In honor of Nyan’s recent breakthroughs in learning to swim, as you read about earlier, we dusted off some footage from mid 2014, soon after we’d moved into our apartment in Singapore, and before Nyan was entirely comfortable in the water. But he was obviously comfortable on shore, comfy enough to start to take off all his clothes as he stood there…
Want to see some videos from last July? Sure you do. Click Play:
Waling to the pool, carrying his inflatable seahorse:
Playing around, pants-less, outside the baby pool before finally dipping his toes:
Enjoying a pleasant swim with mommy and the inflatable seahorse:
Grandma and Grandpa have a nice house with a big yard full of trees, flowers, plants and grass. All that natural beauty take a lot of work to maintain, and Nyan was happy to lend a hand.
Here’s our hero digging, watering the plants and sidewalk, hanging out by Grandma’s fish pond.
He enjoyed digging a hole for the squirrels:
Digging for something:
Feeding bread to the fish in the pond. Narration by Daddy; this video was made at a time when Nyan was insisting that we call him Eagle.
Digging for something else:
The highlight of the outdoor work — perhaps the outlook of this entire trip — came because Grandma and Grandpa were getting a new concrete patio poured in the back yard. Concrete comes in concrete trucks, of course, and what four year old boy doesn’t love a concrete truck?Nyan couldn’t tear himself away from the whole process. He would run through the house, to the back door to watch the guys spreading the cement, then race through the house to the front door, to watch the concrete coming out of the truck and into the wheelbarrows, and then to the back again. Over and over and over. We also tried to get his handprint in the wet cement at the end of it.
Even better, maybe, was that the crew brought a Bobcat to help clean up some of the dirt and gravel. And they said Nyan could climb in!
Before they took the gravel away, it was in a large pile at the end of the driveway. Nyan quickly appropriated it for himself and his dump truck.
After all that yard work and dusty concrete pouring, it’s important to wash the cars. Nyan, once again, was happy to help.
Though he lives overseas, Nyan Thomas was indeed born in the USA, and this was the first year that we were actually in the US on July 4. So of course we had to celebrate.
Nyan got the day started by dressing in red white and blue, and then by turning a paper grocery bag into a knight’s costume. As you do on Independence Day, of course.
The highlight of the day, though, was a trip to downtown Iowa City with Mommy, Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa, for an evening of fireworks over the Old Capitol, the classic building at the heart of downtown that was once the capitol building for Iowa but is now part of the university. It was an absolutely lovely and warm summer’s evening, and we managed a good seat even though the crowds were out.
As dusk settled in, the fireworks started. Nyan had never seen fireworks in person before, and when the first (extremely loud) barrage started, he was a little startled and got momentarily upset. But, as you can see by these videos, he pretty quickly settled in and very much enjoyed the show.
Here are some still photos of Nyan and Daddy enjoying the fireworks:
Finally, please enjoy these shots of the fireworks. It was a pretty impressive show, and a great way to end the day.
Our trip last month from San Francisco to Iowa City took us through Denver International Airport. Our connecting flight was delayed by an hour or so, so Nyan and Daddy had some time to kill. Here’s how we killed it.
We had a bit of fun on the moving sidewalks, with help from Nyan’s navigator (as he called him), Woody:
(We actually went back and forth on the moving sidewalks a LOT. Hey, it kept him entertained for a bit.)
We also just hung out by the departures/arrivals boards, checking out our fellow Americans, letting our imagination run wild.
And by our gate, we played around with a couple of kids who were waiting for the same plane. Nyan and the little boy were about the same age, and they got into an extended discussion about all the vehicles they could see out on the tarmac. Fuel trucks, the various types of jet planes, etc.
The Lunar New Year, or Chinese New Year (or CNY), is a big deal out here in Asia and in Singapore — two public holidays, huge parties and family get-togethers, much symbolism. And, in Singapore at least, a big festival down at Marina Bay. There were carnival rides, carnival food, giant inflatable peacocks, acrobats — standard festival fare, really.
It was a beautiful evening:
And a lot of people came out for the colors, the fresh air, the inflatable peacocks.
Phwa-Phwa (Mommy’s Mommy) was in town so she joined us.
We ate a fair amount of rather lousy food (carnival food, what do you expect), including a lime-green popsicle for the young man.
Did we mention there were carnival rides?
There were carnival rides. Including this sort of kiddie roller coaster (okay, that’s maybe stretching it a bit) featuring lots of cars and trucks going up and down a twisty track. Nyan loved it.
There was also a train. Nyan got to sit in the front, along with several other random boys. They all happened to be wearing orange t-shirts, purely by coincidence.
Yes, Nyan had a blast. He absolutely loved it. Happy belated Chinese New Year, everybody!
Long-time readers may remember that Nyan has had, for about a year and a half now, a scooter. Those readers may also remember from past posts that Nyan has yet to prove himself, how to put this politely, skilled at scooting. Well, fear no more: the lad is actually coming along in leaps and bounds when it comes to playground mobility. Look:
He doesn’t yet have the whole turning thing down pat, and his idea of braking so far involves him running into the grass until the scooter’s momentum is lost, or else just stepping off the thing. But still, he’s getting good and having fun at the same time. Perfect. (Other than the bit at the end where he tries to intentionally run into Daddy…)
For comparison’s sake, here he is back in March of last year in London:
No, young Nyan Thomas is not going to be confused with a soccer/football prodigy. Or any sort of sports prodigy, let’s face it. Need proof? Here’s our boy and his classmate, being roped into being goalies by an older boy at the playground who clearly could not find any kids his age to play with. The younger boys had one job: catch the ball before it goes into the decorative pool. How’d they do?
Yeah. ‘Nuff said.
And on another day, he was playing with a girl more his age (that is, she’s four to Nyan’s three-and-a-half). Same outcome, I’m afraid.
But hey, he’s fun to watch, and that’s half the battle, right?
One of Nyan’s more recent fascinations is his shadow. To that end, one of his current favorite things to do is to run along under the street lights and watch his shadow, or more often just stand there and make silly motions to watch what his shadow does. He also asks why his shadow doesn’t have eyes. Here are a couple of recent episodes.
One of the amenities at our apartment complex is an outdoor exercise area, with chin-up bars, an area for sit-ups, and the like. It’s a popular place for the kids to hang out and play; in fact, we’re not sure that we’ve ever seen anyone actually using the area for real exercise. Except for Nyan, that is. Here he is on a recent Sunday, getting his daily exercise in (with a little help from Uncle Oo, visiting from England):
And here he is later that same day. Just trying to tone up, or something.
Music is pretty important around Casa de Nyan, as Mommy and Daddy have always tried to get Nyan interested in tunes, through singing, listening to music, even dinking around on Daddy’s guitars. Nyan is starting to show more and more interest in music, we’re happy to report, including actually making it – through a cheap and simple Disney keyboard, and more recently through an awesome Casio keyboard that Auntie Zuzu and Uncle Iain got Nyan for Christmas.
Here’s Nyan on the Disney keyboard:
And a pair of videos of Nyan on the Casio (with a little help from his Daddy):
(Of course, near the end of that second one, we see Nyan get up from the keyboard and go try to turn on the iPod. Guess he got bored…)
Finally, as proof that Nyan’s at least a double threat when it comes to making music, here he is, shredding on Daddy’s acoustic guitar:
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