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The Sleepover

15 Apr

Every so often – not often enough for the boys, to be honest – Nyan and Jayden have themselves a sleepover. We pretty much alternate between Jayden’s place and Nyan’s place, but no matter where it’s held, it’s sure to involve lots of toys, imaginative games, giggling, reading, staying  up too late, and being a bit tired the next day.

They had another one in March. Here they are, reading and goofing around:

And goofing around the next morning (do you see a pattern here?).

Lots of hugs, too, as they say goodbye in the morning (even though they’ll see each other again the next day at school, if not later the same day around the apartment complex!)

Yep, these boys sure do love each other.

 
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Posted by on April 15, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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A Couple of Days at the Beach

12 Apr

One gloriously warm and sunny recent Friday afternoon, rather than just going home after school, Daddy decided to take Nyan down to the nearby East Coast Park. He thought it would be a quick stroll to the water, check out the ships, an early dinner, then home.  But no: it ended up being a lovely, multi-hour expedition that kept our here up well past his bedtime.

Here’s our hero, scooting his way toward the park.

Once he got to the sand, he refused to leave. And who can blame him: look at how perfect the weather was!

So he played, he dug, he chased the waves.

He also did some writing in the sand. Including a loving homage to Y2L, the name of his class at school.

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We finally managed to get to a nearby restaurant for some food. While Daddy finished up his meal, Nyan wandered around, collecting coconuts.

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Then… it was back to the beach for some nighttime sand play.

It was quite late when we got home. But we had such a blast that we went back on Sunday evening for more play!

We are definitely spoiled and blessed to live so close to such a beautiful park, that’s for sure.

 
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Posted by on April 12, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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Gratitude

09 Apr

All school year long, Nyan and his classmates have been building “gratitude journals.” It’s simply where the kids write down things they are grateful for. It’s a fantastic exercise, a good and creative way for these kids to remember how lucky they are. It’s also a nice way to get some insight into what’s going on in their heads.

In the case of Nyan’s gratitude journal, there aren’t too many surprises, but it’s still lovely to see. Let’s take a look at what he’s been grateful for since August. Some of the spelling is rather, uh, challenging, so we’ll provide translations — plus any necessary context — as needed.

(Be sure to admire his drawings!)

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Self explanatory. Remember Monster Jam? Nyan does.

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“I am grateful because I am going to see a visitor and she is an animal scientist.” Written just before an old college friend of Mommy, Jules, came to stay with us for a few days. She’s a biologist who does a lot of work with tigers and other big cats down in the Indonesian rain forest. Nyan was very excited that she was coming.

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“I am grateful for going to abacus grade because I [something] one paper.” Not sure what this means, and Nyan can’t remember. But it’s a reference to his abacus grading last August.

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“I am grateful for house challenge day because I got to play.”  At his school, students are divided into one of three “houses” — sort of like homerooms. Nyan is in Sentosa. Every so often, they have a day of House Challenges where the houses compete against each other. Apparently Nyan likes it.

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“I am grateful for my daddy because he brought me to Telunas.” A reference to the family vacation to Telenus Beach Resort last August (here). Daddy organized it, yes, but Mommy “brought” Nyan there just as much, if not more, as did Daddy.

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“I am grateful for my holidays because I get to see my Grandma and my Grandpa.”  Also pretty self explanatory. (Fantastic drawing of Singapore’s Changi Airport!)

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Also self explanatory 🙂

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“I am grateful for a type of old military plane. Because I got to take a tour inside the plane.”  This, Nyan tells us, refers to a tour he took of a B-29 bomber at the Cedar Rapids airport, in Iowa. The thing is, that was in summer 2015. Somehow he remembered it two and a half years later?? Gotta be; he says the plane was in Chicago, but we haven’t toured any airplanes in Chicago. So yeah. Guess he really enjoyed that tour!

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“I am grateful for my school holidays because I get to go to my old school.” During school breaks in his first half-year at Chatsworth, we would sometimes take him back to his old school, MMI, for the day. He loved it, because he got to see his old pals – and come in as a returning hero. We don’t do that any more, sadly, since all his friends have moved on to other schools.

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This was from UN Day at school (see here). We’re not sure what the sticks in a jar was all about, to be honest.

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“I am grateful for the mid-term break because I got to watch videos.” We do try to limit his screen time, and he’s okay with that, most of the time, since he has books, toys, and a great imagination. But he does love to just veg out with a video from time to time.

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He loves Jayden, and he loves sleepovers with Jayden.

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He may complain about it sometimes, but he does like taekwondo. This just proves it.

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“I am grateful for my Daddy because he gave me a computer part.” We were taking an old laptop in for recycling recently. Daddy took out the old hard drive, for security purposes, and before he was able to physically destroy it, Nyan begged for it. So, he got it. It’s now a key part of his toy chest.

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“I am grateful for a Christmas present.” Self explanatory. The drawing is a little blue Lego robot that Santa brought him.

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Finally: he wrote this after our flight home from the US, where we got upgraded to business class. Nyan was obviously very happy about that.

 

 
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Posted by on April 9, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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February Fun

06 Apr

February might be the shortest month, but we sure did pack a lot of fun into those 28 days! Here’s a look back at some of the smaller (and goofier) moments of the month, through both pictures and videos.

Nyan Thomas, engineer: During the spring tide in early February, the sea water (we’re a good three-quarters of a mile inland) backed up the drainage canals and caused minor flooding along the road behind our place. Climate change and rising sea levels are real. In any case, it made an impression on Nyan, as I think this monologue is him devising ways to deal with climate change-related flooding.

Here’s Nyan and Jayden, hiding under the covers and giggling. Caution: this video contains lots of young-boy shrieks.

They tore down the sprawling garden shop across the street from us and are throwing up some high-rise condos. We have a front-row seat to watch (and hear) the pile driving, which we do pretty much every morning.

Presenting…. the Merlion!

Wondering what books to order for his school’s Book Week, and also wondering what books Jayden will order.

Just being silly:

His latest creation at Lego Robotics: an electric guitar:

And finally: dancing to the credits of a movie:

 
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Posted by on April 6, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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Nyan’s School Portfolio

03 Apr

As we have mentioned, much of Nyan’s artwork, writings, and other school work has been collected into a large binder, called My Portfolio, all year long. It’s a wonderful book, and we got to take it home for a couple weeks, during which time we scanned some of the best bits. Let’s take a look.

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It includes a fair number of photos from throughout the school year

A letter he wrote to Mommy:

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Half photo, half self portrait. Check ot the detail on his shirt.

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This next one is a fun one:

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Check out the detail! Of course, he’s drawing Mommy and Daddy’s bedroom, not his own, since he ends up in their bed most nights, still. Grr. But whatever: see Daddy checking the news as he enjoys coffee in bed; see Nyan reading in bed; see the dresser, the window and curtains, the ceiling fan, the round bulb atop the bedpost! The kid has a good eye.

Things he likes: food. music. library. reading. sweets. etc.

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And things he dislikes, including cabbage, drowning, stinky smells, deep dark woods and some music. And bugs, too.

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Some random factoids he learned about Singapore history:

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He drew this happy self-portrait at the start of the school year back in August. Good stuff.

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(The words are small; they say: “I feel happy because I am doing science” and “I feel happy because I met Jayden.”)

Last but not least, this wasn’t in his Portfolio but we’ll include it anyway. For Chinese New Year — the Year of the Dog — the kids put resolutions of sorts on paper dog bones, and pinned them up on a board at school. Nyan’s: “I need to improve on fast writing. I need to impove on listening skills.”  We certainly wouldn’t disagree on the second point, at least!

 
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Posted by on April 3, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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Nyan Thomas, Athlete

31 Mar

Well, maybe not so much. But he tries!

On a sweltering Friday morning in February, everyone at Nyan’s school headed over to a sports track near the National Stadium for the school’s annual Sports Day – a morning of running, throwing, jumping, and general sweating. Let’s see how our hero did.

The kids made sure to do plenty of stretching.

Then it was on to the competitions! Okay, it wasn’t a competition – just kids doing athletic things, like throwing things.

There was also a sprint:

And a longer run – maybe 100 meters? You can see Nyan pulling up the rear here, mostly (we think) because he’s more interested in looking around rather than in running. We still think he could be a decent runner, if he focuses, and in fact Daddy took him on a 1-kilometer run around the block the other day. So maybe it’ll become a habit.

There was jumping too – from a stand-still and from a running start. (Sorry – not sure what those are specifically called. It’s been many years since your humble blogger was in PE class.)

All in all, it was a hot, sweaty and fun morning.

 
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Posted by on March 31, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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Happy Birthday, Jonnie! 

29 Mar

Jonnie is the younger brother of Nyan’s bestie, Jayden. He turned 4 in February, and his family threw him a party at a place called Amazonia, a sort of indoor playground place where we’ve actually been before, for Kyle’s 4th birthday a few years ago. It was the one with the giant dinosaur, here.

It’s quite a place, Amazonia, with climbing structures, a huge slide, function rooms, and a room dedicated to these cannons that fire soft missiles at targets on the wall.

There was also a large room with a putt-putt golf course. And it had black-light special effects!

Was there cake? Of course there was cake.

And lots of balloons, which lots of kids had lots of fun with.

Beyond all that, we also saw plenty of simple, random silliness.

And finally, the slide. The same slide that, three years ago, Nyan refused to go down at first. (It *is* pretty big, it’s true.) But once he finally went down it, he wanted to go down it again and again. And it’s still enjoyable today.

 
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Posted by on March 29, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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A Friendly Soccer Match

26 Mar

In February, Nyan’s Saturday afternoon soccer club arranged a friendly match with another club. They had done this before, with a team that was several steps higher in terms of skill and experience (see here). This time, the organizers promised a friendly against a team that was more on the level of Nyan’s.

Were they right? Eh, no. The other team jumped out to an early 8-0 lead, although some shifting of players from one side to the other definitely staunched the bleeding, and the game ended up being almost competitive by the end. But whatever: the kids all had fun, which of course is what really counts.

Here’s a good example of the skills on display:

Nyan certainly got into the spirit; check out the celebrating when his team scored on a penalty kick.

Probably the most fun that Nyan, and many of the other kids, had was when the ball would roll off-field, down a slight slope and into some bushes. That’s because the kids had discovered a little tunnel under the bushes, so they could crawl away and into, presumably, some world of imagination. Check out the mad rush for the ball as it headed to the bush:

We can’t recall what the final score was – it’s possible that no one was keeping very good track – but, again, it didn’t really matter. The kids had a blast, got some exercise – and even showed some sportsmanship at the end.

We do think Nyan is showing some slight signs of improvement in his soccer, though these things are relative, and we’re not expecting him to play in the World Cup anytime soon. But, as we’ve said many times, the point is to get him some exercise, expose him to team sport, mix it up with other kids, and all that. So it’s all good.

We close with some group shots of the soccer warriors, celebrating their near-victory.

 
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Posted by on March 26, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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Nyan and the Student-Led Conference

23 Mar

In February, Nyan’s school had a day devoted to “student-led conferences.” It was a time for the parents to get up to speed on what the kids had been doing in school — and it was up to the kids to show them. Nyan took us around to various stations, showing off his skills in reading, math, PE, music and more.

He’s been learning about Singaporean history, so he shared some of his knowledge:

He read some Chinese. Translated it too!

For the music section, he taught Daddy how to do some rhythmic clapping. There were bells to ring too.

For the PE segment, the students were getting ready for their Sports Day exhibition, so Nyan demonstrated some of what he would be doing. Like long jumps:

There was throwing as well:

And sprinting too!

We’ll have more on Sports Day in an upcoming post. We’ll also share excerpts from Nyan’s portfolio — the big book chock full of some of his recent writings, drawings, and other school work. Stay tuned!

 
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Posted by on March 23, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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A Visit to the Istana

20 Mar

In the middle of heavily-developed central Singapore, there’s a big estate – just over 100 acres – of rolling hills, gardens, forests, and a grand old building called the Istana, which serves as the official residence and offices of Singapore’s president. Kind of like the White House, except Singapore’s president usually doesn’t actually live there. (Plus, the Singaporean president is much more of a ceremonial role than that of the U.S. president.) The Istana and its grounds are closed  to the public except on a tiny number of days each year.

One of the days it’s open is during the Chinese New Year holiday. Nyan had been learning about the Istana at school, so during the new year break in February, we paid the Istana a visit.

Here’s the building itself, and a guard outside the gates. We did get to tour the building, but no pictures allowed inside.

The grounds, though, are quite something,  swan-filled ponds, vast expanses of open field, and huge jungle plants.

We tried to take some family portrait selfies, which was a little difficult because the morning sunshine was quite bright.

We also played around with shadows in that bright light.

And we admired the decorative artillery gun in front of the main building.

We had been warned that if you don’t get to the Istana early, you have to stand in line for a long time to get in. We got there early and waltzed right in; a couple hours later, as we left, we saw that we were very glad to have been early.

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And finally, after our trek around the Istana grounds, we headed to a shopping mall next door for a late breakfast. This particular mall features some very long sloping escalators, which our boy wanted to go up and down, but only on his own. So off he went.

 
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Posted by on March 20, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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