On his first birthday, Leap Year Baby turns 4

EDINBURG — Jacob Peña is finally celebrating his first real birthday today.

Ask him his age, however, and he holds up four fingers.

Jake, as he likes to be called, and approximately 200,000 others in the country share a birthday every four years on Feb. 29.

“I can’t wait to explain to him what being a Leap Year baby means,” said his mother, Melissa Peña about her second-born. “Right now, he gets to enjoy the parties.”

The concept of leap year began in 45 B.C. when Emperor Julius Caesar proclaimed the last day of February as Leap Year Day, skipping it three out of four years, according to leapday.com. Back then, Feb. 30 was considered the last day of the year, which is why he picked it.

Melissa didn’t expect Jacob’s arrival back in February 2004. His actual due date was March 11.

“I ate hot wings that night so I guess that was it,” she joked. “And then he weighed 11 pounds, so between this humungous baby in my body and the hot wings that was it.”

Now, Melissa and her husband, Jonathan, a computer lab supervisor at the University of Texas-Pan American, share a friendly argument as to when they should actually celebrate their son’s birthday on non-leap years.

He says March 1, she says Feb. 28.

She took it a step further and went to the Internet to help solve the ongoing debate. Her Web surfing took her to the Leap Year Day Honor Society, an online association of people from around the globe born on Feb. 29.

The honor society argues the fact that most calendars leave out leap year. The sites states, ‘if Ground Hog Day is on the calendar, why not Leap Year Day?’

“I’m a strict Februarian, but my husband says he was born after so we just do both days,” Melissa said. “I’m sure my son doesn’t mind.”

The Peña family plans on not one but two parties — one at grandma Nana’s house and the other a barbecue at the park — to celebrate Jacob’s first official birthday.

“But I’m gonna be this many,” the little boy interjected, holding up four tiny fingers. “It’s OK to say that, right mama?”

His mother hopes to find more leap babies to build a smaller fellowship of leapers.

“I don’t know of any more leap year babies, but if they’re out there, Happy Birthday,” she said

Leap Year Day Babies:

Per 1,461 people - 1

Per million people - 684

In the U.S. - about 200,000

In the world - about 4 million

Which years are leap years?

Here is the rule:

You get a Birthday if the year is:

— divisible by 4 and

— is not divisible by 100 unless

— it is divisible by 400

SOURCE: www.leapyearday.com