Rejecting Tradition

When it comes to post-partum there are a lot of Chinese traditions that go on. One is no cold anything- only warm water or tea to drink, warm food and clothes etc. It is traditional for the women to have one month of rest and usually their moms come to help take care of other responsibilities. They are not to wash their hair for 1 month, and they have special soups every day for 30 days as well. They are very serious about all of these things. Consequently I have been told all about them by many an Asian for instance when I was talking to a worker who came by, I was freshly showered though still sporting damp hair and bare feet, busted!

There is a really nice Taiwan guy who oversaw the workers who moved us in and then referred us to the carpenter who made us a bed (we brought our mattresses and figured we'd buy a frame here, however there are none that will fit our mattresses. They generally don't use box springs here, just a mattress so we were kind of stuck till this carpenter came along and whipped out a nice bed frame for us, turned out great).

Anyway, the nice guy came with when the carpenter delivered the bed and when he saw that Ander had been born he whipped out a traditional Red Envelope and insisted on giving our little babe his first hong bao- a sign of congratulations and good luck with the color red being to ward off evil spirits. He gave him 600 NT (about $20) but the 6 is important as they consider it a very lucky number. He insisted on giving it to Ander himself which was cute. (notice the Red Envelope in the pic above)

You may notice the pink seat Ander is in. Our dear friends gave it to us (they have two girls, hence the color) and though I planned on putting a blanket over the pink, after the way he rocked all that pink in the hospital I figured it wouldn't hurt for him to do it at home. He's always pretty content in the seat so I figure the pink ain't botherin him.
Now this second picture I feel super grossed out and equally guilty about. Our original realtor who we love and have become friends with here spent time and money to prepare some traditional soup for me. Blessedly she didn't make the other kind which has pig kidney in it, she figured that might be too much for my sensitive-to-all-things-Chinese palate. She figured right. However, this soup which is made with no water but some sort of alcohol as it's base (she says the alcohol cooks out, but I'm thinking, no wonder these Asian babies are so nice and sleepy their first month!) and then aged ginger, and boney chicken giblets and a few other things I couldn't understand. It was SO kind of her to make this for me, it is to help the mothers body heal and help with your milk supply (but so does water, I can't help but think) and it was just plain thoughtful. In spite of her generosity I could not bring myself to even try it. I know! I'm terrible right? I just couldn't do it! It smelled so strong and gross... I feel seriously guilty but I just couldn't do it. I'm not Chinese so they can't make me...right?