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Christmas in Singapore

It was, of course, not a White Christmas in Singapore this year. Or any year. But we still did a good job getting into the holiday spirit. Let’s take a look:

Here’s Nyan and Mommy, getting our little Christmas tree ready, and doing other things to get into the festive spirit:

And a few pieces of artwork that Nyan made (paintings, mostly) in the weeks leading up to Dec. 25:

Grandma and Grandpa, in their never-ending quest to spoil their grandson, had sent over a box full of 24 little presents — one for Nyan to open each morning in December. Here’s just a few of the moments when he was unwrapping.

On Christmas Eve, an aunt was in town, so we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant downtown. And look who stopped by our table!

Finally: the big day. Christmas morning! Daddy asked Nyan to wait til Daddy could get a cup of coffee. It was hard, but Nyan managed to wait:

And then: Attack the presents! He opened them all in a matter of minutes, it seemed. But still managed to play with, and model, some of them

We had a plane to Thailand to catch later in the day. But first: Christmas dinner with Kyle and his family. Here’s Nyan, waiting for the taxi:

Kyle and Nyan played while the food was being prepared. And what a spread! Delicious.

Afterwards, we hung out for a while, playing with toys – including the adults, who played with the virtual reality video game. The kids did too. Fun, if a little silly:

And then….off to Thailand! But we’ll save that for upcoming posts.

 
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Posted by on January 15, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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More Taekwondo

Let’s check in on how our hero is doing with his taekwondo. Here are a few videos from the month of December.

Start of class:

Stretching and warming up:

Working on his footwork

Various exercises. Gotta get the basics down:

He’s coming along nicely, we think.

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Posted by on January 11, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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The School Christmas Party 

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Nyan’s school threw a fantastic Christmas party a few days before Christmas. Song, dance, food, cookies… well, let’s go the video. Starting with Nyan’s class doing their rendition of Jingle Bells… in Mandarin:

And it’s not a Christmas pageant without a (rather long!) rendition of the 12 Days of Chrismas.

Maybe our favorite part, though, was a special dance recital. See, Nyan does this weekly class called KinderDance at school. It’s only a handful of kids who do it, but he mostly enjoys it. They were scheduled to do a recital as part of the party. (Note: last year, they were also scheduled to do a recital. But our hero was in the midst of his not-gonna-perform phase, so he just sort of stood there and sulked while his parents looked on in bemused embarrassment. That didn’t prove to be a problem this year though). One of the kids in the class was away on holiday, and another was sick or something. So it ended up being just Nyan and a younger girl. And – at least in the eyes of his proud parents – he did a fantastic job! Checkout the tap dancing:

And this sort of modern, interpretive thing:

Of course you can’t have a Christmas party without Santa:

(Nyan cracked the code though: in that video, when he’s not dancing, he’s whispering to all the adults: ‘That’s not really Santa Claus!’)

At some point the party turned into a preschool dance floor:

After all the fun and songs and dancing, it was time for lunch! Here are the kids, singing their usual pre-lunch song. It’s quite nice:

Bonus track: a few days prior to the party, Daddy happened to come by the school a bit early and catch the kids practicing.

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Posted by on January 8, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Swim Club with Kyle

Bestie Kyle and his family belong to the Singapore Swimming Club, which is several swimming pools along with restaurants, playgrounds, and general places to hang out. It makes for a great place for a playdate, which we did in December.

There were hugs, toys and goofiness:

The place has lots of open spaces – perfect for a couple of little boys to burn off some energy.

And then there’s the pond filled with koi fish you can feed – a favorite activity after dinner, for Kyle, Nyan and Kyle’s little sister Kara.

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This most recent trip there was just before Christmas, so we got to enjoy some Xmas decorations too. Nice.

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Posted by on January 4, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Seaside Dining, with Planes

One of our favorite places to dine is an outdoor place on the southeast corner of Singapore. It’s right on the water, so it gives great views of ships and ferries and the sunset, and it’s also just before the start of the runways at Changi Airport. That means fantastic views of planes coming in for a landing — oftentimes literally right overhead.

It’s a great place to just chill and enjoy the breeze…

But the best moment comes every few minutes, when a distant light in the sky gets bigger and louder as it nears….

Of course you have to wave at the pilot:

Last time we visited, we even found a coconut that had fallen off a palm tree. Brought it home, cracked it open, enjoyed the insides. Not bad at all.

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Posted by on December 30, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

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Fun Times All Over the Place

Here’s a dump of a ton of photos and videos from the month of November 2016.

Splashing around in the pool:

Goofing around at a National Geographic exhibit:

Play-fighting with Adriana, one of his BFFs:

Goofing around in front of a mirror:

And finally: morning silliness.

 
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Posted by on December 26, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

The Robot Master

One of our Saturday routines is robotics class. It’s run by a former Silicon Valley engineer who now teaches kids to use Legos and computers to build little robots. Nyan’s a bit younger than the instructor – Coach G – usually teaches, but he agreed to give Nyan a shot.

Nyan’s been at it for about three months now, and while he isn’t always entirely focused for the entire 90 minute session, he does really well overall. Here’s a snippet of class from a few weeks back:

And a few photos from class, including a robotic Lego lion he built!

 
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Posted by on December 22, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

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Nyan Thomas, Reader

It’s no secret that Nyan loves books and stories. No matter what or when, chances are he’ll ask Mommy or Daddy to tell (or better yet, read) him a story. Before bed, at mealtime, when brushing teeth, on the toilet, on the bus…. ‘Can you read me a story?’

What’s much lesser known is that the young man is no slouch at reading himself. And  every once in a while, we’re able to grab some video evidence.

Here he is, back in November, reading some Curious George before school:

Also in November, reading some Richard Scarry before bed (apologies for the slightly soft audio):

And finally, one morning I had asked the little man to make his bed. I left his room and came back a few minutes later, expecting to find a made bed. Nope. Instead I found this:

Hard to get mad at him when he’s doing that though, isn’t it.

 

 
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Posted by on December 19, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

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Playdate at the Sports Hub

You read recently about the playdate Nyan had with Kyra and Chrysa at Gardens by the Bay. Not long after that, he met up with those two lovely ladies once again, along with fellow classmate Ming Xuan, for another Sunday afternoon of fun, this time at Singapore’s Sports Hub.

The Sports Hub is home to the National Stadium — a 60,000 seat domed affair — as well as a smaller arena, running tracks, tennis courts a large swim center, and (this being Singapore) a shopping mall. There’s also an exhibition space near all of this, and the day we went, there was some sort of tennis-related exhibition, to celebrate a big tennis tournament going on.

Some pictures of the kids:

We checked out the tennis bits, but the kids were more interested in goofing around inside the mall. Such as making goofy faces in the reflection of a car display:

Or just milling about among the crowds:

The real fun, though, came when we decided to get our swimsuits and head to the waterpark on the roof of the mall. It’s a small but great little play area, complete with water slides — here are Nyan and Ming Xuan cheering either Kyra or Chrysa as they come down the slide:

And general playtime:

Another great Sunday full of fun, friends and outdoor activities.

 
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Posted by on December 16, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

Jayden’s Birthday Party

One of Nyan’s best friends is Jayden, who lives in the same apartment complex as us. Jayden turned six back in October, and his parents threw him a party at a nearby indoor playroom. Nyan of course was more than happy to attend.

Here are a couple of silly boys:

Most of the action was just boys being boys. Throwing things, goofing around — just being kids, basically.

There were also a fair number of costumes and play areas where kids could dress up and pretend to do adult things. There was a pretend grocery store, for instance, and a pretend doctor’s office with doctor costumes and an examination table. Here’s Nyan, sort of dressing up as (we think) a police officer.

And finally, here’s Nyan pretending to be a (slightly chubby) stormtrooper:

 
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Posted by on December 13, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

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