It was a night-before spur-of-the-moment decision four years ago. I announced at dinner that no one would be making their beds (we make our beds every day at our house) on Leap Day and that we would wake up early so we could go to our favorite diner for a before-school special breakfast. As a family who doesn’t eat out a lot, this was, from a kid’s perspective, very exciting. Uncharacteristically our daughter woke up, packed her lunch and got ready to leave ON TIME with no prompting even though it was earlier than usual.

My decision was motivated by the realization that we only have a few Leap Days with our daughter during her childhood and that sometimes with kids it’s not the blockbuster vacations but the quirky family traditions that make happy memories. As expected our daughter has been looking forward to Wednesday’s Leap Day for four years. She’s already figured out that she’ll be in high school by the time the next one comes. I’ll still have deadlines and the to-do list won’t go away but I’m gonna try to make this a Leap Day to remember. Who knows? I may go crazy and get the car washed.