Traditionally there are certain foods you give if your baby is a boy or girl. In MN, when one of our family friends had a son, they sent 油飯(oily rice) and red-dyed eggs to all the family friends. They also shaved his hair and made calligraphy brushes! If I remember correctly, they got three brushes out of his hair. When I was a baby, I had almost no hair :( So it wouldn't have worked for me!!
Anyway, here is a quick collage of the "modern" baby shower gift:
There was a 6-inch honey cake, a macaron, two each of two types of cookies, four lemon marshmallows, and a snake toy (Year of the Snake!)
Here is the macaron:
I gave the rest of the treats to a friend since I don't have a working refrigerator and they need to be eaten within three days for freshness. Plus, I am supposed to be trying to eat a healthier diet since I've gained some kilos recently!!
The macaron was really nice :)
After giving birth mothers need to stay in bed to recover for one month. There are a lot of rules and traditions about what they can and cannot do, what they can and cannot eat, and what other people can and cannot do around them. I've never attended any baby/birth/baby shower (where you give gifts to the mother before the baby is born) or any related event in the USA, so I guess apart from what I've seen in movies I really don't know much about how new mothers are treated :P I expect they're supposed to rest, too!
What traditions do you or your family or country follow surrounding childbirth? Or do you think it's all a bunch of nonsense and mothers should just eat and do whatever they want?
