Mother, Child Both Born on Leap Days

What are the chances? Two million to one, actually.

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Four years ago, a New Jersey woman born on Leap Day gave birth to her daughter, also on Leap Day. What are the chances?

Turns out the chances are actually two million to one, the Associated Press reports. Today, Michelle Birnbaum, of Saddle River, N.J., turns “eight” years old, and her daughter, Rose, turns “one.” Birnbaum went into labor on Feb. 28, 2008, but Rose officially entered the world on Feb. 29. Birnbaum didn’t plan it that way, of course, but she’s glad to have a “built-in party partner,” she told the New York Post.

(MORE: Leap-Day Birthdays: Famous and Infamous Feb. 29 Births)

“It was just luck, all the stars lined up at the right time,” she said.

For Birnbaum, the only discernible roadblock presented by a Leap Day birthday is that some web sites requesting biographical information won’t accept Feb. 29 as a legitimate date of birth. The best part? Nobody ever forgets her birthday. Birnbaum hopes to use their shared Feb. 29 birthday as a way to teach her daughter about the solar system and Earth’s rotation, she told the Post.

According to Tufts University Professor James Ennis, major variables notwithstanding, the odds of a mother and child sharing Leap Day birthdays are 1 in 2.1 million.

PHOTOS: LIFE.com: Happy Leap Day!