An old university friend of Mommy’s came through Singapore with her husband and their daughter on a short trip. Livia is a few years younger than Nyan and very sweet. We met them at a restaurant and Nyan and Livia immediately hit it off like old pals.
They enjoyed posing for pictures.
And, while the adults sat around and chatted and tried to get the kids to eat….
… the kids ran around on the grassy hill outside the restaurant.
Then, as night fell, they just ran in circles around the restaurant.
Fun times! Nyan got to see Livia one last time at a local food court:
You may recall that Nyan’s school from last year closed down, so we had to enroll him in a new place for Year 3 (a.k.a. Second Grade in the U.S. system). We decided on a place called Eton House, not too far away. A couple of kids from his old school, including Nadia, also are going there now; so is Abi, his friend from his MMI preschool.
So we weren’t too worried about the transition. And sure enough, he’s taken to the new place like a fish to water.
We had an orientation session in his classroom, and with his new teacher, a few days before classes began.
Then it was the big day itself. We made him briefly pose for pictures before heading out:
The school itself was a bit packed with kids and parents, but it was well organized. As Nyan waited to head up to class, he hung out with Nadia. (You can also see Abi in some of the pictures. They’re in the same year, but in different classes. They still get to hang out a fair bit nowadays though, so that’s good!)
Then it was time for class. No tears or concerns here:
The first day was a success, by all accounts. When he got home, Jayden happened to be in the pool — his new school started a few days later — so Nyan and Nadia hung out with him poolside for a few.
The school isn’t too far away – about a mile or so, a 20 or 25 minute walk – but we signed up for the school bus service. It picks up him around 8am and drops him back around 4pm. Not bad. He’s got a uniform to wear each day, so every morning we take a lovely stroll past the pool downstairs on our way to the front gate of the condo complex, where the bus picks him up.
Some pictures of the morning routine, including a cameo from Mommy:
He’s enjoying the class so far, and seems to get along with his classmates and his teacher. Here are a couple of examples of some early work, and a picture of him doing his homework (he usually gets about 20 or 30 minutes of homework a week — nothing excessive, just about the right amount for his age, we’d say).
A new place opened up recently in the shopping mall underneath Mommy’s office. It’s called Funsiamo, and basically it’s a place where you come to bake. They give you recipes and ingredients, and you mix it up and toss it in the oven. Mommy thought it’d be a fun Mommy/Nyan experience, and guess what? She was right.
Here’s the budding young baker, hard at work. (He was very focused the whole time, making sure he got everything just right.)
The cake’s in the oven, and then it’s out of the oven.
Gotta put frosting on the cake:
And we’re done! We got to take it home and eat it. It was delicious!
He’s already looking forward to taking Grandma there for more baking when she comes to visit in November.
In early August, to celebrate both Mommy’s birthday and the imminent end of a fun-filled summer, we took a three-night trip to Telunas, the low-key beach resort in Indonesia that we went to last August as well (see here). We absolutely loved it last year and Mommy said she wanted to return for her birthday again this year. So off we went!
It’s an easy place to get to — a one-hour ferry from Singapore to Batam, Indonesia, followed by an hour or so on a narrow, low-riding speedboat operated by the resort. It was a little bumpy but fun. Here’s Nyan on the ride:
It’s a casual resort in a secluded cove, all of it built on stilts over the water, with a long walkway connecting it to the shore. Some photos:
Here’s an evening time-lapse from our room’s deck:
And another time-lapse from the beach, showing the little crabs doing their little crab thing:
Telunas is not a place you go for non-stop excitement and action. It’s a place to unwind, chill, and rest. There’s plenty to do though: read, play games, swim in the ocean, and eat. Here’s Nyan doing the Telunas thing:
Nyan and Mommy on the beach:
We spent a lot of time in the water, with our waterproof camera. The water was a little murky (a function of the time of year: prevailing winds in August are out of the south, and the cove faces south, so it gets steady winds that bring steady churn-y waves right into the cove. Apparently the water is much more clear at other times of the year). But who cares about the murk: we had a blast. Check it out:
And more:
Telunas is a family friendly place, so there were lots of kids around, including Warren, a half-white, half-Asian American boy who was a bit younger than Nyan. They got along great. Nyan (and Mommy) also fell in love with PJ, a months-old baby who they pretty much wouldn’t put down.
We did the rope course again, just like we did last year. Still fun!
And one day, the staff demonstrated some traditional Indonesian dance moves:
At night, the staff would start a big bonfire down on the beach, and Nyan and the other kids would gleefully roast marshmallows.
Nyan also showed off his own traditional dance moves:
The resort has this platform about 30 feet above the sea. At high tide, you can leap from it. It’s a bit daunting but also pretty exhilarating, as Daddy found out both last year and this:
All in all, it was a super relaxing, enjoyable and successful trip. I bet we’ll be back again.
July was an awesome month, filled with travels and day camps, but it was also filled with lots of smaller moments. There wasn’t a lot of stress – it was summertime, remember? – but there was a lot of fun. Here’s some of it.
One Sunday evening, we went to the Singapore Botanic Gardens for a free concert by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. There was a picnic, there was cotton candy, there was music. Nice.
Another evening, we went to our neighborhood trattoria, where they know and love Nyan. The pizza chef invited him back to make his own pizza!
Some random pics:
When Nyan was in utero, and when he was a baby, Daddy would read him the Dr Seuss book, “Oh Baby the Places You’ll Go” nearly every night. (It was a pre-birth gift from his cousin Mia.) Now that he’s a big boy, he reads it himself.
More photos:
Telling a story in the midst of doing abacus homework:
And more photos:
One day, Nyan decided he would draw up some instructions to remind Mommy how to play. We’re not entirely sure what he means here, but the sentiment is nice.
Robotic rattlesnake in progress:
The same snake a week later, with a little technical issue too (plus a display of one of Nyan’s most annoying habits, to be frank – always blaming other people for problems that sometimes aren’t anyone’s fault.)
One last batch of photos:
Goofball showing us what he was calling the “fart dance.” Have we mentioned that Nyan is a seven year old boy?
July – a.k.a. the peak of summer – is the perfect time to play outside. (Okay, we live in Singapore, so every month is the right time to play outside. But still.)
Check out Nyan’s ever-improving swimming (and jumping) skills:
And his being-thrown skills:
Fun on the soccer field:
July 2018 was, of course, World Cup time, so Nyan and some of the other kids from around the condo complex started playing “World Cup” each evening. Basically three-on-three soccer. It was a little chaotic.
Here are the kids, waiting for the others to show up.
I know we said this post was about outdoor fun, but let’s look at a little taekwondo while we’re here.
Stretching at the start of class:
And taking part in one of the occasional ball-throwing games:
Nyan turned seven years old on July 26. Every birthday in the past, we’d been able to have a cake-filled birthday party with all his chums at school. But this year was his first year to have a true summer break, which meant no school on his birthday. That meant Mommy and Daddy were on their own when it came time to celebrate.
Not to worry! Though it may not have matched 2017’s celebrations — which included the circus and Universal Studios as well as cake at school — 2018’s were still pretty decent, we think. The main event: a trip across the border to Malaysia for a day at Legoland!
We had done a daytrip to Legoland back in 2016 for his fifth birthday, so we pretty much knew what to expect: some rides, a lot of Legos, and some heat. Happily, as in 2016, we didn’t run into many crowds or long lines.
One of his favorite rides — this year like last time — was riding the jousting horse. A little mellow, maybe, but he enjoyed it:
We enjoyed riding the Lego train around the park:
At the center of the park is a large area of Lego creations, showing sites from around Asia. There’s the skyline of Kuala Lumpur, the Taj Mahal, some Thai temples, various other Malaysian sites… as well as downtown Singapore and some Burmese buildings, too.
The same Star Wars exhibit was there, and it was just as cool. The same Lego stormtrooper too.
A highlight of the day was the time we spent inside an (air-conditioned) room where we built Lego racecars and zoomed them down a sloped track. Even Mommy got into it!
And what’s a birthday without sweets? Gotta have a chocolate ice cream bar.
All in all, to be honest, Legoland was a little disappointing this time around: the general maintenance seemed to be lacking, and a surprising number of the rides were closed down for undisclosed reasons.
But whatever: our boy got to spend the day playing with Legos, and Mommy and Daddy got to spend the day with their boy. Win win!
You’ll recall that Nyan spent a fair bit of time in June attending various day-camps.That continued in the month of July, with the lad attending several week-long day camps covering a range of topics. There was computer coding, there was math, there was “multi-activity” which ranged from swimming and basketball to drama and arts & crafts.
We don’t have any pictures or video from the camp itself, but we took many shots from the bus pick-up each morning and drop-off each afternoon. Here’s some:
Here’s the boy walking to our apartment through the parking garage after a fun-filled day. Also eating a cupcake that he made at camp.
His computer programming week focused on the programming language called Scratch, which uses simple text phrases and loops to teach basic computer concepts and skills. He liked to show off his new knowledge at home on Daddy’s computer:
Okay, maybe not the most exciting video ever. But he’s learning about computers! Pretty cool.
Remember all of Nyan’s pals from his MMI preschool days? We do too. A really fantastic group of kids. Everyone goes to different schools now, and as we feared, we rarely get to see anyone, though we do manage to run into random classmates and their parents around the neighborhood.
In July, the MMI parents decided to make the effort to get the kids — and the parents — back together, so one Sunday afternoon a bunch of us got together at Kyra and Chrysa’s place for a pool party.
Nyan, Adriana, Kyra and sister Chrysa, Valentina and sister Gabriella, Ming Xuan… did we forget anyone? A lot of kids were on vacation or whatnot, so turnout wasn’t what it could have been. But still, a fantastic time was had by all.
They spent a lot of time in the water.
And eating.
Oh, and yes, there was a hamster. (A new pet of Kyra and Chrysa; they brought the little critter down to show off to their friends.)
The parents had a good time too, catching up and snacking.
We considered lots of places for our mid-summer family vacation. New Zealand was an option until we remembered July is the dead of winter down there. Bhutan would be amazing, and remains on our short list, but it’s breathtakingly expensive to go there, so we’ll save up and try to get there maybe next year.
In the end, Mommy said she would be happy to go someplace where Daddy could dive a lot and she and Nyan could chillax on the sand and in the pool. So we wound up picking a dive resort on a tiny island in the Celebes Sea, off the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi. It’s called Siladen, and I don’t think we could have chosen a better place.
Getting there was pretty easy, all things considered: a flight to the city of Manado, Indonesia; a 45-minute ride to the coast; and an hour’s ride on a small boat to Siladen island. Some photos from our journeys:
Siladen is a small resort, right on the shore, with a pool, spa, a handful of little chalets, and a nice stretch of beach with some pretty epic views.
The area around the island — which we got to see on multiple boat tours and dive trips — wasn’t bad either.
We had a lot of fun just hanging out at the resort — lounging in a hammock or beach chair; digging in the sand; eating really, really good food; swimming in the pool or the shallow sea; reading.
Also just being silly while sitting at the resort’s little bar area as a tropical downpour hissed in the background:
Did we mention the resort had a pool table? Nyan spent a good amount of time trying to play. One rainy evening, Mommy decided to play too.
It wasn’t all just fun and games though. There was serious business to be done: diving!
Daddy got a new GoPro underwater camera before this trip and spent a good amount of time underwater learning how to use it. Some of his shots weren’t too bad:
DCIM100GOPROG0410776.JPG
This Nemo-esque fish wasn’t too happy that Daddy was encroaching on his anemone.
So Daddy was out on (and under) the water every single day of the trip. One day, Mommy and Nyan decided to join in. They would stay topside and snorkel while Daddy went 60 feet down.
We had a short ride to the dive/snorkel site — another thing to love about this resort: it’s in the midst of a marine park, and there are dozens of amazing dive sites within about a 10 or 15 minute boat trip. Here’s the fam, enjoying the ride.
And here’s Nyan getting his snorkeling gear on. He used a full-face mask rather than a traditional mask-and-snorkel.
In the end, though, the snorkeling wasn’t quite a success. Mommy enjoyed it, but young Nyan was a little freaked out by the waves (it was a little choppy and windy that day), and by being so far from shore, and by not being able to see any coral when he looked down — just sea grass. So he pulled the plug and hung out on the boat while Mommy snorkeled and Daddy dove.
But he still enjoyed himself, he says. And it wound up being a fun family day out on the water.
It was a pretty epic trip all-around, we’d say. Definitely a place we’d recommend, and a place we may very well return one day.
Nyan Thomas L's Blog 