So Close

Want to help?

I got a wonderful email from a blog reader, someone who I haven’t spoken to before.  She asked if I, Rose or Beauty would be offended if she sent some of her old clothes etc to us for either Rose or Beauty to use, or for them to give out to the community.  I said OF COURSE NOT!  What a wonderful idea.  How very generous of her.

So this got me thinking.  Depending on how much it costs to post the stuff (and it could be expensive all the way to South Africa), how about if there are any other of you who would want to do a similar thing?

There are so many many needy people here, plenty of AIDS orphans here who are too young to work and who literally live off the handouts from others.  Or seriously impoverished people who can’t find a job.  They would love any old clothes, baby or kids clothes etc that you might have.  Rose and Beauty could distribute them in their community. 

My mother and I are already doing this with some of our stuff, but the more the merrier.  And don’t worry if the things are stained or marked. I promise you that if you have no sweater or shoes for winter (as is the case for many people / kids here) you will certainly not mind about a mark or two.

I am very excited about this.  There are just so many needy people here.  There are also people in the local community to run informal care centers for abandoned mentally and physically disabled kids, often with no outside funding or help.

Ok, calm down Tertia.  I realize that it might be too expensive to post stuff.  Damn.  But if you can, and if it is not too much to send, then please email me and I will give you an address to send it to.  I am not sure if you pay for weight or volume when you post things?  Oh whatever, if you can and want to, it would be great.

Confession

I have a confession.  I have no schedule, no routine with the babes.  Actually, I lie. We do have a nighttime routine.  At 6/630 pm every night we have a bath, then bottle, then bed.  We do that every night. But besides that, the day is pretty much a free for all.  They do eat every 3-4 hours, but it could be 6, 10, 2, 6 one day, the next day it could be 7, 10, 1, 5 etc.  We just take four hours or so from the first morning feed.  If they are hungry that day we might do every 3 hours, always ensuring that they get the required amount of food per day.  By midday'ish we have both babies on the same feeding times by shortening one baby's gap between feeds. 

And as for naps, well they nap when *they* want to.  We have no routine. 

Unwittingly, I seem to have become one of those type of mothers, I don’t even know what you call them, the ones that say you (the parent) should fit around the child’s schedule, not the other way around.  And while I think that type of parenting is perfectly fine for those who choose that method, I am not entirely happy with that style for my life.

I am not sure how it happened.  I appear to be an even bigger softie than I ever thought I would be.  I mean it is me we are talking about, anally retentive Tertia.  The one whose house is meticulously neat, whose life is pretty ordered.  Who shaves her armpits and does NOT belong to Greenpeace.  (joke my friends, joke!)  I honestly thought I would be a v strict mother, instead I am a big wuss*.

I can’t seem to get the kids into (onto?) a strict schedule.  I am beginning to think it is because I don’t want to. I mean, I would LOVE them to be in (on) a strict schedule, but I don’t want to force it on them.  See, it would mean my little weakness, my little issue I have, would have to take place.  Crying.  I am scared I would have to let them CIO in order to get them to nap on schedule.  Don’t want to do CIO (yet) so how can I ‘force’ them to nap on a schedule?  What if they are not tired on *my* schedule? Or hungry on my schedule?  Clearly Gina Ford and I would not be BF's.

So, here are my questions:  (I know I am opening myself up to all sorts of differing opinions / advice / assvice, and that’s fine, I want to know what you think so assvice away).  Should I ‘force’ them into/onto (wtf is the correct way of saying that?) a schedule?  Am I doing any harm by not having them on a schedule?  The babes seem happy, they certainly are thriving ito growth etc.  And the nights (including the sleeping) are fine, getting better, Kate better than Adam.  Obviously it is easier for me having no schedule with two nannies. If Rose was alone she would have to have them on a schedule.  I would like to get them on an almost schedule sometime soon, maybe by six months?

Am I the only one whose kids pretty much eat and sleep when they want to during the day?  Do I win the WWM** award?

*meaning nampy pampy softie type
*Worlds Worst Mother

Odds and Ends

Some answers to your questions and other odds and ends

What I do for a living: 
I am a Product Manager (capital letters) for an IT company.  We provide end-to-end (blah blah marketing stuff) e-business solutions. I am Product Manager for e-learning.  I am not a techie, I don’t know my bits from my bytes.  But I do know marketing, customers and the product.  I work for a really great company, I love working there.  The people are really great, I have a lot of fun at work.  I think they think I am slightly loony.  I am very fortunate that I work in such a great environment.  It would be a million times worse going back to work if I hated my job.  I would love to work half day, or work from home, but because my job is customer facing I need to be out and about.

Life in SA from Rose and Beauty’s perspective:
I have asked Rose and Beauty to write something up for my blog but I am not sure they will.  Neither of them have ever been on the Internet and certainly the whole blog concept is pretty foreign to them.  I printed out the things I wrote about SA to give them an idea, but I am not sure they will want to write something.  But I will ask them again.  I will tell them that America wants to know ;-)

Beauty’s son:
You asked who looked after Beauty’s son while she was at work?  He goes to school until about 2’ish and then he goes home where his granny looks after him.  In the black community here in SA the grandparents often look after the children while the parents work.  Beauty is very fortunate that her son and her mom live with her.  Many of the black women who work in the cities only see their children once a year, on their annual leave.  The children often live with the grandparents in the rural areas.  Rose doesn’t have kids.  Both Rose and Beauty are single.  They are both Jehovah’s Witnesses and will only date someone from their faith.

Transport here in SA
There is practically no (safe, reliable) public transport here, so many people have to take what we call mini bus taxis.  These are 11/15 seater mini buses, owned and operated by (mostly black) taxi owners.  The taxi drivers who drive these taxis are notoriously dangerous drivers, they ignore all traffic rules and bully fellow road users.  They overtake on the curb, they ignore speed limits, they pack their taxis way over capacity and the law is just about powerless to do any thing about it.  They issue fines, but they don’t follow the fines up because firstly the people either give fake addresses and ID’s or they are too scared to go find them?  I don’t know.  They drive like idiots often endangering their passengers, but the passengers have no choice but to take the mini bus taxis to work.

There is a new mall that has opened a few kilometers away, and obviously the taxi route to the new mall is a very lucrative one for taxi bosses.  There are two main taxi owners in the area, both of whom want the license to operate the route.  Since the opening of the mall two weeks ago, four people have been killed including 3 passengers.  The warring sides just shoot each other or the passengers.  It’s like the Wild West.  So the government stepped in and shut down all taxis from the route and the surrounds.  (The minister now apparently fears for his life.) On Monday Beauty was an hour and a half late for work because there were no taxis coming to my area.  This is her reality.

HIV/AIDS
The prevalence of HIV/AIDS is huge here in SA.  It spans all race groups but is markedly higher amoung young black people.  Someone asked whether I wasn’t very nervous that one of my nannies could be HIV positive.  The reality is that at ante natal testing more than 1 in 4 women are found to be HIV positive.  So it could be possible that one of the nannies could be positive.  Here in SA it is illegal to ask anyone if they are HIV positive or to ask them to go for a test.  So either of them could be.  I don’t think they are.  And it obviously does worry me that my children could come into contact with someone who is positive, but it is a reality here, I can’t get away from it, and I would hope that if either of them are, they would take precautions to ensure that the virus is not passed on.  This is life in Africa.

Anon’s comments
You know, I wasn’t upset by what she said, I was more upset that it was posted anonymously from someone I considered friendly.  I felt betrayed.  But it is all sorted now, she wrote to me and apologized.  Every one makes mistakes.  I also apologized to her, I needn’t have said what I said either. 

Solids
As for the solids, I have decided to wait a little while.  My gut says wait.  Not that I think Adam is not ready, but because I can see he doesn’t NEED to have solids now.  I was just so taken aback by the ped suggesting cereal that I thought I would ask the friends in the computer. 

Wardrobe crisis
I met my boss for lunch yesterday.  Ostensibly to brief me on what is going on at work (note use of big word casually slipped into sentence, clever me), but I think he was a bit nervous about whether I was coming back to work at all.  I assured him I was.

So I had to find something other than holey old shorts and T-shirt to wear.  OMG, I can’t fit into any of my work clothes.  I am too bloody big.  Shiite.  I refuse to buy bigger clothes because I want to lose this weight, but I don’t have a thing to wear. Fuck.  How fucking irritating.  Am enormous fat pig.  Do you think it could be all the chocolates and junk food I have been eating?  Surely not.

And you know what, while I was speaking to my boss I remembered that I actually do love my job.  That helps my transition back to work, a lot.  That and having Rose and Beauty at home.  I think I will be ok.

Some facts and figures about South Africa

Check out this website. 

Hi, my name is...

Let’s say I invited all of you to my house for some wine and more wine and maybe a bit of cheese.  There you had to stand up and introduce yourself to the rest of the group, how would you describe yourself.

I have been thinking about this for a while.  Who am I and how would I explain who Tertia is?

I think I would say something like “hi, my name is Tertia, I live in Cape Town, South Africa, I am 36 yrs old, I work in IT and I have 3 month old twins.”

I suppose it depends on the situation and who makes up the group, but it struck me in the week that the things we use to describe ourselves says a lot about who we are.  Like why do I always need to say my age? I think this could be a hang over from my infertility days where age plays such an important role.  You always say how old you are when you are an IVF vet.  Cos it makes a difference.  (can you hear that biological clock screaming in the background?). 

I mention where I come from because in the Internet world it is nice to know where people are from.  In fact I think I am so used to defining myself in Internet terms that I wouldn’t know how to do it any other way.

And why don’t I mention I am married?  Not relevant?

If it was an infertility group I would surely add my ‘credentials’.  The ‘twins’ thing is new, obviously.  I haven’t test driven it yet.

I have no idea why this has been going round and round in my head lately.  Actually maybe it has got to do with this whole redefining myself and finding the new me. 

Or maybe I just think too much.

How would you describe yourself?  What would you stand up and say?

That damn TV

Ok, I will admit I am slightly odd (some would say very).  I don’t like going to see movies or watching DVD’s.  I cannot ‘escape’ into the movie.  I know it’s not real, I can’t pretend otherwise.  I also find movies too prescriptive.  Listen to this fucked up logic of mine.  I prefer reading because *I* decide what the characters look like, what the scenery looks like, reading is engaging, interactive, it is participatory.  I can escape into the story, I admire the brilliance of the author's art to engage my interest and my mind.  When you watch a movie the director/producer/whoever tells you who the character is, what they look like.  That isn’t xxxx (character in the story), it is Brad Pitt, pretending to be xxx.  See, I can’t get past that.  Told you I was odd.

So you can imagine how much I love TV, NOT!!  I hate TV, it is lazy, boring, waste of time stuff.  The whole 14 weeks I was on bedrest I never switched the TV on.  When Marko goes away the TV stays off, blissful silence.  That damn TV is so intrusive.  I hate it.  I do watch sometimes, when every thing else has been done (i.e. chores) and there is nothing else to do, but I will watch CNN, Sky etc, or sports. Another odd thing about me, I love watching sport on TV.  Oh and I will watch reality TV like Idols, Survivor etc.  Does that make me trashy odd?

However.  Marko LOVES that effin TV, and it drives me nuts. I cannot understand how someone can spend their entire weekend sitting in front of the TV.  I want to do things, chores, tidy up the cupboards, fix things, build things, DO THINGS.  And yet I know for some people, and apparently many males, sitting in front of the TV is their way of relaxing, unwinding after a hectic work week. 

It works terribly on my nerves.  By Sunday night I am in a bad mood and a real bitch to Marko.  I just find it such a waste of time.  To me life is too short to be watching TV, but I suppose he could say life is too short to be doing chores all weekend.  I love chores!  Chores are useful, you get things done.  I can’t do nothing, I will go mad.

Help me understand the TV thing.  What is it about TV that is so attractive? It must be genetic though cos every time we go to the in laws the TV is on from morning till night.  It drives me insane.

Hmm, reading this I do sound a bit hyper don’t I.  Actually, I must be a huge pain to live with, haha.  Thank god I am G&D or else Marko would have dumped me long ago for a quieter, more obedient model.  And probably younger and lower mileage.  At least I am consistent.  Consistently odd that is.

Still hate the TV though.  Stupid thing.

NOTE:  I did go see a movie on Saturday, first time in about three years.  I went to go see Meet the Fockers because my mother had said that Robert de Niro’s character was exactly like my dad and she was right.  Silly movie, but it was true, my dad does look and act exactly like Robert’s character!  Ha ha.  (Mother had Adam, Rose had Kate.  I decided to spend quality time with husband.  V good wife. T = winner.)

Life in SA: The two South Africa’s

Our president, Thabo Mbeki, recently spoke about the fact that there are two South Africa’s that exist, one of the rich and one of the poor.  And it is true.  And unfortunately, the reality is that while the ‘rich’ are both black and white, the ‘poor’ are mostly black.  That is why when I speak about SA I keep telling you that it is from my perspective, the ‘rich’ perspective.  Because the reality for the ‘poor’ people is so different.  Let me try and explain.

If you had to ask me what our hospitals are like, lets say our maternity wards, I would say they are excellent, like hotels.  Seriously.  The meals are edible, you choose off a menu, I had a private room, my own bathroom that is cleaned at least once a day, sometimes twice, my linen changed at least once a day.  We even got a candlelight dinner for two on my last night there! 

Then you ask a poor person what the maternity section of their hospital is like.  They will tell you that there are no pillows on the beds because they keep getting stolen so the hospital has stopped replacing them.  You need to bring your own sheets.  There are no private wards, in fact there are probably about 20 of you in one ward. There are no appointments, you just come in and wait in the queue for your turn.  The Dr’s are excellent (we have some of the best Dr’s in the world) but the conditions are horrific and the hospitals overcrowded and understaffed.  And dirty.

Why is this?  Because the rich can afford medical insurance, the poor cannot.  The private hospitals charge a fortune, but we have medical insurance that pays for it.  Of course this medical insurance costs a fortune, but we can afford it because we earn the much higher salaries.  The government hospitals will offer free medical care to the poor, but then you have to go to the hospital mentioned above.  My medical insurance is more than Rose’s salary.  One day’s stay in a private hospital is twice Rose’s monthly salary.  I am trying to illustrate the disparity here.

Then, ask me what education is like in SA.  I will say that we have access to excellent education, depending on where you stay and if you can afford it.  Things are getting better, but there is still a huge difference between rich and poor schools.  There are still poor schools that don’t have roofs on their classrooms or electricity.  Government is working to change this though.  When I went to school there were no black children in my school, they weren’t allowed to attend ‘white’ schools.  Now the schools are totally integrated, but because they serve the local area, it is mostly the well off that attend the well off schools.  There are good public schools out there, so a public school education is perfectly fine.  Public schooling is not that expensive here in SA and if you can’t afford to pay I think they make concessions.  However, I will be sending my kids to private schools, where the fees are outrageously high, but at least there are not 40 kids for one teacher. 

See, your standard of living, your lifestyle, totally depends on which reality you live in.  Daycare in the richer areas costs you about $135 a month (told you it was reasonable).  Daycare in the poorer area will cost you $10 a month.  An average mortgage in the richer area might cost you $1400 a month, in the poorer area it might cost you $83 a month.  Of course the quality, safety etc is totally different.  It is just that the difference between the two SA’s is so marked, it could be two different countries.

I would love to take pictures for you of a black township, to show you what it is like.  But I do not feel safe enough to stop my car to take the pictures.

That brings me onto crime.  Crime is a reality here.  We do have some of the highest rape and murder statistics in the world.  Again, unfortunately, it is concentrated in the poorer areas with the poor suffering more than the rich, at least for the violent crimes like rape and murder.  Overcrowding, unemployment, poverty, drugs, etc all lead to increased levels of crime.

Living with crime becomes a way of life.  I have security bars on my windows and doors, I have an alarm system, I have (1x homosexual, 1x obese) dogs.  I never leave the front door unlocked, even if I am home or Marko is home.  Never.  Rose and Beauty know never to open the door to any one unless I have told them someone is coming.  This is how we live.  I don’t like to drive at night, and if I do, I will not stop my car, not at the traffic lights or stop signs.  It is too dangerous.  I always drive with my doors locked and my window rolled up.  It becomes such a way of life that you do it automatically.  You have to. 

There is no welfare system here in SA.  There are things like a child grant, but the amount is so tiny that you cannot live on it, at all.  It might feed one person for two weeks, if you are very thrifty.

This is why I work, so that I can live in an area where the crime is a fraction of what it is in the poorer areas.  So that I can afford to go to a decent hospital if my kids are sick.  So that I can send my children to a decent school, to university.

Life is indeed comfortable, even luxurious for me.  The reality for many others is vastly different. I am extremely privileged.

The picture I am painting sounds awful, and it is, but it is getting better.  There are increasingly more opportunities for people of all races.  But there is no denying that the legacy of apartheid is this enormous inequality between the different groups of people, one which will take a long time to erase.  But we are moving in the right direction.

There is so much that is wonderful about this country, I don’t want you think its all doom and gloom.  There is hope where there previously was fear, there is opportunity where there previously was institutionalized racism, there is peace, there is an optimism that permeates through most South Africans.  We have had decades of apartheid and only 10 years of freedom and democracy, it is going to take a while. 

And not to be underestimated, there is the absolute beauty, the privilege of living in Africa.  There is nothing quite like living under the African sun.  Nothing at all.  I don’t think I could ever leave.

Dear Anon

Today has been a barren day in terms of blog postings.  In fact it has been a barren week.  Most of the posts you have been reading have been saved up posts from my more creative moments.  Lately I have been feeling blah.  It’s the going back to work thing.  It is on my mind all the time. I am dreading it.  I love my job, I love the people I work with, but I do not want to leave my babies.  So I have been feeling very blah, guilty, horrible, scared etc.

Then, just when I thought I would have to go a whole day without posting and let the side down terribly, I read a comment that spurred me into action.  In fact I was so spurred I handed Kate to her dad (Adam is sleeping), rolled my sleeves up, took my watch off and got ready to box.

So this is the comment (from the Rose and her Beauty post):

I know I will be attacked for saying this, hence the reason I am not posting my e-mail addy. But that is too bad that your kids will not have their mom at home raising them. I am glad you have employed loving nannies. I just figure, why have the kids if you are going to spend a good part of your day away from them?

And then she added the following:

Oh, and my hubby and I took a pay cut from 75,000 to 35,000 so I could stay at home. So I am saying this first hand. It can be done!!!! Just a thought.

Lets tackle the second one first.  I am not sure what more I can do, short of posting my total expenditure and income, to convince you that I can’t afford NOT to work.  I have to work.  I thought I explained this in my many posts.  Does it sound like I want to work?  I CANT AFFORD NOT TO WORK.  Got it?  I am not working so that we can eat out, or that we can take holidays.  I have to work to live.  Telling me that you cut back in America has no bearing on life in South Africa.

Then the first comment.  Was that really necessary?  Did you feel good posting that?  You must know you are playing to my deepest fears.  You must know that I feel so guilty about going back to work, yet you still say what you said?  Why?  Why would you want to hurt me? 

Then you ask why I had kids if I am going to spend a good part of my day away from them?  Ask your husband that question.  Think about it.  I could ask the same question of him.  Why don’t you ask Marko that question?  That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard.  You don’t have kids so that you can spend the day with them.  You have kids because of love and family.  Not because of how many hours you clock up.

Then, why post anonymously?  I can never understand this.  It is so cowardly.  Have the strength of your convictions and post your name. If this is how you really feel then why post anonymously?  Why be afraid of something you feel strongly about?  It is so easy to take jabs behind the veil of anonymity.  Take a stand. I put myself out there daily on this blog, I have also time and time again told every one that I welcome dissenting views, tell me if you believe differently, but put your name down so that we can talk.

Then lastly, and worst of all.  You pretend to be a friend, you’ve written me sweet emails in the past.  You are supposed to be a Christian? I read your website and its all holy and sweet.  You write “Lord, whenever my human emotions try and get the better of me, step in and intercede”. 

Yes, you see, the thing is, I know who you are.  I am sure you never expected that when you posted did you?  The Internet leaves a trail my dear.  How dare you pretend to be tolerant, loving and forgiving and then you post an anonymous comment like that?  How judgemental of you.  How nasty to hit me where it hurts.  Would you have carried on pretending to be friendly?  Perhaps the Lord is interceding as you asked.  Because I know who you are.

Busted!

Babe pics

and a gorgeous one of Rose and the babes.

 

Rose and her Beauty

Now you are all really going to hate me. 

*flinching, getting ready for onslaught*

I have employed a second nanny!!  Yes, a second nanny as an assistant to Rose.  I now officially have ‘staff’. 

Now before you all throw your hands up in the air (and wave them around like you just don’t care), the second nanny (her name is Beauty) is there to help Rose when I go back to work. 

I have some money saved up and about a month ago I said to Marko ‘you know that money that I have saved up?  Well I would like to spend it on myself, something for me, is that ok with you?’  And he said yes.  So I said I wanted use my savings to employ a second nanny for about a year, maybe less depending how long my money lasts.  I don’t want any material things, I don’t want to go on holiday, this is what I want, this is what will make me happy. 

It is not that I don’t trust Rose or think she wont cope.  I trust her completely.  It is just that, as you know, twins are a lot of hard work for one person, and Rose will be alone with them all day.  I just do not want to have to have the situation where one has to lie crying while the other one is being fed etc.  And yes I know every other twin mom has to deal with that but if I can help it, if I can afford it, then I want to prevent it.  I just don’t want my children to have to lie crying for ages.  This is just me.

I do let them cry, promise.  I know you are all probably thinking ‘jeez woman, let the child cry for a few minutes’, and I do, really I do.  But not that ‘sobbing their little hearts out waiting to be picked up’ crying.  Not yet.  Maybe when they are six months. 

So I will have two nannies, how ridiculously spoilt am I??  But this is what I want, this is for me.  This is what is going to help me go back to work without worrying myself sick about the babies.  And it is not forever, my little savings fund will only last so long.  But it’s better than any holiday, any material thing.  I wont buy new clothes for x years, I don’t care. 

Ok, so how can I afford to employ TWO nannies and still say that I have to work?  To understand this fully you need to know how things are in SA.  But I will try and explain it a little.

Firstly, check out these articles for some background.

As I have mentioned before, I earn a really good salary, not one of the highest, but I probably earn in the top 5% in this country, which is not saying that much because the majority of this country are really poor.  Unemployment is outrageously high and poverty is widespread.  In addition, the difference in salary between skilled and unskilled / semi skilled workers is enormous.  Do you know what the Gini coefficient is?  It is the measure of the difference between the highest earners / richest and the poorest.  SA has one of the biggest differences in the world.  Although better than the rest of Africa.  And it is not just along race lines, it is along employment / class lines.  Black and white top earners earn way way more than the lower level workers, who unfortunately are mostly black.

So it means that people like Rose and Beauty, who are basically unskilled workers, have to fight it out for positions and earn way less than ‘management’ do.  Even with paying them both 2 or 3x the going rate, their salary together only comes to about 25% of my salary.  If I paid the going rate I could employ a third or even fourth person for the same amount.  If I employed ‘illegal aliens’ i.e. people in the country illegally, I could employ five such people.  Such is the reality here.  Obviously I would rather pay far more and get a Rose and a Beauty.  Day care would be a lot cheaper, about five times cheaper, but I don’t want to go that route, not yet.

So I still have to work.  My mortgage payments are 50% of my salary.  With the rest I have to buy food, pay my insurance policies, clothes, baby stuff, rates, water, electricity etc.  Marko’s salary pays for our two cars and our health insurance, that’s it.  Sad huh.  Cars and houses are so expensive here because of the high interest rates.

Back to Beauty.  Rose found Beauty, they go to church together.  Beauty is a little older than Rose, she is 34 and a single mother.  Her and Rose get on divinely.  She wont live with us like Rose does, she will come in every day 8.30 – 4.30.  She is almost as divine as Rose (no one could ever be as divine as Rose), and between the two of them they will look after the babes, do their washing, bottles etc.  Neither of them is qualified as a nanny.  Rose gets her experience from helping her mom run a day care, and Beauty is a mother.  Both of them have a passion for children and are trustworthy, wonderful people.  I am sending both of them on baby stimulation, baby massage courses etc.  Rose has done a CPR / first aid course.  Obviously this gives me huge peace of mind for when I go back to work.  I feel like I have my bases covered at home, that the babies will be well looked after.  Yes, it should be me at home looking after them, but in order to live as we are, I need to work.  We’ve been through this.

Does this sound very strange to you guys?  Do you understand how I can afford to have two nannies and still need to work?  Do you think I am revolting spoilt?  I know I am.  I am v v fortunate that I can afford to have two nannies.  I would still rather be at home looking after them myself though, but if first prize is me at home, this is second prize, at least for me. 

Solids

So we went to the pediatrician yesterday to try and solve the snotty nose problem (nothing we can do about it, cost me 600 bucks* to find that out).  Both babies above the 50th percentile for weight, height and head circumference, so they have more than caught up to babies born 4 weeks later than them.  Adam is 14.08lb (6.4kg) and Kate is 12.86lb (5.8kg).  3 months old now. Healthy babes.  Kate smiled and coo’ed at the Dr, Adam yelled his head off.

My regular ped wasn’t there so we saw his partner.  This guy says I can start with some rice cereal now.  I thought you weren’t supposed to start until at least 4 months, preferably 6 months? 

We have no history of allergies in our family, but we do have a history of asthma (uncle, nephew).

What do you think?  Should I start Adam on some cereal now?  What harm can it do, if any?

*oops!!! edited to say that was in my currency.  R600 = about $100.

BTW it is 00:26 am, NOW the boy is awake and in a sterling mood.  Asshole.