Friday is a special day for the approximately 20,000 Canadians who have waited four years to celebrate their birthdays.
Little Mario Giannetti is the latest to join the exclusive leap year baby club. He leapt into the world two weeks early arriving at the Queensway Carleton Hospital first thing in the morning Feb. 29.
His mom says she's already wondering how and when they will celebrate his first birthday.
"At first when I came in, I wasn't too keen on the idea. But the more that I think about it, now that he's here he's become very special and it is a special day," said Cindy Giannetti.
Leap year babies account for one out of every 1,461 births and for some it means staying forever young.
Like Bonita Leblanc, who is celebrating her seventh birthday.
"As you get older you realise it's actually nice not to get your birthday necessarily every year because you stay younger longer," she said.
But she says she didn't feel that way growing up.
"Well, it wasn't very good when I was five and realized that my birthday wasn't on the calendar. It was hard to accept back then."
With a report from CTV's Aliya Jiwan
