Thadeus and Taylor Hogan quickly give their age to those who ask. They’re 11 years old going on 3.

Well, they’re obviously older than 2, but they’ve only had two birthdays on their birth dates.

They were born on Feb. 29, an extra calendar day that comes along every four years. Today will only be the third time they’ve celebrated their birthdays on their birth dates since they were born in 1996.

“Every four years, we get double and quadruple the presents,” Taylor said.

When they receive perplexed looks about their birthday, Thadeus offers an explanation: It actually takes a little longer than the 365-day calendar year for the Earth to orbit the sun. In order to keep the seasons on track with the months we’re accustomed to, one day is added to the calendar year every four years. With 2008 being a leap year, it will have 366 days rather than 365. Feb. 29 is that extra day, or leap day.

And every four years, the Hogan boys get a big blowout. Otherwise, they celebrate on Feb. 28 and March 1.

In 2000, the family was living in Tuscaloosa and Big Al came. In 2004, they had a big bowling party in Enterprise and got to keep bowling pins as souvenirs. And they always get a cookie cake.

As if their leap day birth date isn’t unusual enough, the story behind Thadeus’ and Taylor’s births make every birthday even more amazing.

Lance and Mel Hogan had been trying for 13 years to have a baby, even having infertility treatments. Then they found out Mel was pregnant. Then they found they were having triplets. Mel was due to deliver on June 16, but five and a half months into her pregnancy, there were complications.

“They had cautioned us all along with the multiple births that there could be premature labor,” Mel said.

Mel was hospitalized on Feb. 27, three and a half months before the babies were due. Her blood pressure was out of control. Fluid was gathering around her heart. Doctors gave her medication to help her babies’ lungs develop.

On Feb. 29, Thadeus was born at 3:05 p.m., Jesse Whiten at 3:06 p.m. and Taylor at 3:07 p.m. They each weighed less than 2 pounds. After nine hours, Jesse Whiten died. Thadeus and Taylor spent five months at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham.

“We were thankful for days,” said Lance Hogan, the pastor at First Baptist Church in Enterprise. “If we got a day of life, we were thrilled, and then we got a month.”

Thadeus and Taylor weighed about 4 pounds when their parents took them home.

Both healthy and robust now, you’d never know their beginnings were so touch-and-go. Thadeus loves playing with his airosoft gun. Taylor likes soccer, baseball and hunting. They like playing with their friends, ping pong and playing with the family’s jack-rat dogs, Smokey and Bandit.

In other words, they’re typical boys.

This year, their birthday celebration will include friends at the house, ping pong and foosball tournaments, deer meat with rice and gravy to eat along with their cookie cake. The next day, the family is going fishing. Later on they’ll take a trip to see a NASCAR race.

Thadeus and Taylor often think about their brother Jesse Whiten. Would he look like them? Would he be faster or stronger than them? He’s a mystery.

Lance and Mel Hogan also still think of their third son. As a matter of fact, they think of everything in threes. Mel puts three candles in a window on the boys’ birthday. She’ll keep them there until the June due date when she takes two down and leaves one for Jesse Whiten. There are three baby boy silhouettes hanging in the foyer of the family’s home. Three sets of baby footprints in a frame.

And the couple who desperately wanted children thank God every day for what they have. God didn’t take Jesse Whiten, as Mel puts it. He received him. It may only roll around every four years, but Feb. 29 means so much to the Hogans.

“We’re just very thankful for this day,” Lance said.

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Did you know?

Leap years occur every four years in order to balance the calendar year with the solar year, the time it takes the Earth of orbit the sun. Feb. 29 is added as an extra day to the calendar to keep seasons in line with certain months. Otherwise, over the years, seasons would begin occurring earlier and earlier and calendars would basically be useless. The only exception are century years. Only one out of every four century years is considered a leap year, or those century years evenly divisible by 400 (the year 2000 was a leap year, but 2100 will not be).

Julius Caesar first designated Feb. 29 as the extra day in a leap year and created the 365-day calendar in 46 BC. In Roman times, February was actually the last month of the year, according to Peter Brouwer of www.leapyearday.com. The Julian calendar, however, still fell short of the solar year — 10 days short by the 16th century, throwing off the vernal equinox.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII refined what is known as the Gregorian calendar with the rule that leap year would occur in any year divisible by four and a century year divisible by 400. This is the calendar we still use today.

Source: www.infoplease.com and www.leapyearday.com