Malacca Trip

Looking back, the first day was bad. And that was an understatement. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Firstly, we left home without our Malaysia map. Our rental vehicle was a petrol-guzzling Nissan Sunny (rumoured to cover only 9 km to 1 litre). We wasted 2 hours by picking the wrong link (never, never use the Causeway during a holiday). Next, we missed our turn-off at the North-South Highway and lastly, the hotel got our booking dates wrong.

The bright side was, with such a start, things could only get better. The hotel mix-up "forced" us to upgrade from a superior room to a deluxe one. It was worth every ringgit of it. Remember this name: Hotel Puri. It was a "butik" (malay for boutique) hotel set in the pre-war houses just one block off the famous Jonkers Street. The location was superb. We just picked ourselves out of bed and we were in the heart of the city. All the "happening" eateries are within 5 min walking distance. Cheeky Mummy said it best, "Really shiok to get to come back to the hotel room to rest and no need to stay out the whole day."

Food there was cheap and good. Could have been better though but unfortunately, the food guide that we used (the Channel U one) was crappy. Of course, we missed the little cheekies and were glad to return home after a 3-day break. With this vacation over and done with, Cheeky Daddy is plotting to see if he can convince Mommy to go for a longer one next time...

Malacca Trip

Today, Daddy and Mommy will be going to Malacca for a 3-day vacation. And we are not bringing the little Cheekies. Mommy has been preparing herself for the "separation". We will know how successful she is once we cross the Causeway.

Cheeky Vids has gone beta!

Merry X'mas!

Cheeky Daddy just spent another wonderful day home with the kids. He was also hard at work tweaking the video gallery of the Cheekies. And yes, it is now live!

For some technical reason, he decided not to merge the video gallery with this blog so that he did not get nagged at by Cheeky Mummy for "making the whole thing so complicated". So people, you do have to do that extra click.

I have put up the vids for Sep and Oct. Will make it up to date if I can put down my Terry Pratchet novels. They are my opiates. Meanwhile visit cheekyvids.aspen.com.sg and enjoy!

A back--dated post

I wanted to write this on Friday but got too caught up with doing everything with my two daughters so it's really a bit late.

Friday was the last day at work for Aspen Learning Centre so daddy and I both thought that it would be a cool idea to bring RQ to our Parkway Parade branch. On arrival, RQ took a grand total of 1 minute to get over her shyness and started strutting around the classrooms like she owns the place. She shifted whiteboard markers from room to room, disturbed daddy in his classroom and generally made the entire centre her playground.

I needed some supplies to last through the entire holiday period so we brought her downstairs into the shopping madness of Parkway Parade. She didn't want to be carried at all! She wanted to walk amongst the throngs of adults by herself!

Then I see a glimpse of the future RQ. She saw a makeshift shop selling overpriced teddybears and she just ran over and went like "Wow.." And she picked one up, tucked it under her arm and walked around, surveying other bears and going "nice..nice..nice.." to every other bear on display. I had a vision of myself buying up the entire shop just to keep her happy...

Buying groceries at Cold Storage was educational. She insisted on pointing out every "fish" and "meat" item to me and I had to acknowledge or else Her Royal Highness would get louder and louder. I really don't think I'd be doing this very often. Too embarrassing...

We bought a Rotiboy bun for her and it just took 1 bite before she told us that she "don't want bread, want this" pointing to the sugary coffee crust. Of course, she was on sugar overdose hyper for the next half hour, running and giggling throughout the different classrooms.

I was quite relieved when it came time to go home. More like totally exhausted.. In the cab, she nodded off to sleep within 2 minutes of boarding and it was quiet peace all the way home.

Nice start to the holidays...

It's X'mas Eve!

It is a rare treat that both Mom and Dad get to stay home the whole day. Daddy finally got to bath Yi Han. Kinda sad to bath your daughter for only the first time after 6 whole months but well, these are "calculated sacrifices" that we have to make as entrepreneurs.

Rei Qi is thrilled to have us home all day and is particularly "manja" (attention-seeking). Not that I mind. We have a great dinner lined up, with Eng Seng chilli crab (you must eat this to say that you have eaten chilli crab before) , steam boat and Shiraz. Staying home can be real cool sometimes.

The Cheeky Family would like to wish all our friends a blissful X'mas and a happy new year!

Rei Qi and Yi Han are really quite the sisters act.. Yi Han has the strongest grip and yank on hair and Rei Qi's flailing hands pack quite a punch. Yet when we put these two girls side-by-side on the sofa this morning, Rei Qi excitedly waved her hands all over the place but slowed down so that she will not hit Yi Han. And Yi Han smiled directly at Rei Qi, grabbed a handful of her hair but did not yank and actually just let go. The two just smiled and laughed at each other like the best of friends. Makes me so happy...

Ice-cream & hugs

It is getting harder and harder to get RQ to hug Daddy. She has a store of boundless energy and yep, she is busy practicing saying "no". Not last night though. Armed with a tub of No Frills Neopolitan ice-cream, she hugged me more times in an hour than what I had been getting in a week. I cannot think of a better way to spend five bucks.

Chocolate ice-cream

Over the couple of months, RQ has developed this irritating habit of saying "no" to everything. She has this very deliberate, nasal way of saying "Nnooo" that makes it quite cute but it gets on our nerves anyway.

Last night, to test out my hunch that she will utter "no" to anything whether she understands it or not, I asked her if she would like to have chocolate ice-cream. I could see that little mouth of her forming "Nnn" but nothing came out. She blinked a couple of times, as if to decide whether getting the ice-cream or fraying my nerves was more fun.

Anyway, got to run. Have to go get my girl her ice-cream.

Happy Birthday?!

"Rei Qi birthday coming soon!"

"Rei Qi want cake, please!"

I just get this feeling that the aunties are teaching her all the wrong things behind my back.

YAAAYYY!!! Yi Han is Daddy's girl again!

This will be real short. Yi Han finally allowed Daddy to coax her to sleep again! For the past 3 weeks, she bawled her lungs out whenever Daddy tried to put her to bed. That shattered Daddy's heart to bits. Daddy knows every infant goes through their "phases" but it still hurts quite a bit. Finally, that phase is over! Boy, she smells so nice....

Coffee, tea or....

Cheeky Mommy recently bought Rei Qi a plastic tea set. Since then, her favourite morning activity was to make "tea" for Daddy. She would pour the tea into those tiny cups and hand one over to me. And she would say "Cheers!" with great deliberation. Then she would stare intently as I pretend to sip my cup of tea till it's empty. She would then treat me to the most beautiful grin. That, is what I call a pick-me-up.

Yesterday, we brought Rei Qi to her first Circus visit at Bugis. She was totally taken up counting the stars printed on the Big Top. Then when the show started, she watched intently like everybody else without a fuss. Rei Qi really didn't care very much about acts which just involved people, so acrobatics and trapeez acts were boring for her. But she really loved the juggling acts.

She spontaneously wowed and enthusiastically clapped her way through the ball-juggling and the fire-baton spinning acts. I was so thrilled just to see her enjoying the performances. This also signals to me that she has indeed grown up. I really didn't expect her to be able to sit through a 2-hr performance without complaints.

After the show, she promptly fell asleep before reaching home to take her lunch. Then she took a lengthy nap (2.5 hr) and the first thing she told us when she woke up was 'Uncle fly' and 'Uncle throw ball'. The circus experience must have taken her entire naptime to process and digest...

Ah Cuo (great-grandma), Ah Ma and I were just sitting around Rei Qi and Yi Han when Rei Qi suddenly rushed towards Yi Han who was lying on her stomach on her mat. Sensing that she was up to no good, I quickly intercepted before her flailing arms could hit her younger sister. All of us asked her why she wanted to hit Meimei but she just said 'No', turned and walked away. As usual, we started asking Rei Qi whether she was a 'good girl' or a 'naughty girl'; just a silly attempt to try to get her to acknowledge what she tried to do was wrong.

Rei Qi just leaned on the coffee table and stared just straight at us. Without blinking. Then there was a subtle change in the look in her eye and we were looking straight into a pair of eyes full of mischievious intent. Something like this.


Without even cracking a smile, she slowly..deliberately...blinked her big beautiful eyes and then gave a cheeky little twist of a smile. Just about like this.

That just totally ran over all 3 adults like a monster truck and we just looked at each other in bewilderment. What??? How did a 21-month old toddler actually know how to tease? Oh dear...I think daddy and I are gonna be in big trouble when this girl grows up...

Getting the best out of "thecheekyones" (Geek Version)

If you have no idea what RSS and Atom are, you are probably at the wrong place. If you are not bamboozled yet, read on.

Cheeky Daddy has done all the necessary setup so that you can get your dose of thecheekyones using your favourite news reader. Both Blogger and Flickr support both RSS and Atom format, so take your pick.

thecheekyones.blogspot.com
- Atom News Feed
- RSS News Feed

www.flickr.com/photos/thecheekyones
- Atom News Feed
- RSS News Feed

You're all set! Do browse through the help post for ordinary folks as well so that you get a better idea how we organize our stuff around here.

Getting the best out of "thecheekyones"

This is a simple site, but there are certain "quirks" that you should be aware of to reduce the level of frustration. For the geeks out there who toys with news readers (RSS & Atom), I will let you in on some cool secrets of thecheekyones site in another post.

For the ordinary folks:
1. This is the site that you should visit. Bookmark this! All updates would be announced on this site and linked accordingly.
2. All photos will be linked to Flickr. It is a really cool site but it does take some exploring and getting used to. I will attempt to ease you in. Whenever you click on any photos here (including that cool Flickr badge in the side bar), it will link you to a larger version on Flickr. Always look The Cheeky Ones' photostream. Click on this and you will see all photos arranged in chronological order.
3. If you want to skip all the cheeky rumblings on this site and go straight to the photostream, that can be easily done by going to http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecheekyones. Bookmark this if you wish.
4. Flickr also has this concept of "sets", in which photos are grouped together based on a topic instead of chronology. If you are looking for particular events, you might have better luck here.
5. At the Photostream page, there is this cool link Calendar at the side. Click on this and you will see photos grouped based on the date that they are updated.
6. All videos would be linked to another site. Simply follow the instructions there!
7. The predecessor of thecheekyones is Rei Qi's Photo Gallery. This contains photos and video clips of little RQ from birth till she was 18 mths old. There are some gems in there, so happy exploring!

That should be it. Enjoy the site!

A little bit of history

Little Cheeky No. One, Rei Qi, was born on 15 Feb 2004. She was (one of) the most beautiful thing that Cheeky Daddy had laid eyes on till then (Cheeky Mommy being the other). Like all proud Dads, one of the first things that Cheeky Daddy did amidst all the diaper-changing was to setup an online photo gallery for little RQ.

Being a geek that he is, he soon optimized the whole process with cool toys like Picasa and Dreamweaver. However, with the load of photos and videos that were being produced each month, that soon proved to be a burden that he could not keep up with. It got worse when Little Cheeky No. Two, Yi Han, joined the jolly band of cheekies on 25 June 2005.

An impatient lass by nature, Cheeky Mommy simply could not wait for Daddy no more. She got herself a Flickr Pro account and started uploading pictures to show off the two little cheekies. Of course, Cheeky Daddy was more than glad to have new toys to play with. He immediately got to work and after a bit of research & tinkering, came up with this cool match of Flickr & Blogger. This was the birth of thecheekyones.blogspot.com.

Why "The Cheeky Ones"?

Because we are! For evidence, you need to look no further than here & here (see those cheeks?!). Belying their serious countenance and teacher-like persona (occupation hazard lah..), Cheeky Daddy and Mommy are really cheeky at heart. So there we go, a complete roundup of the cheeky family!

Photo Updates!

Cheeky Mommy has just completed a major update. Enjoy!

Cheeky has gone beta

The beta version of The Cheeky Ones is ready. Blogger & Flickr make this so easy that it didn't take Cheeky Daddy that long to figure out how to get this going. These 2 fantastic sites work really well with each other. Kudos to the teams behind them.

The only downside is that the Cheeky video clips have yet to find a home. There are workarounds, but none that compulsively elegant. Cheeky Daddy will work something out this weekend. He will also tidy up some remaining loose ends and we will be ready to roll.

The Very First Cheeky Entry

Cheekiness is a trait that runs deep in this family. The parents of Cheeky Dad and Cheeky Mom will gladly tell you stories that went back a few decades. Certain evidence of "cheekiness" had been painstakingly preserved. Of course, they will vehemently deny that the trait originated from them.

The little Cheekies are the stars here. Drop by often to catch them.