a day with a 2 year old.

i wanted to share a guest post i did for ali over at afterhissmile. please go check out her wonderful blog!

hi! my name is tiffany valdez, and i'm a pregnant wife and momma of a little toddler named Amos. i live in beautiful, sunny southern California and am learning how to love and glorify Jesus in the midst of the craziness that is a stay at home mom's life. that's me and my little baby girl in my belly.

i thought i'd take you on a simple day with a super cute 2 year old. we were a little bit more "on the go" than usual this past Wednesday - but it was a rare overcast day, and i thought it would be a perfect day to capture some moments. i'm treasuring these last moments with just my little amos and i before our baby Lucia makes her way into the world.

our team of 2.5. :)

8AM

first stop is a local coffee shop: influx. has the best espresso, and a super clean, laid back environment. this morning we shared a bowl of yogurt and i had my standard cup of coffee. it's my current survival as i'm not sleeping so great anymore with a little baby girl kicking my belly all night. 

amos creating a dino war, and poor little triceratops seems a little outnumbered. we named him gideon. ;)

yummmm.

people watching with mr. dino.

finding a dino jungle.

10AM

we love to take small walks in the city and try to study as much nature as we can find. amos LOVES to find the little bugs in the plants or grass, and to point out all the different flowers he finds.

we go for a little walk and amos spends about 10 minutes studying the bees busy working on this bush. i love re-seeing life through a toddlers eyes.

11AM

we are moving into a new home (hopefully) on Valentine's day, so I've been busy scouring some second hand stores for some treasures to fill up the new place. we are going from a 1 bedroom apartment to a 4 bedroom house, so we have a lot of stuff to find!

we stop by goodwill to try and find some goodies.

I love this goodwill because it has an entire bookstore loft with this kids corner. it's always a fun and cheap activity to go read books with Amos, and then let him pick out one or two to take home.

12PM

amos showing off his new dinosaur book he picked out as we walk to a thrift store where i found a great vintage, wicker chair for our backyard. :)

sat for 30 minutes trying to decide on this second hand pull out bed sofa for our potential office/guest bedroom. i'm horrible at making big purchase decisions (even if it's a cheaper, second hand couch) and have passed up many good finds from hesitancy. i'm still dreaming of the modern leather white sectional that was here a couple months ago. i took the plunge with this vision in mind.

1PM
we go home and Amos eats lunch while i attack my embarrassingly large sink of dishes.

biggest excitement of our new house: a dishwasher. praise the Lord!

2PM

next task, prep dinner. i wing a ground a turkey, 3 bean chili. 

3PM
we attempt to nap but amos has been having a more difficult time lately. this day we laid for an hour or so, with no success. hoping this isn't the end of his 3 o'clock snooze.

4PM

we do some projects together. amos LOVES projects!

amos' new found love: dinosaurs. we stamp out each type and write their names by them. we then read about each one in his new, thrift store dino book.

then we go over our letters (he is still learning many of them: "what's this one, mama?!") with thomas, his past love. i love little boys and the things they love. trains, cars, dinos. little boys are so much fun!!!

5PM

Amos plays while I pick up before my husband Ricky comes home, and we eat our dinner. Ricky went to LA for a business meeting today on the train, and we are going to go pick him up in a little bit.

more dinos and trains. :)

6PM 

We head out to pick up Ricky downtown. it's pouring down rain, and due to Amos' lack of nap - he knock out 5 minutes into our drive. 

the rest of my evening is filled with spending some QT with my husband, feeding him some chili, and reading. i'm so thankful to the Lord for these seemingly mundane days. they are filled with such moments of grace and joy. He is so kind!

 thanks for spending the day, and i'd love for you to peek into some of our future days as a family of four over at see the skyline!

xo tiffany