VaDate and VaMemorableDate show errors on blur after setting a valid `value` attribute

[rhasselle-oddball]

Bug Report

• I’ve searched for any related issues and avoided creating a duplicate issue.

What happened

VaDate and VaMemorableDate show errors on blur after setting a valid value attribute, then changing the month using the UI

Screen.Recording.2025-12-29.at.9.53.39.AM.mov

What I expected to happen

Should not show an error for valid dates on blur, when first populated with a full date value.

Reproducing

1. Go to https://design.va.gov/storybook/?path=/docs/components-va-date--docs or https://design.va.gov/storybook/?path=/docs/uswds-va-memorable-date--docs
2. Set the value to 2025-12-12
3. Manually change the month field manually in the UI
4. Blur
5. See error "Please enter a complete date"

Does this only happen when changing month? Maybe

Urgency

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• This bug is blocking work currently in progress
• This bug is affecting work currently in progress but we have a workaround
• This bug is blocking work planned within the next few sprints
• This bug is not blocking any work
• Other

Details

[pmclaren19]

I found this error was specifically occurring when I set the date field and then came back to the field later and changed the month and clicked out of the field and the on blur event for the component would run and I would see the error message. The only way to get rid of the error message was to re-input the day and year fields.

[coforma-jamie]

Wanted to add a couple of instances where I observed this issue:

Using VoiceOver on an iPhone - Accredited Rep Portal (staging.va.gov/representative, Intent To File form). Note that in this instance, focus also moved to the top of the page when the error was triggered:

GMT20260113-155623_Clip_ARC.Intent.to.File.-.Claimant.information.-.memorable.date.error.announcements.mp4

This was also observed during the 2026-01 Save in Progress -- 2nd round of usability testing on January 13 - a participant triggered the memorable date error when filling out the component.