100 Days, Jubilee! (Review of JoyBox)
Fourth trimester, the twelve weeks after a baby is born. And we survived! Well, struggles still continue because the first year of baby’s life is never easy. Yet, to make the journey easier, we celebrate milestones as we run this marathon. A flag to stop and hurrah as we climb the Mount Everest of raising a baby.
Apparently, in the olden days, it’s rare for baby to survive 100 days, and thus the celebration! It’s definitely not easy for both baby and mummy. A time of great adjustment — for the baby to be outside of the comfortable womb, and for me to be a mother of two. It’s been such a physical and emotional rollercoaster ride for me. So hitting 100 days definitely marks a celebration!
Another saying from folkartchina.com is that 100 days celebration represents the wish for baby to live 100 years. Hence, the baby will wear a silver longevity pendant (in Chinese called Longevity Lock) on the neck.
100 Days Celebration
100 days celebration is getting more popular in Singapore, although it’s still frowned upon by some elders — saying it’s like the post-funeral of 100 days. What they didn’t know is that families in China, Korea and Japan typically celebrate the first 100 days, rather than the baby’s full month (ζ»‘ζ).
Our Mini Celebration
Like for EX, we did a 100-day celebration for JBL instead of a full month celebration common in Singapore. Reasons being, I’m already busy with a newborn during confinement, I need to rest during confinement. More importantly, baby is still so vulnerable in the first month, especially with the Covid-19 virus raging outside. Compared to EX’s 100-day celebration, JBL’s celebration is much more muted because of the social distancing laws.
Still, we decor the backdrop with some pretty balloons and dressed up for a nice family photo. She’s grown so big since the newborn Fresh 48 photoshoot, so glad we did the shoot then. Her actual 100th day is on 8 June, but we celebrated on a joyful Sunday, 7 June when daddy is at home.
We didn’t prepare a cake because she can’t eat it and it’s only us, and EX birthday cake is coming in 2 weeks’ time. Yet thankfully, my friend surprised us with my favourite awfully chocolate cake! Technically the cake is for the supermum and superdad, but we still lighted it up for a birthday song. Looks more like my birthday in the photo, and like EX’s birthday in real life as she excitedly sang the song and blew the candle.
Wrote a letter to Jubilee and I appended at the end of this post because it’s way too long. You can read it if you’re interested. I have goldfish memory, so I need to write for Jubilee and me to look back on. And for Jubilee to know how much I love her in case something happens to me. Choy, but my brush with tuberculosis made me think that life’s indeed unpredictable.
Review of Joybox
The Ordering
I was googling for full month/100-day gift box of red eggs and ang ku kuehs when I came across Joybox. They have the standard items, except they’re more affordable than what’s on the market. I was enticed but wary of the lower price tags. Does that mean they compromised on quality? I once received a set from a popular vendor (with hefty price tag), and the items were not nice at all. Threw away 80% of it. So how will this compare?
I couldn’t find any online reviews and almost went with another vendor. Just before I could do that, a mummy in my mummy’s WhatsApp group shared about her orders from Joybox. At S$11.90, she got the 8-piece Stayhome set (made of 2 boxes of 4-piece) with doorstep delivery to all recipients and a free baby e-card. She was happy with what she received and recommended this good deal to the other mummies.
Hence, I decided to order from Joybox. Where better to get gift boxes on behalf of Jubilee Joy than at Joybox! π
With 10 cute box designs to choose from, we got the cheesy mouse design because JBL is born in the year of rat. Next, we chose from 6 to 8 combinations of a 6-piece or 4-piece standard set. Don’t like any? Customise yourself! We got the standard 6-piece set of 2 red eggs (which signifies birth of a new baby), 2 glutinous rice, and 2 ang ku kuehs. Get ang yees if your baby is a boy!
And for a small fee of S$10/S$20, Joybox will design and send a virtual message card to all the recipients. For my case with doorstep deliveries, Joybox sent the card when informing them of the delivery date and timing.
The Delivery
The boxes were delivered in the stipulated time frame and packed nicely. Love the matching virtual card and box design (see above). I wrote the message in mandarin for the purpose of some older relatives. π For certain recipients, I had Joybox sent the announcement card I designed previously to match EX (see beginning of post). They are flexible with that too.
The Food Items
The red egg, nicely dyed. The cakes were okay. The glutinous rice with a peanut was palatable for me, but might not suit the buds of those who prefer a stronger, saltier taste and with more fillings. The ang ku kuehs were nice and sweetness just right. The items indeed taste like what Joybox claimed, freshly prepared at their central kitchen on the morning of delivery. Hence, the food quality is not compromised like I was worried about.
Have fun planning for your baby’s celebration!
Mummy’s Letter to Jubilee
Dear Jubilee,
You shine of joy in the darkness of tears. When you were in my tummy, you had to go through medical procedures and lots of x-rays with mummy, ingest many types of antibiotics everyday since the second trimester. Stern warnings were given for pregnant ladies to steer clear of these.Β
Yet, you not only survived my tuberculosis, you thrived despite it. I’m thankful for how well you turned out to be. I never take this blessing for granted. I am still praying that no abnormalities, no deformities will ever befall on you as you grow into a beautiful lady inside out.
You had a high chance of getting newborn jaundice because your sister has it, and you have the same blood type as me. But you didn’t. We went to the polyclinic and the nurse commented it’s her first time seeing a single digit of 9. Went the second time and the jaundice reading dropped further. The nurse was amazed. Went for your developmental check at one month old and you grew so well, jumping from 50% to 75% on all counts.
You had fair and smooth skin. Yes, there’s the usual baby rashes and pimples. I asked the paediatrician about it even though it’s quite a small area. And she said your skin is in fact good and nice. You did have to visit the doctor twice in your first three months because of colic/stomach problems. Had blood in your poo. Common baby problems apparently.
You unlocked achievement in leaps and bounds. Started rolling to your side very early on, and once or twice I thought you crawled. How strong your legs are, also evident in your strong kicks when we changed your diaper. Very so often now, you tried to flip and rotate /spin clockwise. You also have a strong neck. When I baby carry you, you craned out instead of leaning on my chest. Twice, you were trying to sit up when I cradled you!
You are an interactive, expressive and happy baby. You oohh and ahh, as if you are in a conversation with us. At times, you chuckle out loud, like literally LOL. You smile a lot too, sometimes even smiling back when I am crazy screaming at an innocent baby like you. How to stay angry!? Yet, when you cry, you cry very loud too. No whimpers, but loud cries, from the very first second. Sometimes when you are angry, you pout. Such a cute angry pout. And those startles that came with pitiful cries made me want to carry and sayang you. You’re indeed a ζ§ζ δΈδΊΊ.
You like our company. Very often wanting to see us and be in our presence. Wanting us to carry instead of lying there to play on your own. You have a side sleeper beside our bed, but you would cry until we put you on our bed. Most of the time you sleep better on our bed. Is it because of the comfortable Simmons? If that’s not enough, I must snuggle you into my embrace before you fall back to sleep. You are a light sleeper like your daddy and jie jie. Please sleep deeper and give me rest okay? π
I’m so glad your sister loves you very much too. Always kissing and hugging you instead of mummy first — first thing in the morning, or when reunited with you. She would put her finger to your hand for you to grab, and excitedly tell me when you grabbed it. I also like to do this too.
Of course, it’s not a bed of roses. There were times Jie jie covered her ears from your shrilling cries. And once, by grace of God, I felt something was amiss and checked on you two. She was muffling you with a pillow! She said it’s to stop you from crying. My heart skipped.
The other day, she was talking to you, “Mei mei, when you grow up, let’s go swimming together. Let’s go play sand together, ok?” I can’t remember what else, but I know she wants to play with you and bring you to places with her. Grow up to be best friends ok?
When you were born, Covid 19 virus struck earth, along with riots, forest fires and racism. Uncertainty, chaos, and fear rose to new levels. Yet as the earth is mired in the drum of darkness, I believe you came to proclaim a Jubilee of hope with a trumpet of joy. May the fire of God in you never grow cold. May all who meet you be infected with your joy, breaking into smiles and laughter. May you grow to be a woman after God’s heart.
Daddy thought of your name Jubilee when we were coming up with names for your jie jie. I added Joy to your middle name. You are indeed our bundle of joy. Our bundle of love.
I love you, Jubilee Joy.
With Love,
Mummy
Disclosure: This is an editorial review. I was sponsored a small portion of the package and was not paid for publishing my experience with this service. All opinions are of my own and are genuine.