Romance, Family, and Skis

They say variety is the spice of life - and we've certainly been following this maxim in February! After filling our January weekends with family adventures in the Big Apple, we opted for some different activities this month. 

We started February off with a bang by teaching Lana to ski at a local resort. I couldn't ski myself, but watching and teaching was super-rewarding. Seth also brought his little brother, another first-time skier. We certainly had our hands full teaching both kids the basics. 

The following day, my parents took us out for a belated Seth birthday brunch at The Whitlock in Katonah, which was soooo delicious. After the restaurant, we returned home to watch the Super Bowl. Seth had made a wonderful chili recipe, but we were all too stuffed to eat very much of it! 

The next weekend we took a short trip to the Berkshires, where the leadership team of the nonprofit I work for was having a long-overdue retreat. One of our members even flew in from Ukraine! We enjoyed delicious food and productive discussions. Meanwhile, Seth took Lana to explore a children's museum nearby and go ice skating. We stayed in a charming little New England-style house and enjoyed the storybook snowy surroundings. 

Then, before we knew it, it was Valentine's Day, which fell right at the start of Presidents' Day weekend this year. For us, Valentine's Day isn't just a cheesy Hallmark holiday - it's our anniversary :) 2020 marks 13 years together.

To avoid the weekend craziness, we went out on Wednesday night to Cafe Carlyle, a cabaret-style venue that serves dinner and hosts various performers in a super-intimate space. We saw Broadway actress Stephanie Block, who sang various love-themed songs and even brought her husband up on stage for a duet! For some reason, I always end up having bad luck / experiencing misadventures when going about my life, but this night was an exception. We had no issues driving there or back, we got the best table in the entire room, the food was delicious, and the experience was overall incredibly romantic and special.

On Valentine's Day itself, I brought Lana over to my parents' for the weekend and enjoyed a delicious lunch with my family. That evening, Seth and I did our traditional indoor picnic (yummy meats and cheeses, strawberries, and gourmet chocolates Seth got me from Houston). We watched The Dressmaker, which is not quite a romantic film, but certainly an excellent one. 

For the rest of the weekend, we tried to be responsible and take care of some household tasks, but we also found time for a quick trip to the city to do some museum hopping. We saw a couple of amazing fashion exhibits, had lunch (valiantly avoiding the temptations of dessert), and strolled across the park. 

It's funny to consider that, a couple of months ago, I was telling Seth about the many dreary winter weekends that would await us when the holidays ended. "However shall we fill the time?" I fretted. Well, it looks like we didn't have much trouble!

Alas, I do not envision the next couple of months to be as adventurous - I am officially in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy and I am definitely feeling it. Sundry aches and pains are foiling my adventurous plans, and energy levels are dropping. My bump is getting quite big, which makes me very glad I did a professional maternity photo shoot last week, when it was still relatively cute and compact! But, even if these last months of pregnancy are rather low-key, I do have some exciting things to look forward to, such as my baby shower (more details on that later!)

Grabbing January by the Horns

All in all, January can be kind of a letdown. The holiday fun has ended. The days are short and the weather miserable, with many dreary weeks to go before spring arrives. 

As a kid, I certainly subscribed to this uncharitable view of the year's inaugural month. When you're 12, there are few sounds less pleasant than the jarring ring of the 6:00AM weekday alarm clock after the bacchanalia of Christmas break. But more recently, Seth and I have recast January in a more positive light - as a rare opportunity to start the year off right, to begin writing a new story for a new year before life inevitably gets in the way of our vision. 

We've filled the last month with the kinds of experiences that we love most - the things that make our family uniquely ours. Here are some highlights:

(1) Family adventures! 

Over the past few years, we've perfected the Manoff formula for a day out, and this month we got to indulge in 3 different weekend trips to NYC. On the first, an unseasonably warm Saturday with temperatures in the 60s, we checked out a renovated playground in Central Park, had a picnic lunch, and introduced Lana to the Guggenheim (or "the spiral museum")

The next weekend, the weather was bitterly cold (as in, it hurt to be outside). But we were eager for adventure. Initially, we'd been slated to travel to DC to celebrate Seth's birthday, but had to cancel at the last minute due to threats of snow and Lana's iffy health. So, we made up for the disappointment by exploring new places closer to home. 

One day, we took Lana to The Jewish Museum for a children's exhibit tour, art activity, and concert, followed by lunch at the famed Russ & Daughters (located right inside the museum). It was a great way to combine food, culture, and play without having to leave the building! 

Then, we walked up the street to the Cooper Hewitt, where the exhibits focused on futuristic design and Lana enjoyed designing her own digital wallpaper, using motion sensors and AI emotion recoginition tools, and learning about a man who decided to spend several days living as a goat. 

The following day, we drove to Midtown West for another children's concert, this one focusing on various types of music made popular by African Americans (in honor of MLK day). Lana danced by the stage to Motown tunes, jazz, and zydeco. For Seth and me, this concert was particularly special because it was held at the Actor's Temple, a Jewish temple / performance space where we'd held our Jewish wedding ceremony nearly a decade ago. It was our first time back at the temple after the wedding, so we had fun reminiscing. I wondered how past Seth and past Katerina would have reacted had they'd been told that they would be returning to the temple many years later with their amazing kiddo :) 

After the show, we checked out a public art exhibit consisting of large functional seesaws. Finally, we made an unexpected detour to a Victorian cafe/pub/restaurant with the coolest decor when Lana fell asleep in her stroller. 

For our third adventure, we were back on the Upper East Side again, this time checking out the Museum of the City of New York, Mexican for lunch, and a short walk in the beautiful gardens of northern Central Park, which is still my favorite part of the park due to the lack of crowds. 

The museum had an interesting exhibit about NYC landmarks, which included many places we hadn't been yet and inspired me to plan future adventures in my mind. Lana's favorite part was the historic dollhouse. 

(2) Food 

Another thing our family loves is cooking and eating good food. We generally like to try several new recipes each week. This month, we challenged ourselves to stay extra-healthy with mostly plant-based recipes and a 100% sugar-free diet. It was very needed after the excesses of the holidays and the babymoon, but soooo hard. So I made a special effort to make delicious meals that would help us miss sugar less. Lots of hearty dishes for the cold days: farro-leek soup flavored with pancetta, butternut squash red lentil soup, cauliflower nachos, rosemary farro stew...but also colorful smoothies and salads.

Lana also joined our culinary tradition using her new picture-heavy cookbook that she got for Christmas. She made "pretend soup" (fruit and yogurt) and French toast (yes, it was sugar free!) and helped me with a frittata, even suggesting her own ingredients. 

One exception to the no-sugar rule: I made a pavlova for Seth's birthday, which was a first for me. I generally fear stiff peaks and avoid any recipe that involves beating egg whites to this elusive consistency. But I'd promised Seth to make any dessert he asked for, and he requested pavlova, so I decided to go for it. It was surprisingly easy and turned out delicious!

(3) Bonding with Lana

As Lana grows older, it's more and more fun to hang out with her. I can't honestly say I enjoyed most of the games she played as a toddler. But now, there are plenty of activities that we both truly like - her art-themed memory games, learning to read with her new letter blocks from Ukraine, YouTube drawing tutorials, crafts projects from her monthly Koala box, scavenger hunts, and more. It's also fun to sit back and watch her pretend play, from the shows she puts on for Seth and me to elaborate scenarios with her dolls and stuffed animals. 

So, this month featured many quiet hours at home playing with Lana.

(4) Couple Time! 

Seth and I had a rare treat this month - going out to a big party. A real party, with dancing! The occasion was Malanka, a Ukrainian new year celebration that happens toward the end of January (I am not sure why). A friend was organizing a table and invited us to join. As an introvert/nerd, I was hesitant, but also recognized how rarely we had a chance to go out and dance. So, we RSVPd yes and ended up having a really fun time eating, dancing, and chatting. (Obviously, my dancing was limited due to the pregnancy, but still awesome). It felt like a redemption after our disastrous attempt to go to a party in Florida on actual New Year's Eve (that's a story for another time). 

Seth and I also watched a few great movies together as we both got caught up in the Oscar buzz. It was fun discovering movies that I wouldn't normally watch, like Parasite and The Two Popes. And, we resurrected our tradition together with a philanthropy guidebook called Giving Done Right, which I got him for his birthday.

I should mention that we were all sick so much this past month. Lana got sick just before New Years, I returned from Miami not feeling well, Lana got sick shortly after I got better, then Seth was briefly sick and I got sick AGAIN, and so on. Preschool germs plus weak pregnant immune system are not a good combination, and we also spent a lot of time sleeping, drinking tea, and taking it easy. But I am grateful to report that the viruses didn't stop us from having an amazing month!