Leaping into ‘first’ birthday
Alittle girl with Shirley Temple curls, a sense of style and a hairdresser for amum is celebrating her first birthday on February 29.
Four years old Violet Bryant is a leapling, born on the day that only comes around once every four years.
Despite early jokes when she was a newborn, parents Anna and Shane have celebrated the birthdays in between, last year choosing march 1 as the day.
And this year also the party at their awahuri farm near Palmerston North will be on Sunday, with a cast of dozens invited to join in the Frozen theme.
When not having a rare attack of shyness, Violet is happy to tell people the things she likes are jumping on the trampoline, collecting the eggs with Daddy and playing with dolls.
Her caregiver Edna Davenport, who has looked after her in her own home under the Building
Blocks scheme for four days a week since Violet was 6 weeks old, describes her as both sassy and an old soul.
Fond though she is of her young companion, Davenport is much in favour of counting her years, not the birthdays.
‘‘She is not staying in care until she’s 20,’’ she said.
That is fortunate, because Violet is very much looking forward to being old enough to join big brother Harrison at Mt Biggs School.
The odds of being born on February 29 are estimated at 1 in 1461, or 0.068 per cent.
In Newzealand, for any legal purposes, a person born on February 29 is usually deemed to have their birthday on February 28 in non-leap years.
But Anna Bryant said the February 29 date on Violet’s birth certificate rarely prompted anyone to raise an eyebrow.
‘‘No-one has ever questioned it when we have filled in forms. They just don’t seem to realise it only happens once every four years.’’