Octomom Nadya Suleman Celebrates Octuplets’ First Birthday

Octomom Nadya Suleman may be celebrating her new slim figure, but it’s her kids who are having the party. Happy birthday wishes go out to Maliyah, Makai, Isaiah, Noah, Josiah, Jeremiah, Jonah and Nariyah, the six boys and two girls from La Habra, Calif. appear in a photo dated Jan. 24 surrounded by balloons and a giant chocolate cake. Suleman says that the real party, on Jan. 26, will be a lot more low key – eight tiny cakes for eight tiny tots.

It doesn’t feel like a year has already gone by. Last January 26, Baby Lifestyles reported about the first set of surviving octuplets. What started off as a miracle quickly turned into a media circus, posing questions about the ethics of physicians practicing in vitro fertilization and the sanity of a woman who already had six children at home with no means of income. A year of who only knows how many diaper changes later, the eight toddlers are proving to be a handful for the single unemployed mother.

“They’re starting to be a lot of work,” Suleman’s lawyer Jeff Czech said. “It’s going to be hard for her, and she’s aware of that.”

But it doesn’t hurt to have three live-in nannies. In fact, Suleman seems to be spending much of her down time working out. This week a slimmed down Octomom popped up on the cover of Star, causing speculation that the previously veiny-bellied mother was Photoshopped. Suleman, who has 14 children in total, reportedly lost 150 pounds (from 270 pounds to 120) and in an eight-page spread she shows off her new look in a red bikini.

Despite the celebrations, it hasn’t always been a frolic on the beach for the Octomom. Last year her fertility doctor came under fire when it was revealed that Suleman conceived all 14 of her kids through in vitro fertilization. His fate currently lies in the hands of California’s medical board.

It only got worse when the press found out that the pregnant Suleman had been supporting her kids with food stamps and Social Security disability payments (three of her children have disabilities). According to TODAYshow.com, Octomom’s 14 children will get $250,000 over the next three years as part of a deal between Suleman and Eyeworks, the European company that produced the one-hour documentary “My Life as Octomom.”

Nor does Octomom have plans to retire from the spoitlight anytime soon. She has filed applications to trademark the name “Octomom,” the nickname that she swears she despises, which will allow her to use the name to market clothing, diapers and her family on reality TV.

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