Happy Valentines - age 7 months

My parents sent Nicholas a Russel Stover heart valentine box for his first Valentines.  Not that you can't find chocolate heart boxes in Romania, but you cant find Russel Stover heart boxes that I know of.  My family had a tradition to give a big heart box on the first Valentines, and to mark the year at the edge on the back.  And every Valentines, to reuse the box and refill it with candy or other things, and to continue around the edge marking the years.  With Nicholas, we started marking the year and the place.  So, here's Nicholas with is his Valentines' heart box.  This year it's marked "Feb. 14, 2010, Bucharest, Romania."

Nicholas is a bit young for chocolate, so my wife and her sister (and I... but not so much I) tried the chocolate, one by one.  I think the favorite was the one with the chocolately chocolate cream inside.  Diana and her sister both agreed they should make a box just with that.

My parents also sent some little red plastic hearts filled with M&Ms for Diana and me.  After we washed the chocolate dust from the plastic, we gave one to Nicholas, which he is thoroughly enjoying with his new teeth.

Games of the month: sitting

Nicholas started sitting more independently this week.  Playing with some toys, he can stay pretty content, especially in the mornings around breakfast.

This sitting business also coincided with him getting a few new teeth.  The latest one or two, just coming through, are the upper front teeth.  Now when he chews on things, he can leave little teeth marks.

I'm proud to see him sitting there playing contentedly... I cant wait until he's old enough for crayons and paper, to see him doodling away, or going on sketch trips with me.  For now, he's a good model.

One of his favorite sitting games is "pick it up and put it down".  With a little blue ball or stuffed animal, he'll do this pretty endlessly, practicing his ever sharpening hand-arm-balance skills.  We started trying to modify this with him to a "give and take" game, but this might be another month or two away.