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‘Leaplings’ ready to celebrate their special day
The day rolls around just once every four years, so Feb. 29 holds special meaning and plans for some area leap day birthday celebrants.
Addie Ciez will be competing in the WPIAL swim championships in Pittsburgh; Rachel Gladden will spend her birthday in Myrtle Beach; Avery Fee is planning a skating party, and Baylie Ribel will be treated to lunch and dinner.
The chances of being born on leap day – a day added to the calendar every four years to keep the calendar in sync with the seasons – are somewhat slim, with the odds being roughly 1 in 1,461. The relative rarity offers “leapers” or “leaplings” some fun fodder for conversation starters.
Addie Ciez, a sophomore at Laurel Highlands High School, said of her Feb. 29 birthday, “It’s different. It’s only every four years. I’ve never met someone else who’s had one.”
Most years, the Uniontown resident celebrates her birthday on Feb. 28.
“I don’t want to do (March) 1 because that’s a different month,” Addie said with a chuckle.
“Somebody told us that moving to another month is bad luck,” added her mother, Heather.
The multi-sport athlete will celebrate her day by competing in the WPIAL swimming championships at Trees Pool at the University of Pittsburgh. She qualified in the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle, the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly. She’s also a member of the school’s volleyball and track and field teams.
Heather, an assistant coach for the Laurel Highlands swim team, said her due date for Addie was Feb. 28, 2008. But friends teased her that the baby was not going to be born until Feb. 29.
“It was crazy, because everybody told us she was going to be born on leap day,” Heather recalled. “I was induced on the 28th. We were hoping that she was going to be born on the 28th. She didn’t come out until 4 o’clock in the morning on the 29th. She didn’t want to come out. She had a mind of her own. When I was in the hospital, they said you could celebrate for three days.”
“I should start doing that,” Addie countered.
She enjoys the levity of being a leap day baby.
“This year I’ll be turning 4, she joked.
That joke doesn’t quite hold the humor it once did for Avery Fee, a sophomore at Peters Township High School.
“I have had so many people ask me about it,” Avery said. “I feel like the joke was funny when I was 8. If I hear it one more time I’m going to start hitting people,” she said with a laugh.
“When I was younger, it was pretty cool. I thought, ‘Wow, that day only exists once every four years. Now that I’m older it’s just a day that happens not to exist three-fourths of the time. People will get really excited about it, but it’s a little bit overrated, in my opinion.”
Avery said she’s hoping for a red velvet cake for her birthday. Celebration plans involve a roller-skating party with members of the school’s Dungeons and Dragons Club.
She marked her birthday in younger days on March 1, but now there’s a couple of celebrations.
“I’ll celebrate on Feb. 28 with my friends, and I’ll celebrate with my family on March 1,” Avery said.
She said her mother, Tara, chair of the Washington & Jefferson College English Department, recalled the first time her daughter realized she had a birthday that was different from most. She was about 5 or 6 years old.
“She remembered that I was looking at a calendar to see when my next birthday was and I was really freaked out that there wasn’t a day on the calendar for my birthday,” Avery said.
Baylie Ribel said she turns 28 “in regular birthdays” Thursday.
“I will be 7 years old in leap day birthdays,” she joked. “I try not to joke about it with people that don’t know me that well because they get puzzled when I tell them that I’m 7 years old. Sometimes people don’t even realize people are born in leap year. They forget that’s a thing. It’s hard to go through the whole spiel with them.”
In years that lack leap day, Baylie celebrates on March 1. Her reason is simple.
“We don’t do (Feb.) 28 because I technically wasn’t on this earth,” she said. “I was still in my mom’s womb.”
Baylie said she first realized she had a different birthday than most when she turned 8. It clicked for her when her mom, Joelle Swart, brought out a special candle to mark the day.
“Every leap year she breaks it out of the closet,” Bayle said. “It’s a beautiful hand-painted candle. It has all of the leap years listed by the age I’m going to turn and the year. It’s just very detailed.”
Rachel Gladden of Washington turns 84 this leap day and will be in Myrtle Beach, where son Tom has a place.
“We’re going to go down there and we’re going to celebrate there,” she said. “I’m excited about it.”
During her many years of teaching in the Washington and Trinity school districts, she had fun with her students concerning her birthday.
“I would tell kids I was having a birthday, and they would say that can’t be true, you can’t be 12,” she recalled. “It was really kind of funny. Kids would go home and say, ‘Mrs. Gladden tells fibs.'”
Of her leap day birthday, she says, “It’s different. It’s weird … The other three years are not so pleasant because you just don’t have a birthday. You’re not born in March, so you have to go with the last day in February.
“Growing up wasn’t fun when you didn’t have birthdays. It’s OK now. I’ll take them every four years.”