Hmong Blessing Ceremony

We prepared all week (more like all month) for today's event. We even took off Friday to buy veggies and prep the house. We managed to squeeze in the state fair early in the morning then headed off to purchase everything else. 

Basically what a blessing ceremony is is a Hmong version of a baptism. We cook a lot of food, invite family, a shaman performs the blessing ceremony and everyone ties a white string around her and our wrists to wish is luck in life and give Lillian gifts (money). 

After every new mom has a baby, our culture requires us to do a "spirit calling" ritual before the mom-to-be gives birth to make sure both mom and baby arrives safely. 3 days after birth, the family calls the spirit again, just for the baby this time, to ensure the baby's safe arrival to our world. Then when the family is ready, a big gathering is done to bless the entire family. 

Our culture believes in spirits and that every person, whether unborn, born, alive or not, forever has one. We also believe in reincarnation which cycles through the same spirits. 

I find it beautiful how much support our culture has on family and the bond that ties everyone together. It's always family first. However, being that we live in the US, it is quite difficult for us to find a balance between the two. I'll explain more in a later post, for now, enjoy the photos from Lillian's Hmong Blessing Ceremony we had today. 

My good girl was sleeping during the hand tying ceremony. Such a silly bunny!

The last piece of cake...

I made sure I had it!

It was a long and stressful day. I woke up at 4:30 am to make rice. My sweet sister in law and brother came over at 5am to help and it was just us until about 7:30 am. 

I am so blessed to have such an amazing and supportive family. Everyone lent a helping hand and the party was a success. Thanks everyone for coming! We love you all!

Prepping

This weekend we were prepping the house and buying a million things at SAMs club for Lillian's blessing ceremony next weekend. We both took off Friday so we can clean the house and prep food. Ugh, I'm going to be so exhausted. 

So anyhow, I plan on ordering a cake for her ceremony so I decided to dress her up and take a current picture of her so I can put it on the cake. 

....... Look at my pretty princess!!!

5 months!

Lillian is 5 months old today! She decided to wake up at 5 this morning so I let her sleep with Soua and I. 

As you can see, she sleeps horizontally. Soua and I are left with about a foot of space to sleep on. 

Work today was long. I had an awesome informational with this old coworker of mine. I really need to get out of my pyramid and do something else... something new. I also embarrassed myself today by dropping and shattering my Pyrex lunch container because some girl decided to creep up behind me and scared me (unintentionally of course).  I had to run to get help to clean it up ad stood by my mess for a good 15 minutes. Good times... not. 

Came home later than usual and went straight to Cub Foods to buy state fair tickets and dinner. We celebrated Lillian's 5 month with cake! We ate it of course. 

We plan on attending the state fair next Friday. We both took the day off to prep for Lillian's blessing ceremony the following Saturday. 

It going to be busy. 

Milestones so far.

Lillian started rolling over completely about a couple weeks ago. This weekend I wanted to start introducing baby cereal to her. Silly girl made the silliest faces but she's getting better. She's actually eating and enjoying it!

I am also switching her from her nook to this new pacifier. She likes it too.  Luckily Lillian isn't too picky when it comes I these things and she doesn't rely on sucking on a pacifier to calm down. 

 Lillian will be 5 months on Wednesday and I really want to take her to get her ears pierced. Maybe Friday? We will see.

Overall, exhausting yet great weekend. Spent a lot of time at relatives' houses so it's nice to be home. Anyhow, I'm catching up on this new show on Netflix called "Orange is the New Black." So far it's not bad. I'll give an update when I finish the series. 

Lillian's up and rolling around now so I will check in another day. 

Capturing Life

I decided to start this blog to share my life as a new mom and also to document my daughter's growth.  I've noticed that I take tons of photos and want a place to share them along with quick memories and stories behind them.

I'll start from the beginning. My husband and I have been together since December 2013. I just turned 15 and he was 17. Who would have thought that almost 10 years later we'd still be together, let alone having our first child? We got married on 9-10-11 and started trying to have kids pretty much right away. We finally got pregnant June of 2012. We went through a lot together in trying to have a baby. When I found out I was pregnant, I was in disbelief. I was so happy yet nervous at this same time. Throughout my pregnancy I had a lot of extra doctor visits due to my family history. Everything turned out great at the end and my baby was as healthy as can be! We were ecstatic! My awesome sisters, sister in laws and friends threw me the best baby shower ever.  The theme was Candyland. Our baby was and is so loved and we are so blessed. 

Come March I was already in my final month of pregnancy. I had her on March 21st, 2013 at 6:23 pm.  We named her Lillian Gaonah Thao. She was 6 lbs 13 ozs and was 19 1/2 inches long. She was beautiful. 

It was a long 12 hour labor but was totally worth it. My contractions weren't bad up until the hour before she came out. I did it without any drugs, only IV. After giving birth I blew up. I was carrying so much water! Luckily I lost it all within the first month. 

We are finally complete. I'd like to introduce my family: Soua, Lillian and me, Kan.