Just unloading a handful of photos, in no particular order, from January and February that, far as we can remember, didn’t make it in to any other posts. Also a couple of random videos from the same timeframe. Enjoy!
Monthly Archives: February 2014
Nyan Thomas at the Science Museum
On a rainy Sunday a few weeks back, we took Nyan to London’s Science Museum. It is, like most museums in this city, free and sprawling and pretty great. It’s all about – you guessed it – science, in a variety of formats. Here’s the lad checking out the view from the balcony above the main hall:
That main hall, right when you walk in, has huge old Victorian-era steam engines. There are whole wings devoted to mathematics, and to space rockets, and to the Large Hadron Collider and the research that goes on there. (That last one is probably a bit too advanced for our boy (not to mention his Daddy)). So lots of stuff to see and do. He loved it.
He embraced his agrarian roots in the section on farming:
And there were plenty of open spaces for Nyan to run around, plus random displays of fascinating things to look at: Read the rest of this entry »
Nyan Thomas at the Dinner Table
A trio of silliness at (and around) the dinner table.
Playing with a a tow truck while waiting for a big pancake:
Taking off socks, fastening seat belts, and other ways we play instead of eat:
Getting in a bit of morning exercise, then unwinding with a toy house:
(All of these were, of course, shot in Iowa a couple months back.)
Weekend Update: Big Boy Bed, Art and More
It was a big weekend in Nyan Thomas’s world: he moved to the Big Boy Bed! Okay technically it’s the same crib he’s always had, but Daddy finally figured out that, rather than buying a whole new bed, he could just take the front off the crib and voila – it’s basically a bed. Was Nyan excited? He was:
He took to it pretty well – he has yet to climb out of it overnight or when he’s having trouble falling asleep; we’re not sure if he just hasn’t figured out that he could just crawl out and open his bedroom door or what, but we’re not about to tell him that.
Sunday was a beautiful day here: about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, crystal blue skies, nary a cloud to be seen. We had tickets to see an exhibit at the Tate Modern art museum, so we headed there (being careful not to tell Nyan we were going to a “museum” since he associates museums with airplanes and buses). Here’s Mommy and Nyan on the tube, and on the bridge connecting the museum to St Paul’s Cathedral. Look at that bright sunshine!
At the museum itself, Nyan did fairly well as Mommy and Daddy looked at the art – he was a bit antsy, a bit bored perhaps, rode around on Daddy’s shoulders as Daddy pointed out various things in the paintings and Nyan pretended to be interested. Frankly he was more patient than we might have expected.
We had lunch at the restaurant upstairs. While we waited for our food, Nyan drew pictures with the crayons and posed for photos with Mommy:
And when the food arrived, Nyan decided he would chow down on… butter:
Yes, butter. Straight up butter.
Well, at least he’s getting some calories…
After a train ride home and then a nap, Daddy offered to take Nyan to the park. He didn’t want to, he said. So Daddy asked him what he wanted to do. “I wanna ride a train!” Fair enough: Daddy took Nyan back to the tube station and they rode the train. Didn’t go anywhere: we rode for about 20 minutes out into the British countryside, then got on a train going back the other way. But he loved it. Here he is waiting for the train:
Other tidbits from the weekend: Here’s Nyan, getting in some reading during breakfast. Yes, he wanted to read the local recycling guide.
And here he is playing in the tall char in our bedroom. He likes to crawl into there and pretend it’s a food stand, offering ice cream, cake, tea, etc. to whoever. He had a lot of trouble getting in – he’s growing up!
So, a fun weekend overall. And he was pretty tuckered out by the end of it – and obviously quite happy to crawl into his big boy bed on Sunday evening.
Nyan Thomas in the Kitchen
Here’s a trio of fun videos from December of our boy undertaking various kitchen activities.
Nyan Thomas, baking a cake and making cups of tea for a very appreciative Mommy and Daddy:
Helping Grandma with the (real) dishes. He loves those purple gloves!
Singing a song as he gets ready to help Grandpa make cookies:
Road Trip: Rochester Castle & Cathedral
About 45 minutes to the southeast of London, on the banks of the River Medway, is the old town of Rochester, home to the 900-year-old Rochester Castle. It’s quite a sight, both inside and out – the wooden floors have long since rotted away, so inside you get some tremendous views all the way up to the sky:
A few weeks back, on a sunny but windy and chilly Sunday morning, we headed there to take in the views. We climbed up probably eight stories to the very top and found some stunning views:
Just across the road is the Rochester Cathedral, a pretty beautiful building in its own right. It’s the second-oldest cathedral in England, and Christians have been worshiping on this very site since about 600 AD.
Inside is a huge and tremendous pipe organ. And, on this Sunday, also inside was a silly boy who decided to lay on the stone floor and pose for a photo.
Later we walked around the church grounds, where the grass was still green despite it being the middle of January. Nyan was just happy to be able to run around, pick up sticks, explore the statues… typical Nyan stuff.
We had Sunday lunch at a pub, wandered the old High Street a bit, and generally took in 1,000 years of history. All in a day’s work.
A Day at the Museum
Back in December, Daddy took Nyan and Grandma to a place called the Iowa Children’s Museum. It’s attached to this big shopping mall and is, I think, intended as a place for kids to chill out while their parents spend money at the stores.
It’s an okay place, if a little worn down. Plenty of things to do: there was a life-sized model ambulance, a room made to look like a grocery store, another like a kitchen, and so forth. Here’s our hero behind the wheel of the fake ambulance (which we had a hard time getting him out of):
There was also a room filled with drums, xylophones and other musical instruments:
And there was a large display of model airlanes, ranging from life-size to minis.
As well as demonstrations of air in action – like a thing where you make a parachute fall from 30 feet up, or this demonstration of ping-pong balls and jets of air:
And there was a big, mostly empty room that featured a long wooden ramp-ish think, like a roller coaster. The idea was to drop a golf ball from the start and get it to go all the way. Harder than it sounds – but Nyan and Grandma made it work.
I can’t say that we’ll ever rush back to the place, as it was a bit costly to get into, and just seemed a bit run-down, especially for the price. But Nyan loved it, which of course is what counts.
Nyan Thomas and the Chocolate Dinosaur
A few scenes from a lazy Saturday morning. Starting at the breakfast table, where a mention from Nyan that his piece of toast was actually a dinosaur prompted Daddy to start filming. Watch the rest:
Here he is a bit later, burning off some of his voluminous energy:
And later still, just playing in the front room and listening to all the ‘loud noises’:
Nyan Thomas Goes to Church
We live just around the corner from an old church (as does, I think, everyone on this island, actually. It’s quite nice). We hear the bells ringing all the time, and we walk by it every day both to and from school. It’s a lovely old building, perhaps 250 years old (that is to say, it’s a fairly new build). Here’s a photo of the exterior:
Nyan being Nyan, he became quite curious about this building, and many mornings would ask if he could go inside. Well, no, we had to explain, as it was time for work and/or school. But someday.
A couple weeks ago, that some day came. One Saturday afternoon, Mommy and Nyan wandered into the gorgeous building and checked it out. Nyan, as you can see in this video, was happy, smiling, giggling, asking ‘what’s that?’ as the organist practiced:
There was also a food donation box, and Nyan asked about it. So they walked across the street to a little grocery store, bought a few cans and other food, and returned to the church, where Nyan placed the food into the donation box. Never too early to teach him the importance of generosity!
Saturday Night Fever: a Harp, a Wedding, a Dance
Nyan’s Uncle Ye and Aunt Lisa got married on Saturday afternoon/evening. It was a beautiful sunny day out in the Essex countryside, and a lovely ceremony and dinner/reception. Nyan Thomas was to be a page boy, helping escort Lisa into the ceremony.
Unfortunately, it was a 2:30pm ceremony, and Nyan fell asleep at 1pm for his usual nap as we drove toward the venue. We arrived at 1:30 and he was snoozing away, so we let him keep sleeping in the car, since he needed some rest. Daddy finally had to wake him up at 2, and the young man was not a happy camper. Not throwing any fits, just dour-faced and clearly in no mood to be a page boy. So he was all dressed up with nowhere to go… but hey, he looked good at least. (Most of these pictures are from the photo session immediately after the ceremony.)
Of course, within half an hour of the ceremony ending, he was in his usual high spirits: Read the rest of this entry »
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