Campo Verde Fall Festival

This afternoon our nieghborhood hosted the annual Fall Festival. It gets bigger and better every year. This year they had a few carnival rides, which were a big hit with Gabriel. Well, the swing anyway.

He didn't quite have enough muscle to get this going.












Gabriel didn't want to get off so he went again, this time Keven sitting in front of him. He may have gotten a little dizzy.


Gabriel running away from us of course!


He was at the top of a hill. He loves to climb hills. He isn't so good at coming back down yet.

Special Care Nursery Graduate Picnic

Today we attended a picnic for all of the "Graduates" of the Chandler NICU. They had food, a petting zoo, games and other fun stuff. It was great to see how many kids had "graduated." Seeing some of the nurses and familiar faces brought back alot of emotion of how hard those first two weeks were and most of all how blessed we really are. Gabriel is a happy, healthy and thriving little boy! Thank you God!

Heading into the picnic.




Watching an airplace before heading into the petting zoo.










Gabriel doing some fishing.


Gabriel would catch them, pull em' off and throw them back in. Guess it was a catch and release pond.

I didn't have the heart...

...to tell him that this was a headband in the little girls section of the shoe store ;) He sure is a cute reindeer!

Bigfoot is now wearing a 7 1/2 by the way, which is the average size foot of a 2 - 2 1/2 year old. He is only 20 months.

Radio Flyer!

In preparation for our upcoming trip to Disneyland we bought Gabriel a Radio Flyer wagon...a decked out wagon at that! It has padded seats, his owm table and a removable canopy. We wanted him to get used to it before we head to Disney with it. As soon as he saw he went straight for it! It did take a day before he would agree to be pulled in it.



The two seats recline to make a bed, which will be perfect for naps at Disney.








The family went on a practice walk.


This was roller-coaster practice.

My little love bug ♥

Gabriel really is such a sweet little guy. He has his temper tantrum moments but the majority of the time he is really affectionate and funny.

I had a trip earlier in the month and the night I came back he woke me up at 4AM. Turns out everything was fine, he just wanted to give me kisses. How can you be upset about getting up in the middle of the night when you get such a great reward?!

Sometime the next week Gabriel, Keven and I were watching a movie (Winnie the Pooh) on the couch. He was sitting on my lap and he leaned over to Keven and gave him a kiss and then turned around to give me kiss and then sat back down, leaned back on me and watched the movie. It is almost like he was thinking "this is exactly where I want to be."

However, sometimes even sweet boys need a timeout! Gabriel seems to think he is under arrest when we put him in timeout. He gets a 1 minute timeout for hitting, which since his vocabulary is quite limited, seems to be his main way to express displeasure.

Gabriel's New Whip!

Gabriel is now the proud owner of a red and yellow cozy coupe! He isn't quite tall enough to go forward but he manages to go backwards pretty well and of course loves to be pushed. Mostly he gets in it and pretends. He forgets about the door sometimes and does a "Dukes of Hazard" entrance. He likes to have snacks in it too, as well as watch Mickey Mouse. Maybe he pretends he is at the drive-in.

Pumpkin time for my monkey!

This was Gabriel's 2nd time to our neighborhood's annual pumpkin carving. Boy did he give me a workout that day. He wasn't as interested in the pumpkins as he was exlporing the rest of the park. He did try and take one that another kids had already started carving but that was about it. There was a pumpkin painting station that I thought would be more his speed so we tried that. I loaded the brush up with paint and in his mouth it went. Not quite ready for painting I guess. Still a good time.

The next day it was time for trick or treating...for Gabriel this meant one house. He just wanted to socialize. He wasn't a big fan of his costume. I had to trick him into thinking it was pajamas. Such a cute little monkey! Too bad he wouldn't pose for me.

My dancer

I have watched this video almost everyday. For several minutes before I got my camera on Gabriel was bobing up and down, swaying and "dancing" to the music. Must be a good song!

Gabriel vs. the sand!

A couple videos of Gabriel walking in the sand. This was day 2 of the trip so he was much better. I wish I had filmed his first few steps on Pensacola Beach...it was like toddler quicksand.

Pensacola bound!

October 21st through 25th Gabriel and I got to meet my mom in Pensacola, FL. This summer when Keven and I went I remembered how much I love those sugary white beaches and could not wait to come back. I would have loved to have Keven with me again but was so excited to introduce Gabriel to some of my family in Pensacola and the beautiful beaches that I grew up going to. He had been to San Diego in June so he had touched sand but nothing like this. The sand in Pensacola, and the Gulf of Mexico, is some of the softest I have ever experienced. It took him a little while to get his footing and gain the confidence to walk around in it. Grandma was happy to lend a helping hand ;-) I think it is safe to say he is a beach lover! He loved it. I think an annual October trip (when no tourists are around) is going to become an Acosta tradition!



You can almost see him thinking.


"what am I standing on? Can I walk?"






"Okay, we can stay!"


The cure for any bad day...






What is funny about this picture is that Gabriel squatted and played for quite sometime and then realized that sand mounds make nice seats. He had and ah ha" moment.








The water was a little too chilly for a swim (for Gabriel) but still fun to chase the tide.




Day two...."Let me at that white stuff!"


Being forced to sit in the shade and have some lunch.






Grandma buried his legs, which he loved!








"ah, what a great day! We definitely need to come back to this playground."