Our boy is three years old today. Here he is in July from 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Category Archives: Photos
Photo of the Day: Cat in the Hat
You know the Cat in the Hat, right? The Dr Suess story? We’ve been reading that quite a bit lately. You know how the cat has a big floppy hat on his head? Well, the other day, Nyan grabbed a water bottle, placed it on his head, and said ‘I’m the Cat in the Hat! And sure enough, the bottle kinda sorta does look like the hat from the book! Kind of. Either we’re overly impressed with our offspring (quite possible, we admit) or the kid’s got a splendid imagination.
(click to enlarge)
New Friends
We’re extremely pleased to report that Nyan has started to make some new pals here in Singapore. After two months of hanging out with Daddy pretty much non stop, the poor kid, he’s now got some friends at his new school, and he’s started to pal around with kids here in the apartment complex too. The complex is five 21-story towers, built around a series of swimming pools and playground. On weekends and in the evening, the place is heaving with kids. The other day, Nyan noticed that one of the kids, a fella maybe six months younger than Nyan (his name’s Aiden, but they call him Danny Boy for some reason), had a plastic digger or bulldozer or the like. So Nyan went upstairs, got his own plastic digger, and went up to the little boy to share and play. And they were off to the races.
Later they moved over to the playground, where Nyan and Danny set up a shop, just like Nyan used to do back in Wanstead:
Danny’s older brother was there as well.
Now, almost every day when Daddy and Nyan walk home from school, Nyan peels his eyes for Danny Boy. If he sees him, Nyan will run up to him, and then it’s a good hour before we’re able to get Nyan upstairs for dinner. But that’s perfectly fine! Here they are on another day, climbing up the jungle gym.
Photo of the Day: Nyan and Aiden
An old university friend of Beatrice’s, Brian, is from Singapore and lives now in Shanghai. He, his wife and their five year old son were visiting recently, so we all got together for an afternoon of dining and wandering around Singapore. Nyan and Aiden are two peas in a pod – energetic, boisterous, total boy’s boys. They got along great. Here they are in a moment (just a moment) of quiet reflection, looking at a cactus I do believe.
Bonus photo: Nyan got a hold of someone’s camera, somehow. Here he is waiting for just the right moment to snap his next masterpiece.
(Click to enlarge)
Photo of the Day: Spaghetti
When Daddy’s younger brother, Nyan’s Uncle Mike, was just a little thing, he fell asleep at the dinner table one time, plopping his face right down into a bowl of spaghetti. We couldn’t help but be reminded of that when we saw this photo. Maybe it’s the bowl of spaghetti, maybe it’s the 1970s-looking tablecloth, maybe it’s the 1970s-looking effect of the photo (brought on accidentally by an odd flash on this particular shot), maybe it’s the fact that Nyan looks remarkably like a young Daddy or a young Uncle Mike in this photo. Whatever; we like this shot.
(Click to enlarge)
Photo of the Day: Durian
There’s a fruit in southeast Asia called the durian. Some call it the king of fruits; some say it smells nasty and tastes even worse. Daddy was game to try it, and sad to say, he found it incredibly unpleasant, with a nasty taste that lingered in his mouth for hours and hours. Yuck.
Coincidentally, the very next day, Nyan found a book at school that was all about… durian. It’s written in Indonesian, but seems to be about a little boy whose family wants him to try durian, but he is put off by the smell. Then he sees everyone everywhere enjoying the fruit, and has dreams wherein he is dancing around with giant durians, so he finally decides to try it…and he loves it! (I’m pretty sure the book was published by the durian growers association….) Anyway, Nyan spent several days in a row seeking out the book and reading it all the way through. Or at least looking at the pictures and asking Daddy what was going on in the story. And no, he has not (yet?) tried an actual durian.
(Click to enlarge)
National Museum of Singapore
The National Museum of Singapore is housed in a grand old colonial building not far from downtown and the shopping district of Orchard Road. I can’t tell you what all is in the museum, but they recently opened a new section just for kids, and better yet, it was free – so Nyan and Daddy headed down there.
It was a bit of an odd display, to be honest, but no complaints; it was fun, it was interesting, it kept the boy occupied for a while. One room had a pretend kitchen, which of course our boy took to like a fish to water, or a chef to a kitchen.
There was also a giant TV that was open at the back – intended, I think, for kids to put on puppet shows and pretend they’re on TV. And some sort of faux reel-to-reel tape player. Not sure what the point of that was, to be honest.
The best part – Nyan’s favorite certainly – was this giant fabric thingie with all these holes. You were supposed to roll these plastic balls along the fabric and into the holes – but it was tough because the fabric was uneven, so the balls went every which way. It kept Nyan occupied for quite a while:
And Nyan. Oh Nyan. That friendly and cute little girl is trying to help you out! She’s trying to give you balls to roll down! But you, you little boy you, you don’t care. Ah, Nyan.



















