Nyan’s daddy has been playing in a rock band for a little while now, and one weeknight in May, his band had its first-ever live performance. Mommy and Nyan were there, of course; Jayden showed up with his family too!
Nyan gave himself a front-row seat and had a great time. But he arguably had even more fun hanging out with Jayden, hanging out with Daddy and Mommy before the performance, and watching the bar TV which was showing a muted video of Mr Bean.
Some of the creative endeavors Nyan got up to during the December break from school.
He did lots of drawing and writing, of course, as always. Including a get-well card for Uncle Iain, a letter of explanation to the Tooth Fairy, and some school work.
Nyan enjoys playing around with Daddy’s electric guitar.
He also had a blast when we went to a local music store one afternoon. He found his “dream guitar” — a $7,000 sparkly Flying V. Save your pennies, kiddo.
He also did a number of scientific experiments, many of them with Mommy. Here they are in various science garb:
The masks were when they were doing geology, including pounding on various rocks with a hammer. Gotta filter out the dust!
Here’s an experiment on the viscosity levels of various substances. Peanut butter, honey, and olive oil.
And the creme de la creme: We took some pencils, connected them to a battery, put them in water. See those bubbles? That’s electrolysis!
Second in our two-part series about little moments and events that took place in September.
On Thursday afternoons, after school and before taekwondo, Nyan took part in an art class held at his friend Nadia’s apartment, just across the swimming pool from us. It was one instructor, seven girls and Nyan. He was a little worried at first, we think, what with being the old boy there, but he quickly got over that and had a blast.
Over the summer, we saw The Lion King (the movie) for the first time, as well as a short live-action version of it at Hong Kong Disneyland. When we heard that the musical version was coming here, we snapped up tickets. No pictures of the performance itself, but here’s our hero (and his peeps) before the show. He loved it, by the way.
We were sad to see Jayden and his family move away in August, but one small consolation prize was inheriting their electric piano. Daddy’s had fun playing it, and Nyan has fun pounding the keys. We’re hoping it’ll spark some interest in actually learning to play. But for now, we have this.
For Mother’s Day in May, Nyan and Daddy accompanied Mommy to a production of the ballet, Swan Lake. It was a very nice performance, and Nyan did quite well with his first-ever ballet, sitting patiently, enjoying the dancing and the music, and not fidgeting much at all (although, about 15 minutes into the show, he did ask, “When are they going to start talking?”).
The theater was in the western part of the island, pretty far from home, so we made an afternoon of it. That included a stroll to a nearby office building that has a lush garden on part of its roof – and features the Jedi master himself standing in a pond:
(Of course, Nyan had to do his thing where he tries to look miserable for the camera!)
We then headed to a nearby shopping mall for some food, browsing and – crucially – a haircut for the young man. Came out pretty well, we thought!
Before the haircut, we had dinner at a Japanese place, which featured mellow Japanese music playing in the background. Nyan did a sort of martial arts/dance combo. What can we say; he’s a goofball sometimes.
Every so often, Nyan’s school has a school-wide assembly to talk about this and that, and the classes each take turns leading the presentation. In mid-November it was Nyan’s class’s turn, and parents were invited!
First everyone sang the school song.
The theme that Nyan’s class chose to talk and sing about was about healthy life choices. So we were treated to a couple of excellent songs, including this one about healthy food versus junk food:
They also stressed the importance of leading a balanced life:
There were also little skits. Nyan took part in this one, the theme being, uh, not sure. Playing nicely with your friends, maybe?
That was about it – no big deal, but good messages, and good catchy tunes too.
You’ve seen many times that Nyan loves music, and loves to dance. Wanna see some more? Here you go!
Watching the Singapore National Day celebrations on TV, dancing along to the music:
He’s become a huge fan of the band Foo Fighters, a song called The Pretender in particular. Nice air-guitar and air-drumming skills on display here:
Same song, different day. Definitely showing some drumming chops:
He even likes to practice his dance moves at his favorite cafe, Batty Fluffy Flaps!
Music is pretty important around Casa de Nyan, as Mommy and Daddy have always tried to get Nyan interested in tunes, through singing, listening to music, even dinking around on Daddy’s guitars. Nyan is starting to show more and more interest in music, we’re happy to report, including actually making it – through a cheap and simple Disney keyboard, and more recently through an awesome Casio keyboard that Auntie Zuzu and Uncle Iain got Nyan for Christmas.
Here’s Nyan on the Disney keyboard:
And a pair of videos of Nyan on the Casio (with a little help from his Daddy):
(Of course, near the end of that second one, we see Nyan get up from the keyboard and go try to turn on the iPod. Guess he got bored…)
Finally, as proof that Nyan’s at least a double threat when it comes to making music, here he is, shredding on Daddy’s acoustic guitar:
It was a musical Sunday morning at Nyan Thomas World Headquarters, with Bowie playing on the radio and a visiting Uncle Jeff fashioning a microphone out of aluminum foil. Did Nyan enjoy it? He did. Especially since the song playing was all about one of Nyan’s current interests: space.
And here the boy spends about four straight minutes running around in circles, intentionally making himself dizzy. Silly boy:
Just a few short videos from last month, with Grandma in town, of Nyan Thomas singing and goofing around at dinner time.
And here we are ‘in the tunnel’ (a.k.a. under the table)
Fun times after school the other day. First, Nyan Thomas has discovered a new toy: Mommy’s umbrellas! He’ll see them perched by the front door and demand that Daddy take them out and open them up. He then proceeds to try to carry them, or dance on top of them, for a couple of minutes before he gets bored and moves on to something else.
This next video is from later that same day. He’d just had a nice filling dinner and demanded that Daddy give him this plastic implement he saw on the countertop. It’s a syringe-like thingie that helps you get liquid vitamins, medicines etc. into a squirmy toddler’s mouth – a clear hollow tube with a small hole at one end and a bigger one at the other, and a smaller purple tube that goes into the hollow tube and acts as the plunger. Nyan started playing with the hollow clear tube and discovered that it easily turns into a whistle! Here he is showing off his new musical chops.
