Here’s a bunch of random photos and videos of our boy during September 2018.
Goofing around after taekwondo with his friend Howie:
Struttin’ in his swimsuit:
One last batch of pictures:
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Things Boys Do at Sleepovers
Even though Jayden has moved away, we’re still getting the boys together for regular sleepovers. Here’s a look at some of the recent shenanigans they got up to.
They eat, they read, they goof around:
What’s a sleepover without science? Here they are carefully measuring the finger of Jayden’s daddy.
Here are the two pals, chatting and catching up by the pool at the start of a sleepover:
And yes, sometimes there are movies to watch.
Finally, after all this fun… it’s time to cuddle up in bed.
Nyan Thomas, Water Baby
Okay, no longer a baby. But definitely loving the water more and more. Check out these videos.
Into the pool on a brilliant weekend afternoon:
Shark attack:
Practicing his strokes during a swimming lesson:
Off the wall:
Chasing the shark:
We love our GoPro:
As ever, finishing a swimming lesson with a few tosses:
September Moments, Part Two
Second in our two-part series about little moments and events that took place in September.
On Thursday afternoons, after school and before taekwondo, Nyan took part in an art class held at his friend Nadia’s apartment, just across the swimming pool from us. It was one instructor, seven girls and Nyan. He was a little worried at first, we think, what with being the old boy there, but he quickly got over that and had a blast.
Over the summer, we saw The Lion King (the movie) for the first time, as well as a short live-action version of it at Hong Kong Disneyland. When we heard that the musical version was coming here, we snapped up tickets. No pictures of the performance itself, but here’s our hero (and his peeps) before the show. He loved it, by the way.
We were sad to see Jayden and his family move away in August, but one small consolation prize was inheriting their electric piano. Daddy’s had fun playing it, and Nyan has fun pounding the keys. We’re hoping it’ll spark some interest in actually learning to play. But for now, we have this.
Fun at the Skatepark
We’ve seen before how Nyan sometimes hangs out at the local skatepark while bestie Jayden has a Sunday morning skateboarding lesson. But what exactly does Nyan *do* while hanging out there? Let’s see.
There’s a big undeveloped plot of land right next door – several trees and big swathes of grass. It’s a popular hangout and picnic spot on Sundays. It’s also a lot of fun for Nyan and Jonnie (Jayden’s little brother) to run around in.
Sometimes we pop over across the street to a shopping mall, where there’s a Starbucks that makes hot chocolate just the way Nyan likes it.
After Jayden finishes his lesson, he often joins in the fun at the grassy field next door:
Finally, one more video of boys being boys.
September Moments, Part One
September was full of little moments and events. Let’s take a look at some of them.
One Sunday morning, we found ourselves on Orchard Road, the high-end shopping district in Singapore. Apple recently opened a new store there, and it was supposed to be pretty cool. So we checked it out. Sure enough: nice place.
Nyan’s school hosted “Science Week” in September, which our budding scientist was of course very into. One day, the kids were invited to dress up as their favorite scientist or scientific concept. Some kids chose Einstein, or a generic mad scientist. Nyan, though, decided to dress up as a bolt of electricity. Nice look!
Remember how our neighborhood Italian bistro allowed Nyan to go behind the pizza counter to do some cooking? Apparently that’s now a thing: we went back and he got another invite. He’s getting pretty good…
We also paid a quick visit to the Maritime Museum, the free museum along the waterfront that’s sponsored by the local shipping industry. It’s all about cargo shipping, mostly, and features tons of models of ships, oil rigs and the like, plus a gigantic computerized ship simulator where you can pretend to captain a cargo ship around the Straits of Singapore. Pretty cool.
There’s also a little exhibit where kids can pretend to be stacking shipping containers onto a ship. Pretty basic, but it’s a little entertaining:
And there is a big room that they use for temporary exhibits and the like. The day we were there, there were no temporary exhibits, so the room was empty. Good place for an energetic boy to run around and burn some energy:
Checking In at the New School
As we’ve said before, Nyan has settled in quite well to his new school, Eton House Broadrick. Never ever a word of complaint about going to school; we think he’d probably stay there til bedtime if he could!
We got to see some of his class in action in September when his teacher, Ms Rashmi, hosted an “open lesson” where parents could come in and stand quietly at the back of the class, watching. To set the scene, here’s the lovely and tropical view out his classroom window:
We got to see him take part in some group work:
He was very good at listening, and at raising his hand when he knew the answer.
Here are a couple examples of his writing from the start of the year. One is the start of a short story, featuring two characters named Jayden and Jonnie…the other is a bit about our boy.
We also got to attend a school assembly in September. A couple of big things happened. First off, Nyan’s class put on a skit about nouns and verbs etc. Check out this (unfortunately rather shaky) video; jump to about 1:25 if you just want to see our boy talk about the difference between common nouns and proper nouns,.
They also sang a song about it being a beautiful day.
The real treat, though, for us at least, was when they started handing out Certificates of Achievement for students who had been doing an outstanding job in school recently. And, yep, our boy got one – for being an “active and enthusiastic participant in class and making valuable contributions.”
Yeah, another shaky video. Sorry about that. But you can see him looking straight at the camera, meaning he sees Mommy and Daddy in the crowd, and he shows an almost-imperceptible flash of a proud smile. Yeah. That’s our boy!
Fun Photos from the Month of August
Here’s a selection of fun photos and random moments from the month of August 2018.
Sometimes Nyan goes with Jayden to his skateboarding class on Sunday mornings. Jayden’s pretty good; Nyan, not so much.
So he hangs out with Jonnie instead.
Here’s a goofy boy doing a goofy song and dance:
Goofy boy singing:
Goofy boy running goofily down a small hill:
Goofy boy being goofy in an elevator:
More pictures:
Showing off his latest Lego robotics creation:
Having a casual playdate at our place with Jayden and Jonnie:
Photos:
One evening, Nyan and Jayden decided to play Jurassic World. I guess Jayden was the dino-trainer and Nyan was some sort of velociraptor?
Nyan had a couple of days off in August, before school started, so he went with Mommy to the office one day. Check out the sharp-dressed boy:
And finally, one last set of random photos.
Taekwondo: New Belt!
Nyan complains about his taekwondo class from time to time, and says he wants to quit it. We always tell him “Nope.” It’s a good skill to have, it keeps him active, and it has demonstrable goals and rewards when he reaches those goals — very good things to learn about life.
The reward is typically a new belt. To get that belt, he has to attend class, learn new moves, practice, and go to the “grading exercise” where he shows a committee of masters that he has, indeed, learned the right moves and should advance to the next level.
Here he is in early August, practicing outside of the grading exercise room, just before going in:
Did he make it to the next level? He sure did! And at his next weekly class, his teacher, Mr Lee, gave him his next belt: green tip.
He’d never admit it, but he was pretty proud of himself, and rightfully so. Mommy and Daddy were too!
After the new belt ceremony, the kids relaxed by playing a rousing game of ball-throwing.
Next up for Nyan is a grading exercise in early November, if he is ready to be graded then. If he passes that, sometime in November he should receive his green belt!
Lightning Fights and More at Night Fest
Every year, there’s a week-long event in downtown Singapore called Night Fest. It’s a whole bunch of cultural events, food and music, art displays, and other cool things. We’d never made it down before, but we did this year.
There were several things we wanted to be sure to see, including a visit to the Gem Museum. (Who knew there was a Gem Museum in Singapore? Not us.) It was a small but nice little place run by the local association of gem-sellers. One of the officials took to Nyan, who was very excited to see all the gemstones, especially the ones from Myanmar.
The main event, for us, was this display called Lords of Lightning. It’s two guys up on tall pillars that double as Tesla coils, zapping huge amounts of voltage at each other. It was pretty intense and really cool
Then there was a random marching band, which led to our boy doing his dance thing:
Elsewhere, they were projecting a cool light show onto the facade of one of the art museums.
All in all, a really cool and fun night!
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