Another fabulous baby shower

Thanks to Helina, Judy, and Lilian, I had another fabulous baby shower in the city on April 5 - this time with my girlfriends in the city.

Helina, as usual was a gracious host, who bought all the yummy food, and offered her place for the shower. Judy went to 8 or 9 stores so she can put together a great favor package for all the guests and Lilian led the games and festivities. Thank you so much.

Click here to see all the photos from the shower. Let me know if you want me to send you any.

Here are my favorite highlights from the shower:
- the food: organic strawberry and blueberry fruit tarts (wow - out of this world); cheesecake shower cake (took half home and enjoyed it with Jaime for another week) - yummy; endless watermelon. Helina probably bought enough food for 30 people.
- Game "Find the safety pin in rice" - never thought it would be hard, but it was almost indistinguishable in your hand since you cannot look. The highest score was finding 3 in 1 min.
- Of course, baby Noah stole the show when he showed up. Everyone was enchanted
- I think I found at least one future babysitter (Cindy). It was so cute how much she loved playing with Noah. Cindy, expect a call from us soon :-)

Thanks again everyone for coming and getting the fabulous and practice shower gifts. 2.5 weeks to go.

- Lei

Baby Shower Gifting Etiquette - Do's and Dont's

Now that I have been invited to a few showers and had 3 myself, I thought I provide a little advice to anyone who is invited to a baby shower for the first time, in case it helps. It would have helped me years ago when I was invited to my first one.

I am still amazed at the whole shower ritual since it's not part of the Chinese culture as well as amazed as the vastly different consideration people give when they attend a shower and/or give a gift.

Do's
- Cash, checks, gift cards are king! They give the most flexibility to the mother-to-be and are always useful for diaper funds and any unforeseen future needs. If she didn't specify a store, Babies R Us, Target, or Lullaby Lane are probably best. I am personally less of a fan of Baby Gap - over priced stuff and shitty return policies
- Buy something from their registry! Parents-to-be usually spend hours researching for the right gears and stuff for their baby and put it on their registry. They consider safety issues, comfort, ease of use, parent feedback etc... They would be ecstatic to get something they actually registered for. This sounds like simple instructions. You would be amazed how many people don't follow it no matter how much you ask them to do it for you. About 30-40% of the gifts I receive were off the registry.
- Include a gift receipt for everything (whether it's from the registry of not). Even if you buy something on the registry, help out the new parent-to-be and include a gift receipt. It's a lot easier for returns. Why would they want to return something they registered for, you ask? Well, just because we registered for it, does not mean we would or the baby would actually like it once we received it. Many of the items on the registry are viewed online and sometimes when we get it, we are quite disappointed with the quality. It would be nice to have the receipt so we can easily return it and get something else we need

Donts
- If you accept a shower invitation, don't be cheap - buy a gift that is at least $20. I am surprised at the cost of giving a shower, but for most of us middle to upper class folks, a baby shower can easily cost the hostess (usually good friends of the mother-to-be) $20 a person or more for the favors, game prizes, and food. While any gift should be appreciated, if you do plan to attend a baby shower, have some class and provide a gift that is at least $20. Otherwise, it can be an insult to the hostess and potentially very embarrassing for you. If $20 is too much for you, don't attend the shower and send whatever you want. This is not about the money. It's just that since the baby shower ritual exists, it seems to be an unspoken rule.
-If you want to give a gift, don't go rogue and not provide a gift receipt. If you don't attend any baby showers, no one expect you to give a gift unless you want to. If you do want to, try to avoid going off the registry and buy something you think the mother-to-be will need. More likely than not, you will be wrong. Most new moms already warned me that I will get too much clothes especially I am having a girl. I tried to remedy that by asking people to buy from our registry and still I ended up with enough clothes for two babies between 0-6 months and not much after that. So many gift givers just want to give something that looks cute to them and not consider the hassle for the mother-to-be because she will want to return them and get something she can use or the waste it incurs when she realized that she has no idea where to return the stuff since there are no gift receipts. Perhaps I am too practical, but some gifts causes more frustration than appreciation since the gift giver is well intended but I ended up with something useless than takes up storage space.

At the end of the day, I am personally very lucky. From never intending to have any baby showers, I received 3 fabulous ones and much love and celebration at each. Between friends and family, we got at least 80% of what we need for the baby already and as I mentioned more clothes than we will ever need. For the most part, I have been able to returns gift that I don't need and get store credit. There are a few that I can't but c'est la vie. I guess it's part of the American culture.

- Lei

Vegas Baby Shower was over the top awesome!

I was never someone who knew much about the traditions of baby showers or expected much from any shower. That, however didn't stop my wonderful mother in law from throwing the ultimate baby shower for me and baby lapena this past Saturaday, Feb 23, 2008.

From food to decorations to games and favors, every last detail was intricately designated and flawlessly executed. I am blessed and really overwhelmed by all the effort and excitement around this event. You can see all the pictures here and here.

Here are the highlights:

1. The centerpiece was so creatively done - see picture on the left. Mom bought a basket and painted it pink and then put together this display on the table. All the guests then left the gift in front of this centerpiece.

2. The gifts were overflowing from complete stroller sets to many cute outfits to practical things we asked for in our registry. It was so much fun opening so many presents at once. It was like a mega - xmas in Feb. :-) Thank god for Emily for keeping track of who gave us what.

3. The hand decorated home-made Apple-Carrot cake - wow - beautiful and delicious. I love the little teddy bear on top of the cake - it will the baby's first teddy bear

4. baby bottle shaped name tags and fake pacifiers for all to wear

5. pass the dirty diaper game and the diaper change team competiton in blinds. It was hilarious to watch all these auntie in these game. We had a total of 26 guests all friends of my mother in law

6. beautifully decorated tables with streamer, dolls, baby stuff, and our pictures in coaster - very detailed touches on everything.

7. Food was fantastic - lumpia, empanada, baked macoroni, finger sandwiches (the chicken one was my favorite) + cookies and candies

8. The custom hat Tita Tusa made of all the streamers from the gift. Jaime had to wear and suck on a fake pacifier to take a picture. You can see on the photo link above. So cute... :-)

What can I say - I was quite speechless when I first saw the decoration and still feel overwhelmed just how big of a party it was for my mother in law to throw. Baby was probably also excited as there were lots of excited voices and conversation during the shower. All in all - way beyond what I expected and a blast.

Thanks mom, dad, Em, and all the aunties for a very memorable baby shower in Vegas!

-Lei