expanding our choices

Because we are leaving for vacation tomorrow, I picked up some Earth's Best baby foods to take along. He is so funny to watch as he tries new things. I think we will have a good eater on our hands...

"Getting to know you..."

I have been working on our "meet Maxi/Thanksgiving with our friends" party and I am really excited about a little "game" I came up with that I hope will help everyone get to know Chris and Maxi as a couple a little bit better.

I had Chris and Maxi give me one word descriptors of things that they love about each other and then I put them into a word search, which also included the explanation of why that certain word was chosen.

I am determined that by the time that night is over, we will have made a huge step towards getting to know Maxi better...

We can't wait to meet her!

New Jammies...

A few photos of Ryder in his new jammies...

Hooray for fall!

ps. I am addicted to my little man's face.

a possible intervention might be in order...

It has arrived...

...solid food, that is.

Yesterday was Ryder's first experience with solid food, in the form of Earth's Best Rice Cereal, mixed with good old breast milk.

Here is a little video:

Ryder Eating from Kit Rae on Vimeo.

And a few still shots:

Thank you for all of you that gave such incredible suggestions and input. You are wise mamas and I am so thankful to have you all in my life!

We look forward to MANY meals with our little man...

place mats...

As a rainy day project, Ryder and I were organizing some cabinets and drawers in our kitchen to make room for his dishes and utensils... solids are on their way! Well, in classic Gina fashion, I got completely distracted by organizing a drawer that holds all of our place mats and napkins.

Since we are entering the season of "get togethers" I thought I would play with one of my favorite table setting elements:

straw place mats.

For fun, I played with the different seasons as Ryder sat in his walker, looking at me like I was a little nuts...

So here is what we (because Ryder is so helpful with his input) came up with:

Fall

Winter

Spring

Summer

It makes me so excited to have people that we love in our home...

starting traditions...

Two of Kit's brother's and their wives live close by and we have decided that we want to start the tradition of family dinners. SO this last tuesday we implemented our first Rae Family Dinner. I really love our family and my hope is that it becomes such a normal part of Ryder's routine to see his extended family on a regular basis.

I love having this special reason to set the table and get the house ready for our family dinner party.

The girls with little man.

Ryder trying out his Bumpo.

(He can't wait for us to serve him up his own plate.)

We love you all...

looking back

Each month we take a picture of Ryder to watch how much he has changed... I can't believe how big our little guys is. Since he turned 6 months old yesterday, it made me want to go back and look at how much he has grown. We took these pictures for his baby book, but I wanted to share them with you...

note: in the 6 month shot I had to put the sign further from him because little man is grabbing for EVERYTHING...