Seth turned forty last Saturday.  He lives five thousand miles away, but that didn’t keep me from thinking about the "olden days" when he and his brother (who lives three hundred seventy-five miles away) were little.  I decided to look for the journal I kept the week Seth was born.  I am sure that I never threw it away, but I couldn’t find it.  However, I did find a yellowed day-by-day schedule left for our baby sitters when Peter and I went away for a week in January,1978. Here is an excerpt:

“Before school:  Please put out Seth’s clothes on his desk the night before.  Give both kids clean everything except trousers which they can wear again if not too dirty.  Seth will get up; around 6:15 and read or come down and watch sports on TV.  Jeremy will probably need to be wakened about 7:30 and he needs (or wants) help getting dressed.

After breakfast, Jeremy should have a vitamin and be reminded to go to the bathroom.  Seth will need his hair brushed  (brush is in drawer in hall).  Also, they should brush teeth, if time.  For snack, Jeremy should take four dried prunes and some raisins.  Seth usually takes some juice in his thermos and two whole graham crackers.”

That was thirty-two years ago.  A far cry from living three hundred seventy-five and five thousand miles away.