8-year-olds having a special birthday

Elena Fazio of Naperville seemed destined to enter the world on Aug. 8, 2000.

Her mother Margie had scheduled her C-section that day because she thought 8/8/00 would be "a really cool birthday." As it happened, she went into labor that morning.

But it wasn't until Elena turned 7 last year that her family realized her next birthday would be really special: She turns 8 today, on 8/8/08.

More than a golden birthday - that once-in-a-lifetime event when you turn the age of your birth date - this much rarer occasion is more like, as Cindy Trowbridge of Wheaton said, a "super-platinum birthday." Her daughter Laura also turns 8 today.

"I realized it like a month ago, so I've been excited about it since then," Laura said.

Amy Arrigo of Wheaton - whose mother Christine happened to share a room at Central DuPage Hospital with Cindy Trowbridge when their daughters were born eight years ago - "has been talking about (her golden birthday) since she could read a calendar," her mother said. "She tells everyone."

Kathy Sauerland of Palatine said she didn't notice the numerical alignment of son Luke's birthday until she started seeing ads for the Olympics, which opens today.

In fact, both Laura Trowbridge and fellow birthday girl Libby Mayfield of Elk Grove Village are having Olympics-themed parties.

And Brian and Julie Fitch of Batavia are hosting a "big shindig" today for son Trevor that, in a sense, they've been planning for years. It was shortly after Trevor's birth, Brian Fitch said, "that we realized that this would be a pretty special day."