As we play catch-up and get through two-plus-months worth of photos, videos and stories of our little man, here’s a batch from the lazy month of August. We started the month in Iowa, spent a little time in California, and made our way back home to Singapore. Here’s a random sampling of photos from that month that didn’t make other blog posts.
The other day, Nyan was racing around our apartment complex, burning off some after-school steam, when he noticed his friend Neeil on the tennis courts. Neeil was batting a tennis ball back and forth with his dad.
Nyan promptly hijacked the court, nicely asked Neill to borrow his racket, and started playing withe Neeil’s dad (who was extremely gracious about the whole thing).
He’s not exactly the reincarnation of Andy Murray. Or even John McEnroe. But he sure had fun.
It’s still summer-like weather here in the land of eternal summer, a.k.a. Singapore, but autumn is surely settling in over the midwestern US of A. Iowa, to be precise, where we spent a couple of pleasant months this past summer. Nyan got to spend a ton of time with Grandma and Grandpa, who spoiled him rotten as only grandparents can do! There were so many activities, so many books to read, so much gardening, so many trips around town and around the state…. here’s a look back at just some of them.
Cookies: The boy loves to bake cookies almost as much as he likes to eat them. (Fun aside: we just got our oven fixed here in Singapore, and Daddy has promised Nyan that they will make cookies together very soon. Daddy asked him the other day, “What kind of cookies should we make?” Nyan’s answer: “Truck cookies! I want to make truck cookies!” Okay then…)
Model trains: Grandpa set up a model train layout in his office, and over the course of the summer, he and Nyan slowly put it together, with buildings, a stream, trees, a tunnel, mountains, roads, and of course trains and track. Here’s Nyan painting the tunnel:
And here’s a look at the layout itself, early on, as Nyan directs Grandpa on where to place the buildings:
Fast forward six weeks or so and check it out:
T-ball is, for our non-American readers, basically baseball with training wheels. Rather than trying to hit a ball that’s been thrown at you, you just swing the bat at a ball that’s sitting on top of a pole. Grandma and Grandpa got a T-ball set for Nyan. Verdict: he’s about as talented at baseball as his father was. (Which is to say, not at all.)
Toy museum: Did you know there’s a National Farm Toy Museum? Mommy and Daddy did not. But Grandma and Grandpa did. And they also knew Nyan would love it.
Trainland USA: In Central Iowa is a place called Trainland USA, a museum of sorts that’s devoted to model railroads. Daddy went here a few times as a boy and has always wanted to return. He didn’t make it this trip, but on one of Daddy’s business trips out of town on this trip, Grandma and Grandpa took Nyan. Lucky little guy.
Cousins: He also hung out with “Grandma Barb” (actually Daddy’s cousin) and his cousins Faith, who is just a few months older, and Faith’s sister Madison, who’s a few years old. (They’re Grandma Barb’s granddaughters, which makes them… some sort of cousin many times removed to Nyan, we guess?) They went on a massive trip around central Iowa, including an aborted trip to a zoo (it was raining) and a stop at a huge fishing and outdoor sports store, which included lots of fishing reels to play with, as well as many boats and all-terrain vehicles to sit in and pretend to drive.
Bowling. That same store also included a bowling alley, of all things, so they all bowled a round. Okay, Nyan didn’t score that great — last place, to be precise — but it was his first time! (And, let’s be honest, it’s not that much behind Daddy’s average bowling score.)
Build-a-dinosaur. Near the end of our stay, Grandma and Mia took Nyan to the Build-a-Bear Workshop as a birthday present. That’s a store where kids can choose how to personalize a teddy bear or other stuffed animal, and they make it for you right there in the store as you watch. Nyan chose a dinosaur, whose name he decided is either T-Rex or, if the mood is right, Dinosaur. He’s usually far more creative with his animal names; I guess he wanted to go back to basics.
Not a bad way to spend a couple of summer months, all in all.
Yes, they have a John Deere tractor museum in Iowa — and during our summer stay over there, Grandma and Grandpa took the lad there. Did our boy love it? He did indeed. They had tractor simulators, real tractors to climb inside, riding lawn mowers, giant tractor wheels, even a prototype of a robot lawnmower! (It’s based on the ‘Roomba’ vacuuming robot, it would seem. Interesting idea.)
Here’s a look:
(Note from the editor: We’re back! We’re not sure why we missed a month there — well, there were some more travels, and a birthday party, and this and that — but we’re back! More regular blogging to resume immediately. First up, a look back to our summer trip.)
Iowa City has lots of great parks, including City Park — not a creative name, but it’s got a lot going on, including some amusement park rides. They’ve been around since Daddy was Nyan’s age, and they’ve somehow survived all the years (and all the cold winters and all the floods) in pretty good shape. Nyan’s been there before (check out this entry from 2012 – look how little he was!) but he still had fun every time we went this summer – which was at least three separate occasions.
His favorite ride was probably the train, which rides around in a slow loop:
On one of our visits, the train wasn’t running, so Nyan just took a stroll and a jog along the tracks:
And what little kid doesn’t like to pilot his own plane?
Of course, as this video makes clear, it’s a rather rickety-sounding plane. But hey.
The ferris wheel looks a bit like a prison but safety first, I guess. And Nyan enjoyed it.
And finally, a Merry-Go-Round ride with Grandma. What could be better?
The dude loves all things mechanical, it’s been well-established. If it roars and moves, all the better. So when we visited Uncle Scott and his gigantic lawn, and when Uncle Scott was happy to show off his riding lawnmower, Nyan was in little boy heaven.
Pictures are great, but they don’t do it justice like video does. Roll tape:
Here we are with daddy:
Daddy again:
Daddy one more time:
Grandma and Grandpa have a cousin named Mark. Mark drives a pick-up truck, which Nyan got to ‘drive’ when we were in Iowa last year. This year, Grandma and Grandpa promised a special treat. Mark, you see, drives a big gasoline truck (a.k.a. petrol truck) as part of his job. And he was going to let Nyan drive it!
And sure enough, he did. Nyan was over the moon happy (and Mark was pretty pleased too). Nyan had an especially good time blowing the very loud air-horn. Thanks, Mark!
We’re back in Singapore after a two-month residency in the US, but we’re not done with photos from the trip – far from it.
To wit: Here is a random sampling of our boy during his massive Summer 2015 trip to Iowa. Enjoy.
Nyan got a lot of birthday gifts and wishes, including an excellent one from Uncle Mike, Aunt Sarah and cousin Mia: a tour of the Iowa City Fire Department’s headquarters! The little guy was over the moon happy (Mia was pretty glad to take the tour as well). The firefighters showed us the pole, their living quarters, the administrative offices… and of course, the fire trucks.
And yes, as you can see, they let him sit in the driver’s seat:
The highlight of the visit, though was when the speakers came to life and our tour guide said he had to go out on a call! Nyan got to watch them climb into the truck and take off:
It was just a medical call; someone fell and hit their head; the firefighters handed the victim off to the ambulance and returned to finish the tour. We hate to say we were lucky to see a call – someone was hurt, after all – but still.
BONUS: A few days later, Grandma, Grandpa, and Daddy walked with Nyan to the neighborhood fire station. It was a hot summer day, and the firefighters there welcomed us inside and gave us yet another tour. This station is HQ for the county Hazardous Materials team, so Nyan not only got to sit inside a fire truck; he got to get behind the wheel of a huge HazMat truck too! Pure bliss for this four year old boy.
Oh, they gave him a souvenir fire helmet too.
The local airport held an air show of sorts: a group of guys owns some World War II-era planes, including fighter planes and a B-29 Superfortress bomber (same kind of plane that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan, as it happens), and they bring them around to airports and let people check out the planes. They also offer flights in the planes themselves, but with prices ranging from $600 for a flight in the bowels of the B-29, to $2600 to soar in a Corsair, we thought it best to stick to the ground, which only cost $10 a head (and kids were free!)
The best part, Daddy thought, was the B-29. We stood inside one of the bomb bays, which was full of (defused, I assume) 500-pound bombs. Then we climbed a ladder to stand in the cockpit.
They also had that Corsair, which happens to be the same model as Skipper, one of the characters in Nyan’s second favorite movie, Planes: Fire and Rescue. (The most favorite being Penguins of Madagascar.)
We went on the second day, and only four planes were there – several more were to arrive on the weekend – and the B-29 was the only one we could go in. But it was still pretty cool, and it was a beautiful and very warm summer day. No complaints at all.
For Nyan, probably the best part was the toy WWII plane (it was a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, Grandpa decided) that Daddy bought for him as a souvenir. No, that was definitely his favorite part. Kids today.
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