Our boy has started taking kung fu classes on Sunday mornings. It’s a bit of a work in progress, to be honest (we should be posting videos in the near future) but it’s good exercise, and it’s fun. And doesn’t he look sharp in his uniform?
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Some summertime housekeeping here at NyanThomas.com has led to us unearthing some unpublished videos from the past few months. We present them in no particular order other than roughly chronological. Enjoy!
In this first video, from January, our hero puts on the headset that Mommy uses to do conference calls for work, and attempts to commandeer her work computer as well. (And check out him shushing Mommy at about 40 seconds in. Cheeky!)
Nyan messing around with some old milk bottles, working on his motor skills. From February.
Shortly before we left London in April, Nyan at bedtime, talking in a silly voice about silly things:
Also in April, we went through a phase where every day after school, Nyan would take off running across the village green, and Daddy would dutifully record it on his phone. Here are several examples. It’s mostly just a lot of Nyan running, asking questions, being silly.
Nyan’s best buddies, Woodie the Bear and Beaux the Blue Cow, take a ride on one of Nyan’s many, many fire engines.
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From early May through early June, we all lived out of a hotel room in Singapore. It was quite nice – large, great staff, fantastic grounds including playground and a huge swimming pool. We were certainly ready to move into our new place once we found it, but no complaints at all about the place we stayed (it’s called Tree Tops Executive Residences, by the way, and we recommend it highly). Here are a few photos and videos of what Nyan got up to during our time there. Swimming, playing, napping, waiting for a taxi with Mommy, etc.
Plus a couple of videos: one of his favorite games was to run through the hallways, looking for our room. They all tended to look alike, of course, which made it a challenge. And it also burned off some of his voluminous energy! Win-win.
And here he is, just relaxing on the couch, reading the paper. As you do.
Nyan loves animals – what kid doesn’t, of course – and we’d read that Singapore has one of the world’s best zoos. So last month, a few days after we arrived here, Daddy and Nyan spent a day at the zoo. We weren’t disappointed.
It rained heavily that morning, but the skies were clearing when we arrived at the zoo, shortly after it opened at 10am. The rain meant no crowds, which meant we had the animals mostly to ourselves. We started out at the polar bear exhibit, where Nyan was wowed as he watched the bear dive under the water and eat fish. (He still talks about that today, more than a month after our visit.)
A small sampling of some of the other animals we saw: zebras, giraffes, crocodiles, lions, birds, monkeys, kangaroos. And a cheetah.
And pygmy hippos.
And organutans.
And turtles and fish.
Monkeys too.
The highlight, perhaps, was the elephant show. All morning long, Daddy had been promising that we’d make it to the elephant show, which somehow in Nyan’s mind became ‘We’re gonna see the elephants dancing!” Well, they didn’t actually dance, but they did put on a nice show for us.
Video from the show:
He looks less than enthused, but that’s just ’cause he was paying close attention. And perhaps because the midday heat, the humidity, the jetlag and the hours of running around were all catching up to him: after the elephant show, we made our way to the exit, and he fell asleep in the car within a few minutes of driving off.
Nyan has always been a big fan of his cousin Mia. She lives in Iowa, so he doesn’t get to see her too often, but he’s always really happy to see her. She’s always really good with him as well. They got to hang out a good amount during our recent stop-over in Iowa, with plenty of goofing around, laughing, and hugging. Here’s some of it.
Maybe it’s his Iowa farming roots, or maybe it’s his West Country of England farming roots. Or maybe it’s just that he always wants to help. Whatever the reason, Nyan loves helping out when Grandma is out in the garden. (Same here in Singapore: we have but one solitary houseplant so far, out on the balcony, awaiting transplanting into a bigger pot. Daddy can’t go out there to give it some water without a little helper tagging along and ‘helping.’)
Here are some shots from some cool early spring days in Iowa, Nyan doing his best to make sure Grandma’s garden looks great.
As we start to get settled in to our new apartment in Singapore, we’re able to start sifting through hundreds of pictures and videos from the last couple of months – many of which will show up in this humble blog in coming days and weeks. For the moment, it seems fitting to share this one, from our final days in London. It’s Nyan ‘packing’ – and bidding farewell to London – as Mommy and Daddy sort through their stuff ahead of the movers coming to take it all away.
Bonus video: from the same day, Nyan looking out the window as Daddy sneaks a video of him through the wall mirror. Then he sees Daddy, giggles, runs around. Nyan being Nyan.
Another flashback, this one from early April as we packed up for our move: Nyan Thomas, chatting on the ‘phone’ (actually some sort of cleaning tool, I believe). He’s ‘talking’ to his friend Elizabeth, telling her about Dr Brown Bear and other highlights of his day.
We know, we know, we’ve been quite remiss in posting new pics and videos as of late, we realize. Apologies. Still living out of suitcases, which is causing all sorts of havoc with trying to do things like make blog posts on a regular basis. All good, don’t get us wrong – we’re just a little off kilter. Expect fresh stories, photos and videos to resume in the very near future.
Meantime, let’s go back in time a couple months – early spring, Daddy’s hometown. It was a cool but sunny afternoon, and Nyan and Daddy headed to the neighborhood park, a place called Willow Creek Park, for some fresh air and general fun.
He really wanted to commandeer this soccer ball, but instead he decided to just go for a jog.
And here he is riding a plastic seahorse. I’m not sure what sound a seahorse makes, but I betcha it sounds a lot like whatever it is Nyan is saying in this video:
Similarly, riding a plastic fish.
And of course it’s not a trip to the park without playing on a slide:
Come back soon for photos and videos from the Singapore Zoo, from a dance-off between Nyan and a 19-month-old boy at an Orchard Road mall food court, from Nyan running down the hall of our hotel, and much more.
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