Scott Swanson
Javi Cuevas celebrated his fourth true birthday Saturday, Feb. 29.
That’s because Cuevas, now truly, 16, was born on Feb. 29, Leap Day, in 2004, in Prineville.
His mother, Lisa Cuevas, said it didn’t really dawn on anybody, until after Javi had arrived, that there was anything extra-special about the day. Javi would be the youngest of her five children.
“My blood pressure was super high,” she said. “The doctor didn’t want to wait. None of us realized it until after he was born. The doctor didn’t think about it.”
Since then she’s done the math on the likelihood of having a Leap Day birthday, and it’s not one in 365, as is the case for every other day.
“It’s one in 1,461,” Lisa said. That’s because, since Leap Day only happens every fourth year, the odds are quadrupled. Assuming birthdays are uniformly distributed throughout the year, less than 1/10 of 1 percent of the world’s population shares that birthday.
There are a few peculiarities for those born on Feb. 29. For instance, Javi won’t be able to get his driver’s license until March 1. He won’t officially be 21 until that date either.
He said people are “really surprised” when he tells them he only has a birthday every fourth year, and “I can’t really remember what happened four years ago” on his last one.
He said he hears jokes about it.
“People will say, ‘Oh, you’re pretty smart for a 4-year-old,’ ‘You’re pretty tall for a 4-year-old,’ stuff like that.”
It is “cool,” he said, to be able to tell people he’s a Leap Day baby.
“I’ve met one person (who was born on the same day) but I can’t really remember,” he said. “It was a weird experience.”
When he was younger, he said, the principal would forget to sing “Happy Birthday” to him, as he did for other students. After he mentioned that in a newspaper interview, “after that, he didn’t.”
At Sweet Home High School, he said he enjoys art and culinary classes. He’s also involved in the Josai Club, which will take a trip to Japan this summer.
“I like painting,” he said. “I usually do more cartoonistic stuff.”
“We hear a lot about how he’s 4 years old,” Lisa said. “I think the biggest question we get is ‘When do you celebrate his birthday? Is it legally Feb. 28 or March 1?”
“People just aren’t used to Leap Year.