Arriving at home after a hard and fun day at school, there’s little that the gentleman farmer enjoys more than to climb onto his John Deere tractor in the back yard and tootle around for a spell before dinner. While also checking on the crops. Our boy is nothing if not a gentleman farmer.
Those were in London. Here we have the young man showing off his Iowa roots in no less than Iowa, helping Grandma and Grandpa in the garden. Teaching them a few things about farming, no doubt.
Not much to this post, just some photos from the walk home from school the other day. Absolutely lovely outside (if a tad cool), with bright early-evening sunshine. Here’s the church near our house, and Nyan pointing at the church, and Nyan mugging for the camera.
Or scooter, to be more precise. But yes, our boy has one of those little scooters that’s all the rage among the toddling set. He loves it, but as these videos attest, the young man still has a bit of work to do before he starts scooting down the street at top speed.
Note that in the second video, he seems more interested in examining how the back wheel works than in actually riding the thing. That’s his engineering mind at work…
Sunday was an absolutely brilliant day, weather-wise – not a cloud in the sky, temps in the low 60s Fahrenheit. What better way to celebrate then to head to the park across the street?
Here’s Mommy and Nyan, walking along as Daddy takes a video:
We bought Nyan’s red ball (and his green tractor as well) so he could show off his soccer/football skills. Um, let’s just say he’s got some work to do before he makes the national team:
It was our first visit to the playground since winter, and Nyan went right back to his little ‘store’ and offered to ‘cook’ some pasta and tea for Mommy and Daddy.
There was also an ice cream truck parked nearby, and Nyan insisted we buy him a cone. As expected, he showed no interest at all in actually eating it – he didn’t have one bite. Though he did enjoy walking around holding the cone, before finding a pile of old leaves and tossing them up in the air:
And here he is, wandering around the playground, trying to decide what to do next:
Not a bad way at all to spend a Sunday afternoon.
It’s an almost-pleasant 52 rainy degrees (Fahrenheit) in London this January evening – just a wee bit nicer than the -17 degrees (Fahrenheit) or so that our friends and family back in the Midwest are suffering through right now. So it seems fitting, somehow, to post these pictures: It’s Nyan Thomas, decked out for whatever Mother Nature can throw at him, in a snazzy snowsuit and boots courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa.
These were taken in mid-December, when we were back in Iowa, and when the temperature was around 10 degrees F – bloody stinking cold, although nearly tropical compared to what it’s like there now. And yes, there was snow on the ground – but no, our boy had no interest in going out to play in it. “No want snow. Is cold.” Smart kid, actually, although making a snowman would have been fun. Someday perhaps.
But we did head outside, for a bit, in the bitter cold. Nyan was totally fine with it, decked out in his finest thermal ware. And of course he wanted to ride on Daddy’s shoulders, and of course Daddy was happy to oblige.
(No, he’s not looking especially happy in this shot. But trust us – the kid had a blast.)
Our boy getting into the holiday spirit: a few weeks back, Mommy was going shopping on the High Street and asked Nyan if he wanted to come along. Why yes, yes he did. And of course he insisted on carrying the shopping bag. Because he’s a big boy.
Of course he got distracted by varions streetscape sounds on the walk, as he does.
Bonus photo of Nyan wearing Daddy’s shoes, just ’cause he can.
A couple weeks back, when Grandma was here, she and Nyan had a blast on the walk home from school, playing with the leaves.
They also checked out the remains of a huge old tree that was toppled in the big windstorm we had at the end of October.
Our little guy has made some good friends with several of his classmates from nursery (day care). Here he is with a few of them.
James (or Jamesy, as Nyan calls him) is one of his best buddies. Here they are, just a couple of old chums, hanging out on a park bench.
(Click any photo to make it bigger)
Here’s the lad with sisters Miri and Rosa, hanging out on a rainy Sunday in September, plus a bonus shot of Nyan with Miri a few days ago.
And a bonus: slightly shaky video taken from the swingset.
A few weeks back, Nyan’s pal Adam had his own second birthday, and threw himself a party at a farm-like place south of London.
There were tractors!
And of course pigs, among other animals.
Plus puddles and plenty of room to run around:
Lots of indoor play too, including more tractors.
And lots of snacking with the birthday boy, too:
Earlier this month, we decided our weekly Sunday family fun activity would be a daytrip to Cambridge. It’s only about an hour north of where we live, and it was a beautiful bright sunny fall day. A bit chilly, and quite windy, but otherwise gorgeous, as you’ll see.
We didn’t do anything special – just wandered around the town, including lunch at a riverside pub.
And we visited King’s College Chapel, an absolutely stunning, 500-year-old cathedral. Read the rest of this entry »
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