Cartierul Cotroceni, Bucuresti

One of the most interesting neighborhoods in the city, for the architecture of the houses, is Cartierul Cotroceni.  There are a number of great architectural styles to be seen there, including Art Deco, Picturesque, Classical Revival, contemporary Modern, Rustic, Romanian (a version of Brancovean), international style modernist, and communist.  The styles are all adjacent to each other on the many small streets.   One of the interesting streets in this small architectural gem is Strada Lister, which connects Piata Operei (with the Opera, Parcul Eroilor, the statue at Operei, and one of the main bridges over the river) with an intimate little neighborhood park built onto the side of a hill - a great place to sit and have a cup of coffee and enjoy the trees.  Along Strada Lister, large oak trees arch over the street.

Game of the month: Moving

In the past few weeks, Nicholas started getting more and more into the crawling position.  He's moved from mastering the sitting position to deliberately moving toward an object, or at least reaching toward an object.  And, spending time developing his arms with baby push-ups.  Not only in the push up position, but crawling up on pillows to try to reach higher objects next to the couch, or pulling himself up on his knees in his crib by grabbing onto the side rail, to try to see what's going on.

Babies do an amazing amount of calesthenics activity and moving, that for an adult would be difficult, spending significant amounts of time doing leg lifts, moving their legs, push-ups, and sit-ups.  The other month, I started doing some calesthenics with Nicholas when he's in his jumper chair.  I figured if Nicholas can spend 4-6 hours per day in his chair, in his crib, or on the couch doing leg lifts, sit-ups, mini-squats, and push-ups, I can surely spend 30 minutes a day.  So far, I've lost 4 cm (1-1/2 inches) around my belly, and gained 5 pounds.  We call it Club Nicholas.... Vibe FM with DJ Nicholas.