This birthday is special for Mary Rukavina...she’s a Leap Day baby

• Mary Rukavina, center, with mom and sisters

Mary Rukavina, center, is a Leap Day baby. She’s looking forward to celebrating her birthday on the actual date this year — Feb. 29. Mary is joined here by her little sister, Sarah, mother, Amy, and younger sister, Becca. Photo by Randy Hanson

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Mary Elizabeth Rukavina’s birthday this year will be extra special. She’ll be able to celebrate it on the actual date — Feb. 29.

“Two and three-fourths,” the St. Patrick School freckle-faced sixth-grader deadpanned when asked how old she was during a visit to the Star-Observer office last week.

Make that nearly 12, in reality. Mary is a Leap Day baby, born Feb. 29, 2000.

She said she enjoys celebrating her birthday in the years when February ends on the 28th, but admitted that it feels a little like something is missing.

“But on my Leap Day, it is there,” Mary said.

She plans to invite friends to her house for pizza, pop, movies and maybe a sleep-over this birthday.

Dave Knoke of Knoke’s Chocolates, where her mother works, is making chocolate frogs to share with her classmates on the 29th. Get it? Frogs leap.

“We usually try to do something special on these Leap Day birthdays,” Amy Rukavina said.

Mary is member No. 3,921 of The Honor Society of Leap Day Babies.

Her profile on the organization’s website, www.leapdaybabies.com, says Amy who was put into induced labor on Feb. 28 because it was the only day her doctor could do it.

One of Mary’s grandmothers wasn’t happy about the possibility of having a grandchild born on Leap Day and hoped she would arrive before midnight, the website says.

“I was the only baby to be born on 2-29-2000 at WCMH (Winona Community Memorial Hospital). Grandma is still a little sore at the doctor,” Mary’s profile says.

The Rukavinas moved to Hudson nine years ago. Mary’s father is John Rukavina. She also has an older brother, Lucas.

Tags: lifestyle, family