With four grinning toddlers bumbling around the living room, the Rehrings are indulging in their Christmas traditions a little more carefully this year.

“There is no possible way that anyone can keep four babies under the age of 2 out of a Christmas tree,” said Kim Rehring, who 18 months ago gave birth to quadruplets at Erlanger hospital.

So inside their warm and festive home in Harrison, Tenn., the Rehrings have elevated their Christmas tree to a safe height, sitting atop a 3-foot-tall table. Baby gates surround the living room, which is decorated with stuffed snowmen, singing reindeer and a classic nativity scene above the fireplace.

Kim and Matt Rehring say that this year their quadruplets — only the third set delivered at Erlanger in more than 20 years — are finally old enough to take part in some of the family’s traditions, such as making cookies, visiting Santa at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo and unwrapping Christmas ornaments from decades past.

Compared to last year, when Tommy, Sydney, Patrick and Maggie were just 6 months old and slept through most of the holiday, this Christmas is “a lot more fun,” Mrs. Rehring said.

“They get it this year. They’re picking up the presents; they’re running with them and you have to catch them before they open them. ... They’re just so enthusiastic about it,” she said.

Last week, the Rehrings cranked out more than 130 holiday cookies — from gingerbread men to sugar cookies to peanut butter cookies with Hershey’s Kisses — and the kids helped out.

“I’d give them a little piece of dough and they’d roll it in a ball,” Mrs. Rehring said. “They were sticky, but they had fun. I even let them put on some sprinkles.”

The Rehrings are getting lots of support from family as the raise their children. In February 2007, they moved from their former residence in an East Ridge apartment to the home of Mr. Rehring’s parents in Harrison.

“Obviously, they were gonna need some help and it was a lot easier for them to live here than trying to come up with anything else,” said Tom Rehring, Matt’s father. “As (the kids) get a little bit older, it’ll get more crowded.”

Having initially expected some level of chaos, the family said the transition has gone surprisingly smoothly. The kids seem to always be smiling, and tantrums are fairly rare, Tom Rehring added.

“They just go about their business. My wife and I kid that they’re a whole lot better than our kids were at that age,” he said. “It’s kind of nice to see them grow and develop into their own personalities and into their own people.”

HEALTHY BABIES

The quadruplets are certainly growing into their own personalities, their mom and dad say. Patrick is on the cautious side and a bit of a loner, while Maggie talks a mile a minute, apparently in her own language, Mr. Rehring said.

“We can’t understand them, but they sure can understand each other,” he said.

Sydney is pretty laid back, and Tommy’s the “ring leader,” as well as an escape artist. As she talks, Mrs. Rehring coolly watches Tommy shimmy his way between the sofa and safety gate before she swoops in to retrieve the unresisting escapee.

“Tommy will actually lift the gate up and let his sisters run under it,” Mrs. Rehring said.

The kids were delivered by cesarean section at just 32 weeks, and the Rehrings have watched their health carefully in the months since. All siblings seem to be right on schedule or ahead, their parents say.

Fueled by fertility treatments and older women having children, the number of triplets and other multiple births increased by 404 percent between 1980 and 1997, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Mrs. Rehring said that she became pregnant when she was taking a medication to stimulate ovulation and multiple births also run in her family.

The kids see a chiropractor weekly, which their mother said helps them recover quicker from colds.

“They’re the joy of the week when they come in,” said Chiropractor Dr. Staten Medsker with Total Health Chiropractic in Ooltewah.

Especially for preemies like the Rehrings, gentle spine adjustments can aid in proper development and ward off illnesses, as well as calm colicky babies, he said.

“Their immune system is not strong when they’re preemies, so that leaves them more susceptible to their environment,” he said. “The nervous system controls the immune system. When we adjust the spine it gives them a fighting chance” against illnesses.

A number of Matt’s siblings and his parents will be in Frederick, Md., this year to celebrate the birth of another new baby, so the young Rehring family will have a smaller celebration on Christmas Day.

Mrs. Rehring plans to cook some eggs and goetta — a traditional German breakfast dish of oatmeal and sausage — then the family will open presents and the kids will go down for a nap.

“Then we’ll watch Christmas movies and kind of stay snuggled up in the house,” Mrs. Rehring said.

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