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Monster Jam!

27 Sep

Monster Jam, for the unaware, is a touring spectacle of monster trucks and motorcycles that go from arena to arena, doing jumps and stunts and generally making a very loud mess. Kids (and kids-at-heart) seem to absolutely love it, so when the Monster Jam tour came to Singapore’s National Stadium, we decided to take Nyan.

As it turned out, Jayden’s folks decided to take Jayden and his younger brother Jonnie, so we made a night of it. (The respective mommies stayed home.)

It was loud, it was chaotic, it was a blast for the kids.

We got there a few minutes late because we had soccer practice just before, so we were still on the outside of the stadium as the muffler-less trucks started revving. But we found our seats soon enough. Here’s some shots of what we saw, plus our two heroes:

Check out this monster truck:

And this one:

There was a lot of music and foot-stomping to add to the general din:

More foot stomping. And check out that souvenier drinking cup Nyan got. It wasn’t expensive at all, and didn’t fall apart two days later at all. Sure.

Did the kids have a blast? They did. Not just our kids; all of them. In fact, when we returned to school the following Monday morning, just about every kid at the place greeted all their friends with the same words: “Did you go to Monster Jam?” Seems like nearly every kid in Singapore did indeed go.

 

 
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Posted by on September 27, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Pool Parties and Abacus

18 Sep

A couple of things Nyan did during the month of August:

One day, he went to his abacus grading exercise. See, he’s been taking an abacus class on Saturday afternoons for about a year, as a way to help him with his math. And in August, it was time for him to be graded, to see about moving on to the next level. Mommy and Daddy couldn’t be with him in the testing room; here are some pictures from outside the testing room, just before. Nervous? Nah.

And not nervous for good reason. Here’s the results:

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That’s right: 100%. Well done, Nyan!

Another afternoon we attended a birthday party for Daniel, Nyan’s playground friend from the apartment complex. There was food, balloons and a clown show:

The big attraction, though, was the kiddie pool. Nyan of course has spent many, many, many afternoons in this pool and always manages to have a good time.

He had such a good time in the pool, in fact, that after he came out, dried off, put his clothes back on and got some cake, he wanted to get back in the pool. But didn’t want to take them time to change back into his swimsuit. No matter; in he went!

 
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Posted by on September 18, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Bye-Bye, MMI

03 Sep

August was a bittersweet month in at least one way: Yes, our boy was moving on to “real” school. But that meant saying goodbye to his preschool, Modern Montessori International, where he spent three wonderful and incredibly formative years.

We managed to snap a few shots of the hugs that were going around when Daddy picked Nyan up on his very last day at MMI:

Just for fun, here’s a video one of his teachers took a couple months back of Nyan answering some questions about breakfast time at Nyan’s place.

Several other students were leaving MMI and starting at international schools around the same time, so Abi’s parents threw a farewell pool party in mid-August.

A couple of pool shots:

And some goofy kid shots:

Even more kid shots – goofy and non-goofy:

Nyan’s settling in very well at his new school, with lots of new friends already, but we’ll always remember the MMI years with nothing but fondness.

 
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Posted by on September 3, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Sunday Fun Day(s)

26 Aug

In the average week, Nyan is busy at school for the five weekdays, then busy with various classes on Saturday. We try to keep Sunday loose and unscheduled, so that we can sleep in and be lazy, and maybe go to a museum or a hike or a swim. Family day.

But sometimes, there’s something more structured to do. We had a couple such Sundays in July. One of them involved Adriana coming over for another playdate:

Another day, Daddy was running an early morning 5k, and Nyan and Mommy came down to cheer him on. (Well, to be precise, a certain almost-six-year-old was feeling groggy and tired and grumpy and dragging his feet, so he didn’t get down to the race site until after the race was over. But Daddy still appreciated the gesture!

Some pics from the race (actually lining up waiting for it to start):

And here’s Nyan, proudly showing off the medal that “he” won after “he” finished the run.

Afterwards, we walked around downtown a bit, finding some food and just relaxing. Nyan was captivated by this giant metal waterwheel that an office building has as a piece of public art:

And on the way home, he showed off a combination of taekwondo and modern dance:

That was…something!

 
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Posted by on August 26, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Winding Down at MMI

23 Aug

The month of July was Nyan’s last full month at Modern Montessori International, or MMI — the Montessori preschool he went to for three-plus years. We’ll have a full retrospective in a few weeks, but for now, let’s take a look at some random school-related photos from the closing weeks.

Some silliness in the elevator on the way to school:

One drizzly morning we bumped into Jayden, who walked with us to school:

And here we are at the school itself. Just a few random moments:

Of course, one of the highlights of every school day was playtime in the indoor playground at the end of the day. Here’s another look at the fun (including a little boy who doesn’t like it when he realizes Daddy is filming him):

As we prepared for the transition to his new school, we bought new uniforms, and Nyan proudly modeled them:

And finally, a bit of praise from his teacher, written for our parent-teacher conference in June. Good job, Nyan!

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Posted by on August 23, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Happy Birthday to Eva!

20 Aug

Eva is a girl a year below Nyan at his Montessori school. She was turning five in July, and invited a bunch of schoolmates – including Nyan and several others from his class – to a party, held at an indoor playground called Waka Waka. Same place, in fact, where Kyle had his party back in February, and where Nyan conquered the rope course (see here).

The rope course wasn’t available this time, but Nyan still managed a personal first, and had a great time as well.

There were games and songs and cake:

And they did the limbo:

Also a pinata. Nyan got a few whacks at it. Nice hits!

Finally, the payoff:

After the organized party bits, the kids went buck wild at the playground portion.

One popular spot was a little house where the kids could put up foam bricks to build walls.

It’s all well and good until a younger kid tears down the wall:

The highlight, though, was surely the gigantic vinyl volcano. It’s got some rope and footholds for kids to climb up, but it’s tough as it’s steep and the vinyl is slippery. Nyan tried but didn’t make it when Kyle had his party here five months earlier. But this time, Nyan was a fearless mountain climber:

So proud of our boy! He remains a bit skittish and shy when it comes to trying new things – especially if they are a little challenging, like this – but he does get there eventually. Just gotta be patient with him at times.

Besides all this fun, Nyan also got to hang with his pals – especially Adriana, Kyra and Chrysa. We’ll close with some lovely pictures of all the kiddos.

 
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Posted by on August 20, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Nyan Does Universal Studios Singapore 

11 Aug

To continue (and wrap up) Nyan’s birthday events this year: we took him, Jayden and Kyle to Universal Studios Singapore, our local theme park. Kyle’s parents and sister came along too, so it was a great group of people. Jayden had been to Universal Studios many times before; it was a maiden voyage for the rest of us. And in spite of the heat and the crowds, we managed to have a great, super-fun, super-exhausting and super-sweaty day.

There was so much to do, so many rides to go on. Let’s start with a random assortment of shots of the boys (and some of the others) just hanging out:

Can’t keep Nyan from dancing, no matter where he is:

More dancing:

(In that last video, there was a moment, about 14 seconds in, when Kyle accidently bumps Nyan’s knee. No big deal, except he happened to have a scab on there from a recent tumble, so it was tender and hurting. That’s why the dance paused for a moment and Nyan sort of whined momentarily. I love, though, that Kyle – one of the sweetest-natured kids you’ll ever meet – immediately got down to inspect it and make sure Nyan was okay! He was just fine, of course, and the dance resumed.)

It was a big day for both Mommy and Nyan: their first roller coaster ride! Mommy and Daddy went on the adult one, which uses mag-lev technology to get going really fast, really quickly. She did great! Nyan was a bit skittish about his own first roller coaster – a more tame ride, though still relatively fast and twisty. But he passed the test with flying colors. His verdict at the end, said with a huge smile: “It was scary!”

Here he is, with Daddy, just before the ride started.

There was a ride in the Jurrasic Park section that involved pyterodactyls spinning around, and going up and down. Considerably more mellow than a roller coaster, but the kids seemed to enjoy it. Videos by Mommy:

Not far away was a giant T Rex head that the kids had fun playing around. So did Mommy and Daddy, actually.

Inside the Shrek’s Castle exhibit was this pretty cool indoor ferris wheel. If you look closely you can see the birthday boy peeking out.

Here are some nice (and silly) photos of Kyle with Kara, Sara and Bryan:

And finally, at the very end of the day, we happened upon the boys’ hero, Optimus Prime. (He’s one of the Transformers.) The big guy was just about done with his day’s work of posing with little boys and girls, and it so happened that Nyan, Jayden and Kyle were the final three guests of the day. They insisted that Daddy join them for a meet-n-greet.

(By the way, those glasses were for the 3-D Transformers ride. The boys loved it.)

So overall, was the birthday outing to Universal Studios Singapore a success? Yep. Exhausting though, as we mentioned. Check out this snapshot from the taxi ride home:

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Nyan claimed to not be tired. Sure.

 
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Posted by on August 11, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Nyan Turns Six! 

08 Aug

We couldn’t quite believe it, but the calendar didn’t seem to be lying: on July 26, our boy turned six years old. Where does the time go, and all that. But there wasn’t much time to ponder the sifting sands of time, because we had a birthday to celebrate!

His birthday this year fell on a Wednesday, which means a school day. So we did what we did last year: ordered a special cake and brought it in to share with all his classmates. Here’s the cake:

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There were candles of course. And songs.

As Mommy cut the cake, Nyan played the gracious host, passing out napkins to his friends.

Then everyone patiently lined up and got cake. Nyan helped here, too.

Here are all the kids, enjoying the cake and the party.

Of course, it’s not a birthday without presents! Nyan was quite happy as he opened his various gifts. When he saw that he was getting a Lego Batwing, he exclaimed, “Yes! All my dreams are coming true!”

Coming soon: a look at a very special Sunday with Nyan’s besties to celebrate his birthday.

 
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Posted by on August 8, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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Judo! and a Playdate

02 Jul

There’s a judo studio – the Dojo – on the lower level of the building that houses Nyan’s school. A little while ago, they ran a promotion, offering a one-hour intro class at a discounted rate on a Sunday morning. Nyan expressed interest, so we decided to give it a try – not as a potential replacement for taekwondo, just as something to do. Best of all, his great friend Adriana decided she’d attend as well.

We took lots of video. Here’s the warm-up and some general exercises:

And there was some (attempted) rolling as well.

One of the exercises called for the kids to basically tackle the teacher. Which they did with relish and gusto:

Then there was the time when Nyan and Adriana faced off. I kinda feel like Adriana won this round. (She *is* six months older, bear in mind…)

After all that excitement, it was decided that Adriana would come over to our place – we live across the street – for an impromptu playdate. The kids were happy:

It was Adriana’s first time to visit our place, and Nyan was excited to show her around, including the view out his bedroom window.

They played both inside and outside, and managed to squeeze in some drawing time as well as a goofy photoshoot.

A great way to spend a Sunday.

 
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Posted by on July 2, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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More Fun at School

22 May

Classes at Nyan’s school end around 5:30 each afternoon. From then til 6pm, the kids go play in the indoor playground as they wait for their parents to pick them up. It makes for lots of great photo ops!

We also often capture some nice memories on video:

And Nyan often runs into various classmates on his way to school in the morning. Here he is holding hands with Kyra, and sharing morning hugs with Kyra and Yew Min.

 
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Posted by on May 22, 2017 in Uncategorized

 

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