Nyan sure does love his friends. And he loves to be silly. So one day, while Daddy was picking him up at school, he decided to pose for a picture with his friend Ming Xuan. Then Isabelle joined in. Then Sander. Then Chloe. Then Ning Ning.
Then of course they had to all make silly faces. Kids today amiright?
BONUS: Ming Xuan joined Nyan at robotics class one day.
At the start of the year, the parents of a bunch of Nyan’s classmates decided that it’d be nice to get the kids together just before the new school year started. Our apartment complex has a nice function room, so we reserved it and hosted. And what a fun, casual afternoon it was.
There was lots of running around, often with Adriana in the lead:
Lots of general fun as well:
Of course everyone made it into the pool for a while:
And there was more running and playgrounding:
There were also some more mellow times, when the kids were hanging out on the chairs, chit-chatting and eating ice cream.
A great start to 2017 and the K2 school year (the last year all these great friends will be at the same school, but we’re trying not to think about that just yet!)
Bonus: Afterwards, Ming Xuan came upstairs so she and Nyan could play Legos for a while.
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.
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.
This most recent trip there was just before Christmas, so we got to enjoy some Xmas decorations too. Nice.
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:
Long-time readers know that our apartment complex in Singapore is pretty great for a kid. There are three swimming pools, playground equipment, tennis courts, and a decent amount of open space to run around, be imaginative, play with friends, and just generally be a kid. Let’s take a look at some recent activities around the place.
Hopscotch and the playground equipment with some neighbor friends:
Goofing around with Jayden:
Scooting around the pool:
In the pool itself:
One day, Nyan’s friend Justin brought down a new toy drone. Nyan and several other boys commandeered the tennis courts to try it out.
Riding his bike, while wearing a goofy looking mask:
Finally, sometimes Nyan likes to check out the gym. We never go in if anyone is in there exercising, because we don’t want to be a pest. But when we do get inside, Nyan has a blast, being his curious self.
It’s fair to say that our lifestyle in Singapore has spoiled us in a lot of ways. Having all these fun amenities is a major part of that spoilage.
One of Nyan’s favorite classmates is Kyra, who lives next door along with her younger sister Chrysa, who attends the same preschool. One Sunday afternoon and evening in October, the three kids, along with all four parents, headed down to Gardens by the Bay for some play.
Gardens by the Bay itself was as gorgeous as ever, by day and by night:
The kids had a blast together. Here’s Nyan with Kyra:
And here he is being Big Brother to Chrysa:
We didn’t end up in the domes that are home to the botanic gardens on this trip. We did manage to find a cool playground:
The main event, though, was the Gardens’ excellent waterplay area. We’ve been here numerous times before, and it never fails to impress.
The kids were out of control, in the very best possible way:
A really fun day!
When we asked Nyan what he wanted to be for Halloween this year, he was unequivocal: he wanted to be a knight. Okay then. We looked around a bit for a decent knight costume to purchase, but found next to nothing — certainly nothing good. Not to worry: Mommy’s pretty skilled and creative at sewing and other craft-y type stuff, so she dove right in to a labor of love: making our boy a knight costume from scratch. And what a job she did. We used a sword and shield we’d gotten at Legoland, and a helmet and dagger from a castle in England, but the rest was all homemade. Check it out:
Is that awesome or is that awesome?
Here he is, strutting his stuff around the pool:
That was at a Halloween party that the apartment complex threw for all the kids. More scenes from that, including a mummy-making contest.
Then it was time for trick or treating! It was Nyan’s first time to actually go trick or treating; we went to every one of the five towers in our apartment complex, hitting up those apartments that were taking part. Maybe 30 or 40 in all. Nyan hooked up with Jayden and his brother Johnnie to do it:
By the end of the night, the costumes were getting a little intermixed:
And then we found a toy knife that Nyan just had to try out. Okay, Daddy too.
Silly. But fun.
One of our favorite recurring characters on this blog is Kyle, Nyan’s former classmate whom he’s stayed close to even though they don’t go to the same school any longer, and in fact get to see each other but rarely – once a month at best. But they definitely make the most of the time they do get to spend together. Like in mid-October, when Nyan spent the afternoon at Kyle’s new home.
Much of the action took place in the lovely swimming pool, where the boys played all sorts of games.
And splashed in the water.
And goofed around using a hollow swim noodle:
It being nearly Halloween, there was of course a skeleton hanging around.
But mostly it was just about two pals hanging out.
One of the highlights of our trip to England in August was getting to catch up with family and friends. For Nyan, that meant getting to hang with Elizabeth – a.k.a. Bunky – and Adam.
Elizabeth was quite small when we moved away from England, but she and Nyan took to each other on this trip like they’d been BFF forever. Possibly because their two Mommies have been BFF forever. In any case, Bunky live in a centuries-old house on a big plot of land in rural Essex County, with lots of room to run around outside and play. So they did.
Bunky’s Daddy Chris tried to teach Nyan how to kick a ball. Er, still got a ways to go, I’m afraid:
Some lovely mommies posing with their lovely babies:
On another day at Bunky’s place, Adam and Daniel came by. More fun and hilarity ensued.
And on yet another day, Daddy and Nyan met Bunky, Sharon and Sharon’s mom at a nature reserve outside of Colchester for pond dipping — where you pull water out of a pond and check to see what creepy crawlies live in the water — and running around outside.
As you can see, we had pretty good weather nearly every day of our visit. Good weather, good friends, good times!
Nyan Thomas L's Blog 