romaniabound, it can get pretty hot here in the summer. And pretty cold in the winter :-)
I spent most of my childhood in Germany and the Germans are nothing like as fussy as the Romanians when it comes to how many layers you put on a baby. And don't even mention hats. Gets easier when the kids get older, though, I don't notice it so much now the children are 4 and 6, but maybe I have just been brainwashed and conformed without realizing. I know that last time I went to the UK my children were definitely overdressed and the only ones wearing hats!
The problem with kindergartens is that the quality can vary a lot. My kids go to a morning only one, from 8 - 12, and they are very happy there. They are not expected to sit still for too long, and my dd has hardly done any formal or academic stuff until the last few months when she moved into the group to prepare her for primary school after the summer, and even now she has only done a few letters and numbers, nothing like what my friends' kids do in the UK. They sing a lot of songs and they learn a lot of poetry, and they do things in activity books like colouring in, and paint and play with plasticine and toys, the usual sort of stuff. They don't play outside at kindergarten much, as it only has a tiny courtyard, this is a shame and probably more of a problem here in Bucharest, because space is tight and most kindergartens don't have big playgrounds/gardens. A lot of kindergartens tend to depend a lot of parental contributions to buy extra toys and learning material, so if you live in a poor area the provisions could be a bit basic.
At kindergartens with 'program prelungit' (extended program, i.e. from 8 until about 5 or 6) the children will invariably be expected to sleep or at least rest for at least an hour or so in the afternoon. This is mainly to do with the rhythm of life here - children stay up much much later than in the UK, mine rarely go to bed much before 9 or 10. In the summer it is often much later. Children's birthday parties often start at about 6 pm. In the summer in particular, afternoon naps are often necessary - it is too hot at lunchtime and in the early afternoon to go out much, and everybody starts again after 5ish at the earliest. Most young children have afternoon naps (my ds sleeps for at least an hour every afternoon, and he is nearly 5), and my dd probably has an afternoon nap once or twice a week in the winter, in the summer she will sleep almost every other day.
If I were you I would go and visit some nurseries and get the feel of them and try to get some local feedback about quality. You could always enroll him at a morning nursery and just send him for a few hours every morning, that will be enough to get to know other kids. A lot of people I know do that, and then have a nanny who picks them up and looks after them, takes them to the park to play, etc. If you have a decent (western) salary childcare is reasonably affordable.
Most kindergartens take children aged 3+, even though this is negotiable, and there are some creches but they seem oversubscribed, so you could have to find a private one for a 2 yo.
Mrs Schadenfreude, I am still simply shocked that after a few years in Romania you still don't realize how many microbes there are just waiting to pounce on scantily clad little children.
Brasov must have been a nice place to live, seems very peaceful compared to here.
We live in sector 1, just off Piata Kogalniceanu, near Cismigiu. Except nobody ever believes me when I say it is sector 1 and keeps telling me it should in fact be sector 4. Makes me feel a bit like living in Battersea and pretending it is Chelsea.