RSS

Nyan Thomas, Beach Bum

We live on a tropical island. In fact we live a 10-minute stroll from the shore, and a long stretch of sand. Unfortunately that sand looks out onto one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, and those ships don’t much care if they dump their trash overboard and if that trash then washes ashore. Jerks. But no problem: when we need a fix of sand and sea, we just hop a ferry or a plane and in no time we’re on another tropical island, one with clean beaches.

Nyan had never spent time on a beach before we moved here, but he’s taking to it like a fish to, uh, sand. Here he is, showing off the latest swimwear for this season:

Here’s our boy on the island of Langkawi, Malaysia, this past weekend:

This is Nyan on Bintan, Indonesia – digging in the sand (while staring at the group of girls who would later chase him around) and splashing in a small tidal pool.

Some video of Nyan, kicking and splashing in that same tidal pool:

 

And finally, what’s a day on a breezy beach without a kite?

 

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on September 9, 2014 in Photos, Video

 

Tags: , ,

Chased On a Beach by Half a Dozen Indonesian Girls

It was an odd moment: we’re on a fairly deserted beach in Indonesia, enjoying the crashing surf and the sea breeze, watching Nyan build a sand castle. Suddenly we sense something; we look up; and standing there are six or seven local girls, ages from about four to 10 or so, standing and smiling at Nyan.

What does our Don Juan (Nyan Juan? Don Nyan?) do? Why, he runs away, of course. The girls chase after him, he giggles, they giggle, on it goes. Of course we captured video:

 

They spoke almost no English – one of them asked us what our names are, and asked if we speak Indonesian, and that was about it. Eventually a young man came over, with a few younger boys; turns out all these kids were from the local village, and they spend Saturdays with this young man who tutors them. Or maybe he’s their regular teacher at the village school? Not really sure. Anyway, we figure it’s rare that they see such a young foreign kid on their beach — the resort we were at does not exactly cater to children, as we learned the hard way — so they decided to come over and say hello. They were sweet and friendly, and it was just one of those really nice moments you come across sometimes when you travel.

The teacher asked if they could take a picture with Nyan so we got a few group shots. Nyan of course had to vamp for the camera and make faces. Oh, Nyan.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 28, 2014 in Photos, Video

 

Tags: , ,

Nyan Thomas and the Giant Panda

Nyan had his first-ever field trip today, a school visit to a place called River Safari, right next to the Singapore Zoo. It’s mostly an aquarium of sorts, with displays showing marine life that lives in the world’s biggest rivers. Pretty interesting. Oddly enough, a couple years back they added a pair of giant panda — what do pandas have to do with the world’s greatest rivers? I can’t quite say. But whatever: who doesn’t love a panda? Nyan certainly loves pandas. (So does Daddy, truth be told.)

We’ll have more on the trip overall in a later post. But for now, some photos and a nice little video of our hero and his pal the panda.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 27, 2014 in Photos, Video

 

Tags: , ,

Nyan Thomas on a Scooter

Someday, our boy will be an accomplished bicyclist and/or skateboarder, tearing up the streets as he speeds along.

Today is not someday, however. Today, he loves to ride his little scooter, but he’s not exactly adept at it. Not yet. Someday, yes. But not quite today, bless him.

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 11, 2014 in Video

 

Exercise. It Does a Body Good

Mommy and Daddy try their best to be good examples to their boy — we eat lots of vegetables, we don’t watch TV around him, we don’t yell in front of him, etc. And we also make sure he understands the importance of exercise. We talk about it in front of him, we do it in front of him, and we encourage him to be active. Seems to be working, at least based on his love of doing yoga.

It helps that his new school has a playroom full of toy exercise equipment – so Nyan gets to exercise while he’s having fun! Here’s a sneak peek at some of what he gets up to. Starting with… a trampoline!

 

There’s also a stair master, and a rowing machine.


And this contraption that you swivel your hips on.

 

Finally here’s just a bit more from that exercise session – maybe this is the cooling-down period? That’s Nyan’s good friend Oregon playing with the truck. (Yep, Oregon – a half Singaporean, half Dutch boy named Oregon. We’re not yet sure what the back story of the name is, but he’s a fun little kid with a cool name, so it’s all good.)

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 9, 2014 in Video

 

Tags:

Photo of the Day: Something Sweet

This is Nyan, chillaxing after a hard day at school with a little cup of some noxious sugary candy thingie that one of his friends at school gave him.

20140714_175338

(click to enlarge)

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 9, 2014 in Photos

 

Photo of the Day: At the Beach

Here’s Nyan, playing with his bulldozer behind a small breakwater at East Coast Park, a great big green space about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. Love it.

20140728_111747

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 8, 2014 in Photos

 

Tags:

Photo of the Day: Ice Cream

 

We were out and about the other day and we all got some bowls of ice cream. Here’s Nyan, making a mess with his (moments before he dropped the whole thing on the ground, of course).

20140712_144006

(click to enlarge)

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 7, 2014 in Photos

 

All the Latest Dance Moves

As regular readers know, Nyan Thomas loves to dance. (If by ‘dance’ you mean ‘randomly throw his limbs around while running around the room, somewhat in time to music playing in the background.’ Hey, the kid’s happy, and that’s what counts!) Here is is a few weeks ago, showing off his latest moves. Which, again, is mostly him randomly throwing his limbs around while running around the room. But, yet again, the kid’s happy, so it’s all good.

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 6, 2014 in Video

 

Tags:

Photo of the Day: Scootin’

Nyan Thomas, out for a ride on his bike (a.k.a. scooter) on a recent weekend afternoon, as a Singapore flag flaps proudly in the breeze.

20140714_185625

(click to enlarge)

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 6, 2014 in Photos