One of our daughter’s playmates had her second birthday when she was actually eight years old. The kids thought it was fun that she was only two. Of course we all got her “Happy birthday 2-year-old cards.”
However, it is not easy having a leap day birthday and getting to celebrate on your actual day only once in four years.
Heather Mercuri, a stylist at Dezigns by Tonya, told me her family has always celebrated her being a year older, but they would have an “extra big” party on her actual day. This year she will be celebrating her ninth actual birthday.
“Best part about being born on February 29 is that people always remember my birthday,” she said. And she still gets those cute children’s cards with her number of birthdays as her “age.”
Mercuri said that turning 16 was particularly memorable when she celebrated her fourth actual birthday and got her driver’s license.
The biggest problem she has encountered with her birth date is that some licenses expire and must be renewed on the birth date. On a regular year that can cause problems because Feb. 29 does not exist some years. After that it only works with 4-year renewals that renew on a leap year.
Online I learned that some Leap Babies just give up the fight and list their birthdate as March 1. That day was when they would have been born had it not been a leap year. Actress Dinah Shore did that. But Mercuri doesn’t want to.
“I’ve always considered myself a February girl,” she said. “I like amethyst (the February birthstone) much better.”
My search for Leap Babies, I discovered that Scott Griffith, president/general manager at FRFC Springfield, Inc. — his office is at Lee’s in New Carlisle — had Feb. 28 listed as his birthday. I called him to find out if he was a secret Leap Baby.
“Nope, missed by a year, a day and 4 hours,” he said.
I think he was relieved.
However, I think this Leap Baby thing just might be like the Fountain of Youth. Sure it has to be irritating to a worldly 24-year-old to be reminded that it is only their sixth actual birthday. But this situation gets better as the years go on.
Imagine celebrating 52 years, but it is only your 13th birthday. Your teen years would still be ahead of you.
How many 80-year-olds have only 20 candles on their cake? There would have to be something magical about saying you are 20 again.
I hope all you Leap Babies from 1 to 27 birthdays old have a great day today. Enjoy the magic.
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