is athletic and has a sharp mind.
Room for all
Meanwhile, Francesca recently began her undergraduate career at Rochester Institute of Technology, studying American Sign Language. Mrs. Cusato misses her help with driving the younger Cusatos to activities, but said the newly-free upstairs bedroom "was prime real estate" for the other siblings.
It was decided that the room would go to Robert, so the boys would each have their own space. Gabby and Victoria still share a room, and will do so until Anthony goes off to college in a couple of years.
Gabby said she likes sharing a room with her sister: If she can't sleep, there's always someone to talk to. Victoria admits that she might not always be the best roommate, though: "I'm more of a slob."v The week before The Evangelist talked with the Cusatos, the girls were having fun in their room, creating what they called the Clothes Mountain: laundry they hadn't put in the hamper. The pile nearly touched the ceiling before their mom found out.
Although Mrs. Cusato banned the creation of mountains in the house, Victoria let it slip that there was currently a growing hill in their room.
"Laundry is a struggle," Mrs. Cusato remarked. So is getting school supplies for all of the kids, and keeping track of multiple sets of teachers: With the exception of an Italian language course, the quads take completely different classes in school.
The children told The Evangelist there's an advantage to that: If one of them is ahead in math class, another can help with homework.
Family tree
Mrs. Cusato herself is a math teacher at Voorheesville High School. Her husband, Patrick, works in information technology for New York State's Workers' Compensation Board. Though both work full-time, there's always someone at the kids' sporting events or concerts.
In fact, sometimes there are what seems like troops of fans at their events.
"It's embarrassing," Victoria said, noting that sometimes her entire immediate family, as well as members of the extended family, show up to her games or performances.
It was the same way when the quads were babies, said Mrs. Cusato: Everyone wanted to be a part of bottle-feeding and birthday parties.
Seeing all the news stories that profiled the Cusatos 12 years ago can be weird for the 12-year-olds. It almost seems like they're stories about other people, they said.
Mr. and Mrs. Cusato aren't likely to put aside memories of having four newborns and two children of kindergarten age. When The Evangelist spoke to them in 2004, they vowed: "People have given us gifts of their time and support. We will never forget any of it."
Now, as the Cusato kids go back to school, Gabby noted that she has to get up very early in the morning.
Catching the bus can be hard, she said, especially when you have to share a bathroom with four other siblings.[[In-content Ad]]
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