Author: Allie Zottola

Five Recent Obsessions

Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post! I’m glad those who watched the video enjoyed it, too. It seemed like everyone loved my mom’s reaction 🙂

Today I’m popping in to share five things I’ve been obsessed with lately!

1. Frothed Milk. I don’t know why, but I have been obsessed with having warm, frothed milk lately. At first, I thought it would be perfect with coffee, but I am still having a small (occasional–yay!) aversion to coffee since becoming pregnant. Soo, I’ve been drinking mugs of warm, frothy milk. How do I froth my milk? With this bad boy. It’s amazing.

2. Cake baking and celebrating. I made a strawberry cake with strawberry mousse and vanilla buttercream for my mom’s birthday. We (my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and cousins) went out to dinner to celebrate my mom and it was such a lovely evening! I truly adore spending time with family.

Family dinner at Bella Luna in Pittsburgh

We went to Bella Luna Trattoria, if any Pittsburghers are wondering!

Strawberry birthday cake with vanilla buttercream and sprinkles

3. Pet Sitting. It is kind of starting to warm up and feel more spring-like in Pittsburgh, which has made pet sitting so enjoyable (as if it’s not enjoyable enough when I have the adorable faces below staring back at me)! Tomorrow is supposed to be in the 50s and rainy, and I have six dogs to care for. It’s much easier to walk six dogs in rain than in snow, in my opinion! I’ll let you know if I change my mind on that after tomorrow, though 😉

Cocker spaniel puppy and chocolate lab on couch together

4. Preparing for Resurrection Sunday. It feels like Resurrection Sunday, or Easter as many call it, came up quickly! I plan on reading the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection this week, and have been writing cards to all my clients. Jimmy and I are also hosting my sister, brother-in-law, father-in-law, and his fiancé for dinner on Saturday and we are super excited!

Hallmark Easter card

5. Whipped cream flowers. I had a bunch of mousse leftover from my mom’s cake, and it’s basically whipped cream with a few extra ingredients. I didn’t want it to go to waste, so I did some research and learned that homemade whipped cream can be frozen! I pipped the whipped cream/mousse into rosettes and flowers and froze them on a baking sheet, then popped them into a freezer bag. I’m thinking they’ll be good on a mug of hot coffee or to decorate a cake or cupcakes!

Whipped cream piped into flowers and frozen

What have you been obsessed with lately?

The First Trimester

The first trimester of pregnancy is a crazy time, or at least it was for me. When we found out we were expecting, Jimmy and I felt so incredibly humbled and blessed that God chose us as parents for this child. It’s just wild to think about.

For about two weeks after finding out we were expecting, I felt fairly normal… and then I didn’t. When people say that pregnancy is intense, they aren’t lying!

Ultrasound of baby first trimester

The nausea and food aversions have been so strong, and (I still have some aversions and waves of nausea now in my second trimester) I think I subsisted off of toast with jam, baked potatoes, and oatmeal for a few weeks. The smell of Jimmy’s body wash, coffee, chewing gum, meat, and pretty much anything with a smell would make my stomach churn.

The tiredness knocked me off of my feet, too. Napping for an hour or more was almost mandatory to get through the day, and pet sitting wore me out like never before.

And the emotions. Poor Jimmy. He came home from work quite a few times to me crying or upset because “Malcolm was mean to me today” and “Mavis just wouldn’t listen” and “Lola walked too loudly on the floor” (<– what does that even mean?! I don’t know).

But among all the crazy symptoms and fears (Is there really a baby in there? Will it be okay? Will we be good parents?), there is so much gratitude and joy. I don’t know if it has fully sunk in for Jimmy and I that our child is growing inside me, but we are cherishing every single moment with him or her and thanking God for this life.

Seeing the baby kick and punch during an ultrasound around 12 weeks was simply amazing, and hearing the baby’s heartbeat for the first time was truly one of the sweetest sounds I’ve ever heard.

We had so much fun telling our families and friends the big news, and even managed to catch some of their reactions on film. I put together a video that still makes me smile from ear-to-ear and tear up at the same time.

The video kind of needs some explaining, though. I gave my mom a box with a bib with monkeys on it that said “I love hanging with Grandma” and a positive pregnancy test underneath. Later on, my dad came over we had him open the box.

We told my sister  and brother-in-law by giving Hannah a necklace that said “Aunt” and told my brother and sister-in-law by asking them to look at an investment property we were considering (they’re real estate agents), but instead the papers said “You’re going to be an Aunt and Uncle in September!”

I think that’s everything I wanted to mention for the first trimester. Basically, it was hard at times, but the best hard thing ever and such a huge blessing.