Last week, as I was looking over the canned soup in my local supermarket, I was asked for directions to the 'baby needs' section by a woman with four babies. To be precise, she had one of those monster-size multiple-seat baby carriages, this one with four seats, each occupied by a baby. They were heavily wrapped up, so I couldn't compare their ages and sizes very well.

"You have a big family there," I observed.

"Oh, yes!" she said with a smile. "Aren't they adorable? I call them my `four seasons' because each one was born in a different season of the year."

"They all still look pretty young," I observed.

"Well, of course! The oldest will be having his first birthday soon."

I immediately sensed a puzzle here, and elicited the following additional information:

• All the children were the biological children of herself and her husband
• None were gestated via "odd" reproductive technology, like surrogacy, egg or sperm donation, etc.
• She had never been outside the continental U.S.
• All the children were human, btw, not mice etc. :)

So: describe a scenario consistent with this information...

By the way, all words and terms used here have their ordinary and generally accepted meaning....

Peter Kimball

American College of Healthcare Executives

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