At the end of Confinement

I am following the Chinese tradition of 'zuo yuezi' which literally means sitting the month. According to this site, it is the month where after childbirth, women are not allowed to leave their homes, take a bath, wash their hair, exposed themselves to cold water, cold temperatures and wind, or ingest ice water or 'cold' food (raw vegetables, salads, or fruits). Having losing blood after delivery, women are in cold stage therefore they need to consume 'hot' food to restore balance, like chicken, ginger, Chinese wine, or soup.

At the end of sitting the month, on the 30th day, comes the first important event for the newly born baby, the one month celebration. According to this site, during the celebration, families give relatives and friends gifts which usually includes red-dyed eggs. They are chosen because eggs are the symbol of changing process of life and their round shape is the symbol of harmonious and happy life. Red is the sign of happiness in Chinese culture. Relatives and friends will give presents in return which include things that the child will use like foods, daily materials, gold or silver wares. The most common present is ang pau which is money that is wrapped in a piece of red paper.

Rachel and Richelle receives their gifts before their one month celebration. It is a custom here that relatives and friends come to visit right after the baby was born and they bring the babies gifts like one mentioned above.

Gift me more!

I want to have these wrapping paper in Richelle's baby book as memorabilia, so I cut the better areas where wrinkles the least

Wrapping papers, already cut into small sizes to fir Project Life pockets

This one is a favorite, we love love love shopping in this store, mommy's heaven!

You can guess which store I'm talking about from that infamous little lady logo

What's inside the box

Do my husband's friend mistaken Richelle for a boy? What an odd choice for baby girl gift!

Now the hard part will be determining what we should give for our relatives and friends. Although I have my choices, it seems that it is possible that we are not getting them exactly on the Richelle's one month celebration. Another flunk on my site, duh! Stay tune and get the chance to see my choices of souvenirs.