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Nyan, in the Snow 

15 Jan

We made it to Iowa in mid-December. It was cold, the trees were bare… but there was no snow, much to Nyan’s chagrin. But then… a Christmas Eve miracle! We got a couple inches of light, fluffy snow. Too dry to make snowballs or snowmen, but plenty good for wandering around in and even making a snow angel.

We made sure Nyan was properly outfitted for his alpine excursions, with Star Wars stocking hat, snow pants, sweaters, heavy winter coat and snow boots.

This was actually not his first time in the snow — here he was in Iowa a few years back, and here we are visiting a local indoor snow place in 2016. But the latter doesn’t really count, and he has zero memory of that first brush with snow and extreme cold. And, yes, we had a few light dustings of snow in London, but again, no memory. So we can sort of count this as his first time in snow. So with that, here we go, his first steps in snow:

Some photos of Nyan (and Daddy) in the snow:

He found a stick and decided to go around “whacking” and clearing the snow off of trees and other items.

And he made his first-ever snow angel!

A few days later, it got really cold – like sub-zero Fahrenheit. We didn’t play outside in that, but we did when it was a bit “warmer” (i.e. in the teens Fahrenheit, -10 C). We made sure to be extra bundled up:

It was awfully cold, but pretty. We leave you with a few random scenery shots.

 
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Posted by on January 15, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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Friends and Family 

11 Jan

Nyan got to spend a lot of time around loved ones in the month of December. Let’s look at some of it.

First up, goofing around with his bestie Jayden on the last day of school for the year:

Uncle Jeff came to Singapore in early December, so Nyan got to hang with him a bit, including an afternoon at the Singapore Slingers basketball game.

Nyan really loves his cousin Mia, and when we were in Iowa he got to hang out with her several times, from watching her play a soccer game to building gingerbread houses together to just goofing around the house.

Speaking of that soccer game, here’s Nyan on the sidelines, being an exhausted and jetlagged goofball. (This was about 12 hours after we first arrived in Iowa, so our bodies and brains had no idea what time or day it was. Of course, to be honest, Nyan acts like this all the time…)

He also spent one afternoon with cousin Faith. Here they are at a restaurant, hugging their goodbyes:

And earlier in the day, doing a little skit for the benefit of the adults.

That same evening, Nyan tried his hand at ping pong and foosball with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Mike and Aunt Sarah in the play area of the restaurant we were at:

We also attended a family get-together, with Grandma Lyon, her kids and various cousins, at Daddy’s cousin Bret’s place.

Bret’s kids showed off their considerable piano chops, which led Nyan to show off his own, not-quite-as-considerable chops:

Mostly, though, Nyan just rolled around on the floor.

Good times!

 
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Posted by on January 11, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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The Holiday Season in Singapore

07 Jan

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Artwork by Nyan

We spent the second half of December in Iowa, but that meant we spent the first half in Singapore, wrapping up school and generally getting into the holiday spirit. Grandma and Grandpa did their part to help us with the holiday spirit by sending a box full of little presents for Nyan to open, one each day in December leading up to Christmas Day itself. Yes, it’s blatant spoiling of their grandson, but what can you do? They like it, Nyan likes it. Here’s some of the fun:

He really liked this skeleton:

This is a Lego-esque Iowa Hawkeye thing:

Getting super excited about a Darth Vader toy:

There was more to December than just presents, though. Not much, but some. Like this scene of Nyan and Mommy building a big Lego shark-vehicle thing:

Fnally, just a smattering of random shots from the month:

Stay tuned to upcoming blog posts for a whole lot of pictures from Iowa. And snow.

 
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Posted by on January 7, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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Nyan Thomas, Elf!

03 Jan

For much of the autumn, Nyan (and occasionally Jayden) would occasionally and suddenly burst into a song. “I always get, that special glow, when the snow comes falling down… I belong in Christmastown!” It was a bit random, especially in sunny, equatorial Singapore. Come to find out they were learning the song for their school Christmas play/musical. Well, finally, in early December, it was time for the play itself.

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It was held at a public school auditorium just up the road, and included all seven grades from Nyan’s school, performing before an audience of parents and grandparents. Here’s Nyan’s class singing a song about having a happy jolly Christmas:

The play itself was a telling of the Will Farrell Christmas movie Elf, which none of us had seen (in fact, we started watching it over the holidays, but Nyan didn’t like it, so we stopped). We won’t bore you with videos of the songs performed by the other classes, but it was actually a fun musical with lots of good performances. There are some talented kids at Nyan’s school.

After the musical, there were some photo shoots, including group shots of Nyan’s class:

Daddy took some close-ups of our hero being silly:

Jayden was there, as was his younger brother Jonnie, who also attends Chatsworth, so we got some candid shots of the three of them goofing around.

It was a nice way to kick off the holiday season, as well as wind down the school semester.

 
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Posted by on January 3, 2018 in Uncategorized

 

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Nyan Returns to Hong Kong

29 Dec

Long-time readers will know that Nyan visited Hong Kong way back in the spring of 2015 (you can reminisce here). Mommy and Daddy have each been back a couple times each for work, but Nyan hadn’t. So when Mommy had to visit HK in late November, she took Nyan and Phwa Phwa along for a long weekend (while Daddy stayed behind in Singapore and worked). It was a successful trip by all accounts. Let’s take a look!

They did a fair amount of walking around and sightseeing, visiting museums, and the like. Check it out:

They also found a shopping mall, near to their hotel, that had a huge Lego Christmas display set up. Plus a bakery with a Stormtrooper cake. Think our boy was happy?

They rode the subway, they rode the ferry across the harbor:

Hong Kong is also known for a tram that goes up and down the steep Victoria Peak, the mountain behind the city. They rode that, too.

They rode it up:

They rode it down:

And in between, they checked out the spectacular views on a beautiful day:

Here’s a quick look at our hero, relaxing in the hotel room:

They also spent an afternoon at the botanic gardens, checking out the birds and the bamboo (among other things)

And finally, we leave you with a few random shots from around Hong Kong. It’s a really vibrant – not as clean as Singapore, but just as safe, and arguably more exciting – and I’m quite sure we’ll be back.

 
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Posted by on December 29, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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All About November: Bike Riding and More

23 Dec

What else did our boy get up to in November? He spent some time learning to ride his bike without training wheels (still a work in progress, but we’re getting there!):

Some random photos:

He spent lots of time in November with Phwa Phwa, who is staying with us for a little while as she escapes the cold dark British winter (click to enlarge):

Here’s Nyan having fun with Lego robots:

More random photos:

He also hung out with Jayden, of course. Here they are singing one of the songs they learned at school this fall, “Under One Sky,” and then just rolling around, because they can.

Finally: one evening, we were at a shopping mall and Mommy had to pick something up in a store. We waited outside. How did Nyan pass the time? Like so:

 
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Posted by on December 23, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

Fun Days at the New School

20 Dec

As we’ve reported, Nyan has taken quite well to his new school. Let’s take a quick look at some recent activities.

Here is an assignment he did for class: the children were to come up with a scenario that presented a problem, and then use this certain system (the “T.A.G. system”) to solve the problem. Nyan’s illustrations are pretty awesome.

Another day, they took a quick field trip to the nearby post office. As part of the trip, the kids wrote letters to their parents and addressed an envelope, then mailed them off. The next day, this lovely letter was in our mailbox:

One of Nyan’s extracurricular courses this fall was called “Race car engineering.” Kind of like the old-fashioned soap box derby, it involved the kids building plastic race cars that they would then race around a track. Here are some pictures of Nyan and Jayden working on their cars (these are photos of photos that were on display at school, hence the weird quality), plus a video of Nyan in deep concentration.

Let’s see a couple of random pictures: heading home after school on a rainy day, all dressed in his uniform and reading a bit before school.

And last but not least: a goofy video of a goofy boy, full of high spirits when he arrives home after a fun school day.

 

 
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Posted by on December 20, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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My Little Pony with Friends

16 Dec

So there’s a movie based on the My Little Pony tv show or line of toys (or both?), and Nyan expressed some interest in going. Mommy decided it’d be fun to take along a few of his friends. The guest list blossomed until the event saw Mommy and Phwa Phwa chaperoning Nyan, Adriana, Kyra, Chrysa, Valentina and Isla to the movie theater, then to a café for lunch, then back to our place for some playtime. It was a pretty intense day, but a lot of fun too.

We weren’t able to get any pictures of the movie theater itself, but imagine a whole bunch of excitable kids and you’ll get a good sense.

Here they are post-movie, having some grub at Nyan’s fave, Batter Flappy Flaps.

And back to our place for more noise-making and general frivolity:

Eventually we all went down to the playground for more fun until it was time to go home. (The only pics we have are of Nyan and Adriana, as it happens – but all the girls were there and having fun too!)

All in all, a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

 

 
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Posted by on December 16, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Taekwondo: Level Up!

13 Dec

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Much like his parents, Nyan has never shown much athletic ability, nor much interest. And that’s fine! We’re perfectly okay with that, although we’ll keep him in soccer a while longer for the exercise and teamwork aspects, and will continue to encourage him to get exercise, to swim, to run. Healthy habits start early. We’re also keeping him in taekwondo, and he’s really starting to show some results.

In early November, there was another grading exercise – that’s where hundreds of taekwondo students from across the island converge on a studio in central Singapore to show off their moves and, if they do them right, advance to the next level. So early one Sunday morning, off we went. In the car:

Here’s our martial artist, practicing his moves before going into the actual grading room.

So did he pass? He did. Here’s his instructor, Mr Lee, giving Nyan his next belt – yellow-tip. Look how proud Nyan is and how he’s trying to hard to be serious and not smile!

And finally, showing off his moves.

Next up: a full yellow belt.

 
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Posted by on December 13, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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School Assembly, With Songs

09 Dec

Every so often, Nyan’s school has a school-wide assembly to talk about this and that, and the classes each take turns leading the presentation. In mid-November it was Nyan’s class’s turn, and parents were invited!

First everyone sang the school song.

The theme that Nyan’s class chose to talk and sing about was about healthy life choices. So we were treated to a couple of excellent songs, including this one about healthy food versus junk food:

They also stressed the importance of leading a balanced life:

There were also little skits. Nyan took part in this one, the theme being, uh, not sure. Playing nicely with your friends, maybe?

That was about it – no big deal, but good messages, and good catchy tunes too.

 
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Posted by on December 9, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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