clean linen

Leanne's actual birthday is 28 July. However, we had celebrations for her over the entire week starting from 26 July all the way to 2 August:) 26 July, Sunday 27 July, Monday 28 July, Tuesday Leanne is growing up too fast!

During my pregnancy, people would ask me if I was afraid of giving birth. I would reply no. The delivery will take place in a matter of time and it would be all over within, in more extreme cases told to me, 24 or 48 hours. My greatest fear was breastfeeding. It is for months on end. It is out of my control whether I have enough milk being produced and whether the baby will latch on properly and well. So far, again, and I will say it continuously, God is good! Thanks to a great massage contact, milk stimulation was awesome and I have more than enough milk for the baby. It is too much now actually. As for the baby, she knows how to latch, but she's a fussy and slow eater. She would rather sleep than eat. So if she is both sleepy and hungry, she fusses and would rather sleep first. But she doesn't sleep well because she is hungry... Further, she gets impatient and doesn't want to latch and have to suck for the milk when she's really hungry. Yet if we see that sh...

Leanne on Day 2 (290717) I entered into an entirely new phase of life on 28 July 2017. God was sooo good to me during the pregnancy and He continues to be so awesome and good to me in the delivery and caring of my child. It all started at about 1.30am on 28 July 2017. I started to get contractions and I knew deep within me that it was the real thing. They were no longer fake or braxton hicks contractions. I was in self-denial though because I really wanted the baby to come out 1 August or after. We were expecting to have the weekend to continue preparations and setting up for the baby, but she couldn't wait, and God had other plans! By 3.30am, I knew there was no more denying it and I woke the husband up. The hilarious thing is that his first reaction to me saying, "Dear, I'm having contractions and I think this is it" was to get out of bed and put on the bedsheet on the baby cot mattress. We even hung up the clean clothes in our cupboards before getti...

We met up with our wedding photographer, Goderic, yesterday, and received the official wedding (and pre-wedding) photographs from him in such an awesome box! We really love his eye for details. We took a quick scroll through all the actual day photos last night and he caught beautiful moments. He also made special effort to photograph every person who helped in one way or another to make the day (and night) a success and so enjoyable for Eugene and me.  He had actually put together this video consisting of the day-only photos to be shown at the dinner banquet, but we didn't have the time to show it properly with the song. It was actually just playing on loop throughout the dinner. Here it is with the songs he chose:

We are one month into our marriage! Time has flown by so quickly and we are already in the second-last month of 2016. Many people ask us how married life has been so far - we say it hasn't really begun because we are still waiting for our house renovation to be completed. We are now staying with our parents, and we call the place Aroozoo Resort because we do not need to worry about cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. Most of what we need, we get it done for us on a request or even without us asking but our helper or parents already notice it and provide for us. We are so blessed! We are now aiming to move in during the last weekend of November so that we don't clash with my sis and bro-in-law moving into Aroozoo Resort that same weekend.

Days leading up to 1 October 2016 were tiring and stressful, but I think they were all worthwhile thinking back to how much I enjoyed 1 October 2016. It went by too quickly. I miss wearing my wedding and evening gowns! heh. Here is the awesome Wedding Day Express highlights video done by Douglas and his team at XD Studio - LOVE IT TO BITS: I thank God for the great day He made it. He provided good weather and made everything come together so nicely. He gave us a great team of friends and vendors (Goderic for photography, Shirley for the bridal studio doing hair, makeup, flowers and of course the fantastic dresses, Douglas for video, and Joo Geek for MBS) who made the day so enjoyable for Eugene and me. It was everything I imagined, and so much more. I wish it went on just a little longer!

Day 2, 1 April, Friday Whether it was due to jet lag or (and) the powerful heaters in the rooms, corridor and living room, everybody was up by 6 am. All of us had a leisurely breakfast of random things bought the day before. John Gell came by on his way to work and sat with us for 20-30 minutes before he left for work and Eugene and I headed over to Victoria Centre to get a SIM card for me from EE. We then checked out of our apartment and started our drive up to Manchester. We drove through the Peak District and it was really windy and cold! We stopped at one point to admire the scenery and take some shots like this one: Hungry and needing the toilet, we stopped at the Snake Pass Inn, which was randomly on the way. The hot soup, beef pie and really fat chips was immensely satisfying!  We finally reached Manchester and joined up with Denise at Ibis Salford Quays hotel. It was a mad rush thereafter because our Old Trafford stadium tour was set at 2pm but I still...