Even before we returned home from our Christmas and New Years visit in Arizona, Ollie beat us back to the East Coast as he actually had other, unrelated plans in the DC area. So, he stayed an extra day with us and was able to go to lunch with Colt at his school! Love this picture that one of the teachers snapped.

We were super excited to get some snow on Colt’s 3.5 yr birthday, Jan 7.

Later in the day the snow picked up so we went out for round 2!

After the snow, we snuggled up by the fire with blankets and hot chocolate. I adore living in a place with 4 seasons.

Sharon & Ollie had a wedding in Virginia so we got another quick little visit from them as they passed through town!

During Sharon and Lise’s December visit / babysitting-venture, Lise started teaching Colt this “50, Nifty United States” song. He really picked up on it and, on top of memorizing the song, it sparked an interest in national geography (and international as well). SANTA brought Colt this cool, 51 piece puzzle of the US where most all of the states have their own pieces (sorry New England, some of you have to get lumped together!) and Colt can now do the puzzle solo in minutes (literally, 3 minutes), although admittedly it’s now only 49 pieces as we have permanently lost Oregon and Washington…oops!

On January 18 (11 days late), we celebrated Colt’s half-birthday at school. His teachers said that they were both summer-birthdays and so they sympathized with kids who didn’t get to celebrate their birthdays at school, so for all of the summer birthdays in the class, they celebrate the half-birthdays.

For the celebration, we were asked us bring treats and prepare a short presentation about how Colt has grown in the past year. We had fun pulling pictures together for a little slideshow about Colt and even brought in a few props. Michael and I sang Happy Birthday in Portuguese but Colt finished it all off by getting up in front of the class and singing the 50 Nifty United States song! The song is adorable but Michael and I were mostly just impressed by his boldness – normally Colt gets very shy in situations like that and isn’t typically comfortable with all-eyes on him. But it was a great testament to how much he has grown in the past year, to the ways that school has helped build his social confidence, and also showed us how comfortable he really is at school with his teachers and classmates. It was a sweet moment.

That weekend we were so excited to see some of our dear friends from our time in Brazil, Brett & Brad. Brad’s twin brother and his wife were also in town so the whole crew stopped by for a few hours of hanging out and playing with the kids.

More January:

Another snowfall!