Here’s a look at some random moments from across the month of January.
Shadow dancing:
Being silly:
And still being silly.
That’s our boy.
Monthly Archives: February 2018
Nyan, Keeping Active
We try to always emphasize to Nyan the importance of exercise and movement – running around, swimming, walking, just moving. We’re blessed that the Singapore climate means cold air doesn’t keep us inside for several months of the year, so we do our best to take advantage. Let’s take a quick look at some of his activities.
There’s plenty of soccer, of course. We think he’s showing slight improvement! Slight, but it’s better than nothing. And, of course, the whole point is to get some exercise, learn teamwork, and get outside.
Here’s some recent taekwondo photos:
Sometimes he joins Mommy for some yoga:
Finally, for good measure, one more video of Nyan Thomas, soccer star.
More Reading!
If we wanted to, we could make this blog be nothing but photos and videos of Nyan reading, since he seems to always have his nose in a book. Not that we mind one bit! Among his current favorites are the Geronimo Stilton series, the Captain Underpants series, the HiLo series, as well as anything related to science, engineering, or how things work in general. Dr Seuss remains a favorite too; we’ve been reading him the legend of King Arthur too. It’s a long list.
Here’s some recent videos and pictures of the scholar, reading.
Enjoying one of his favorites, Geronimo Stilton:
Some pics:
Reading from one of the books that he’s assigned to read aloud on a nightly basis:
And a few more random shots:
Will there be more evidence of his love of reading in the future? Count on it.
Fun with Friends
Here are a few random moments shared between Nyan and various friends in January.
His friend and former MMI classmate Abi had a birthday party — at which we took hardly any photos, for some reason — so we got to see some of the old crew. Including Adriana; she and Ryan splashed in the pool together quite a bit.
Another day, we went to the cinema to see the latest Star Wars movie, the Last Jedi:
On the walk home, we happened to bump into Kyra and Chrysa and their folks on the street. Always nice to see them.
And of course, no review of Nyan’s friends would be complete without mention of Jayden, his classmate and friend who lives in the apartment block across the pool from us. They are quite similar and have such a great time together; it’s quite lovely to see.
(Nyan also gets along well with Jonnie, Jayden’s four-year-old brother. Nyan acts almost like an older brother to him at times.)
Sunday at Peninsula Plaza
In downtown Singapore, there’s an art deco-style skyscraper called Peninsula Plaza. It’s a shopping mall on the first few floors and then an office tower above that, and it’s sometimes called Little Burma, because the place is chock full of Burmese restaurants, groceries, travel agencies and shops.
It’s a place we’ve been to a lot, so when Nyan had a school assignment to write a little bit about a special place in Singapore that his classmates may not know about, he opted for Peninsula Plaza. We didn’t really *have* to pay it a visit, since we know it so well already, but any excuse for some good Burmese food. So off we went.
That’s the building itself, and Nyan standing outside it on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
The place was packed – there are thousands of Burmese domestic workers and construction workers here, and Sunday is their day off, when they all converge on Peninsula Plaza to eat and socialize – but we managed to find a table at a restaurant in the basement.
When Nyan wasn’t eating, he was drawing.
Maybe the best part of Peninsula Plaza, for Nyan at least, is a store on the first floor called Sin Toy. It’s full of cheap, junky toys, but every once in a while you can find a gem – like a die-cast metal airplane. It’s the shop where his big Singapore Airlines A380 model came from, and on this visit, he managed to convince Daddy to buy him a Jetstar plane.
Not a bad day.
Nyan the Young Scholar
Time for a periodic check-in to how Nyan’s doing at school. In short: just fine.
Here are some random pictures of the walk to and from school:
Walking around with various friends, mostly Jayden:
Here’s just a wee bit of his recent school work. We’ll have much more on this in the near future.
We live in the tropics – just north of the equator, in fact – which means we sometimes get tropical downpours. In January, we had a lot of them, usually at the exact time when we were heading home from school. No problem, though, with umbrellas and raincoats.
And finally, some of the funny faces our boy makes in the mirror of the elevator as we’re heading to school in the morning or coming home in the afternoon.
Hanging with Phwa Phwa
Phwa Phwa – Mommy’s Mommy – stayed with us for a few months, escaping much of the cold, dark, dreary and damp English winter. It was lovely to have her, and Nyan certainly enjoyed the companionship and attention.
She spoiled him, as grandmothers are wont to do. (To be honest, she somewhat spoiled mommy and daddy too, cooking us delicious meals nearly every night!)
All good things must end, and in late January, she needed to return home. Seeing her off at the airport brought a special treat: a model showing what the place will look like once they build the new, gigantic Terminal Five about a decade from now.
Then it was time to say goodbye, in a lush flower garden they installed inside the airport terminal. We do love Changi Airport.
Farewell, Phwa Phwa, and come back any time!
Once Again at the Singapore Auto Show
In January 2017, we took Nyan to the Singapore Auto Show (reminisce here). In 2015, we took a three-and-a-half-year-old Nyan to the same show, here. In 2018, we headed back yet again, and the show was just as much fun the third time around.
Nyan really enjoyed riding this giant motorcycle:
And climbing in and out of various car and truck interiors.
Also showed off how happy he was with some leaps-for-joy outside a delivery van.
Something new this year: BMW was offering virtual reality displays so you could see, I guess, what it’s like to drive a BMW, or something.
Not very interesting to watch someone do VR, perhaps, but Nyan certainly enjoyed it.
Best of all, though, was the boy who Nyan hooked up with. He was five years old, and just as excited about cars and trucks as Nyan. They ran riot around the whole place; luckily, none of the exhibitors seemed to mind (or if they did mind, they did a great job keeping it under wraps)
Will we return to the auto show next January? Yeah, we’re guessing so. Nyan woudn’t have it any other way.
The Friendly Skies
It’s not easy to get from Singapore to Iowa and back again. In fact it took six different airports, six planes (four jumbojets and a pair of smaller jets), and some 65 hours of travel all told. Whew. But Nyan has been traveling around the globe since he was five months old, so no big deal.
Here we are at the very start of the trip, waiting for our taxi to Change Airport and then saying farewell to Mommy (who had to stay behind)
First leg: SIN to NRT on Japan Airlines.
A short layover at Narita, featuring delicious Japanese food:
Then it was a long (almost six hours) layover at Dallas-Fort Worth. We spent about two of those hours in line at immigration. Welcome home!
Then it was food, riding the airtrain from terminal to terminal, and waiting.
Oh, and dancing too:
It was nearly midnight when we arrived in Iowa, but someone was happy to see Grandma and Grandpa. Not to mention happy to be able to move around for a change.
It was a fun two weeks, but all good things must end, and before long we were back at the Cedar Rapids airport, saying goodbye.
We almost didn’t make it: check out the snow falling on the morning of our flight.
Some snowy views from the planes at both Cedar Rapids and O’Hare. We made it out, though.
We had a 13-hour flight to Beijing, China on our way back, but we were lucky enough to be able to use miles to upgrade to business class. Nyan was ecstatic. Daddy wasn’t unhappy either.
Finally, our last layover, Beijing, where we faced many more slow-moving lines, but finally made it to our gate for our last flight home to sunny, humid Singapore.
We’re not yet sure where our young traveler will head next. Stay tuned to these pages to find out!
All Sorts of Fun in Iowa
We’re winding down our look at Nyan’s holiday visit to Iowa. Beyond the big events like Christmas Day, a road trip to Chicago and playing in the snow, Nyan’s time at Grandma and Grandpa’s was chock full of smaller but just-as-fun moments. Here are many of them, starting with a random selection of shots:
Here’s a quick video of the boy getting in the holiday spirit:
In the run-up to Christmas day, Nyan spent a fair amount of time “rearranging” and inspecting all the presents. Especially those with his name on them.
He helped Grandma bake cookies. Helped eat them too.
In the spirit of the season, Nyan one day handed Daddy a present he had gotten for him. It was…a tube of lip balm. But the thought was lovely!
Little-known fact: Grandma and Grandpa’s staircase is actually the tallest mountain in the world, and our boy scaled it:
A few more random shots:
Nyan helped Grandpa assemble a model train to run around the base of the Christmas tree, and hang ornaments on the tree too:
He and Grandpa also spent some time working on the train layout in the basement, as they always do.
It wasn’t corn on the cob season, but Nyan requested some, and Grandpa found some for him. It was… not as good as fresh corn in August. But Nyan didn’t seem to mind.
More random photos:
Last but not least: a bouncing Nyan, just bouncing.
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