James Jihu Rigby

James learned his first word! He says "Mama." Guess what he is referring to? WATER! 

Yeah... Water... before he even learned to say Mommy or Daddy. So sad. But he is so cute! He is growing up fast. Not sure really about physically. He's got his 1 year check up tomorrow. But he is learning to do new things everyday. He loves to pretend to play the wii by holding up the wii remote and shaking it up and down. He can actually turn the TV on and off, although he doesn't really seem to be interested in much of what's on the TV.... He loves to smile and mimic you if you yawn. 

In just the past couple days, he has grown really, really clingy. He would not let me get out of his sight. He does play really well with his siblings, or even by himself, as long as I am sitting in the same room. But as soon as I stand up and start to walk to the other side of the room, he starts to cry and crawl towards me, super fast. If he can't catch up, he will put his head down on the ground in despair and cry even harder.

He is a big daddy's boy. He looks the most like Joe's baby pictures out of all of the kids, and he is the first one to prefer daddy over mommy. I think it has to do with the fact that I can no longer pay more attention to the baby with all the kids swarming around, and daddy is always there to pick him up when he is being "abandoned" by mommy. Joe loves it! The other day, he had a nightmare and woke up crying. I picked him up and rocked him for about 20 minutes before he realized that daddy was sitting close and pointed at him. As soon as Joe took him, he stopped crying. 

He can now stand up on his own and stay standing for a few seconds before he decides to sit back down to crawl.

On his 1st birthday, he chose the thread indicating a long, healthy life.

James gives us a lot of joy. He makes everyone around him so happy with one of his silly smiles. His siblings adore him and love to play with him and get his attention. He eats well, sleeps well, and poops well (too much sometimes). I will update again when I have the stats from the doctor's office!

Food

I enjoy cooking and baking. When I have the energy and time (which means I got a good night's sleep-- rarely happens--and the little kids are taking naps and the big kids are doing something independent), I will get in the kitchen and create something fun. I will cook something that Joe really likes (there are a few in the repertoire) or try out new recipes. It's happened a lot less since we've moved to Washington, with the new baby and the lack of family support. But since James is getting older and more independent, I am going to try to do more. (My new year's resolution for the family was to bake more this year.) So hopefully I can continue to upload more pictures of food here. Below are pictures of some foods that I've made in the last month.

Ellie's birthday pumpkin cheesecake

James' 1st birthday

New Year's Day - new recipe (bacon wrapped chicken)

Pancake breakfast catered for the Rigby family

Primary Talk Assignment

I remembered during sacrament meeting that Alden had a talk assignment for primary. So I wrote the topic on top of the page and told Alden that we needed to write a talk on Christmas. Except for the scripture, Al wrote the talk all by himself. After he finished, he said, "I'm going to take this up there so I can remember my talk," then stood up! I guess he thought that he was supposed to give a talk during sacrament meeting. What a brave guy... He did a great job in primary.

Merry Christmas!

(Picture was taken at the Bellevue Festival of Nativity.)

Every Christmas, Joe and I try to teach the kids that Christmas isn't just about Santa or presents. This year was the first year that the kids actually knew the right answer before we told them. "Christmas is special because we celebrate Jesus' birthday!" Great. Now we needed to actually teach them the meaning of that.

Alden knew exactly what Christmas was about. It is to "celebrate" Jesus' birthday, and not really his actual birthday, because that's in the spring... Ha ha. I tried to have small conversations with the kids whenever I could about Christmas being the time of sharing and giving. I reminded the kids how lucky and blessed we are to be able to afford Christmas presents (even if some/most of them are from a second hand store like Goodwill). We talked about some people that may not be as fortunate as we are, and they agreed to donate some of their toys to other children that could use them. They helped me pick out the toys, organize them, and wrap them up so that we could give them to a family in need (we posted on craigslist).

I tried to teach them that they should be more forgiving and sharing during the Christmas season, and they should appreciate presents they've gotten, even if they may not be as awesome as they want (Ellie got a whole build-a-bear set inside a cheerios box. You could tell that she was a little disappointed when she saw the cheerio box.).

On Christmas Eve, we were invited to dinner at the Chens. Kids had a blast, playing with Kaden (and his toys). The food was absolutely delicious. Joe and I had fun playing monopoly with Breanna and Andy. After putting the kids to bed, Joe and I stayed up until 1am to wrap all the presents (I had pushed it off until the night before... oops.).

Christmas morning, when the kids woke up, they walked into our room to tell us it was Christmas morning. Joe and I mumbled something like, "Go check out the Christmas tree," and we could hear their excited squeals and yells. After spending a few minutes to see how many presents each of the had gotten, they snuck back into our room to ask when they could open the presents.

Kids really had fun opening up all the presents. We were able to get them a few presents each (mostly because all the presents were regifted or second hand-but loved just as well), plus they had gotten a few more from grandparents and uncles and aunts. They spent the rest of the morning enjoying the presents they got.

The two sets of missionaries (elders and sisters) came to our house to make their phone calls to their families, so we got to spend the rest of the day with them (noon to 6pm). It was so fun to actually get to play games with them and chat for a while, instead of having to rush them out the door within the 1 hour limit of dinner appointments.

Ok, here we go...

Okay. So here it is again. My come-back-from-the-dead post. After reading my sister-in-law's blog last night at 3 in the morning, I've decided that I need to get better at this. Not necessarily better at writing more interesting content, but just how often I post. Every time I try to start the blog back up, it seems like I am trying to play catch up and write a really long post on what's been happening to us. But then I never actually get around to finish the post and never end up publishing it.... I probably have a few half written posts saved as drafts... So I am going to do better, even if it is just a short paragraph and a couple of pictures, or just a whole bunch of pictures and a few phrases to describe what is going on. Life is too precious to miss out on remembering all of these moments, and I need to do better so I can look back and recall all the good times we've had. So here is my first very short but published post. Hopefully I can come back soon to write another post with some pictures!

There's a cure for that.

Everywhere I go, I can't help but notice people's stare when I am out with my kids. The response varies from awe to disgust, but mostly in the vicinity of gawking (never envy). People usually don't know what to say other than "wow..." and if they do manage to say something, it's usually "You've got your hands full." I guess they don't want to be rude and say whatever it is that is on their mind.

Just yesterday, we were at Costco, and the assistant cashier who was helping with loading our stuff back in to the cart saw our three older kids all sitting in the cart and said, "You've got your hands full." Then she turned around to face me and saw me holding JJ (James), and exclaimed, "YOU'VE GOT YOUR HANDS FULL!!"

They are right. I have my hands full. I mean, I only have two hands, so yeah, my hands are more than full. But I never see it as a negative thing. More the merrier, right?

I went to Home Depot last week with JJ, just the two of us. Being out with a newborn draws a lot of attention, almost as much as being out with four kids. People start making faces at my baby, ask how old he is, make cooing sounds, make comments on how small the baby is, etc. If they aren't just passing by and start having conversations with me, they almost always ask me, "Is this your first?" (I guess I still seem pretty young. I should take it as a compliment.) I was making a copy of our new house key, and the floor associate (an older guy, looked like in his 60's) asked me, "Is this your first?" When I told him that he was my fourth, he got a really surprised look on his face and said, "You know, there's a cure for that..." I immediately answered with a confident smile, "Well, we love our kids."

He must have been pretty embarrassed by what he said because he asked me if I was Catholic and mumbled something about Catholics and Methodists having a lot of kids. I told him I was Mormon, and he said, "Oh, Mormons have a lot of kids, too." Then he scurried away, leaving me with the other attendant that was helping me.

A few days later, I had a completely opposite experience. I went down to Federal Way to go to the H Mart (a Korean grocery store). It was a cold day, and I had three kids in the cart and Eli, who had fallen asleep in the car, in my arms. I struggled to maneuver the cart with one hand and hurried inside the store. Just inside the automatic doors, we walked past an older Korean lady. She looked like she would be in her 70's. She stopped short and started counting, "One, two, three, four..." Then she went on to tell me, "You have a very wealthy family." (A Korean expression for praising having lots of kids.) She asked me about how many boys and girls I had and kept on looking at my kids with awe. It was freezing cold with a chilly breeze coming through the doors, and the kids kept telling me that it was cold, but I wanted to stay longer with the person who finally appreciated what Joe and I are truly feeling about our kids. She really made my day, and I left the store with a cart full of groceries and pride.

Yes, it is tough having four kids so close together. Sometimes it is overwhelming. But I can't imagine not having any one of those kids. I love each and every one of them, and they are perfect in their own way. My family is complete because of all four kids, and I wouldn't have it any other way (other than maybe adding one or two more kids. Ha ha.).

Kid friendly Bellevue

If you know me well, you know how much I love to get out the house and look for fun places to visit with the kids. So far, we've been pretty successful in Bellevue.

We love the downtown library (with a large selection of Korean Children's books) just across the street from the apartment. Alden and Joe have already finished a few books, and we have several books and movies on hold. :) They even have a snack bar with vending machines! We haven't tried their story time yet but we're planning on going once it starts back up next week.

The kids' favorite place so far is the Bellevue Square mall. They have a play area called Kid's Cove, and it's a really fun playground with a beach theme for kids 5ish and under. The play structures are made with very soft plastic-like material, and even Eli loves to run around. The mall also has Nordstrom where we can get helium balloons from the children's shoes section, the LEGO store where kids can spend forever building stuff, Disney store with a giant movie screen, and Gamestop with Wii U and demo games. There is even a McDonald's inside for cheaper eating options. :)

Ellie at the Disney Store

Eli is making the "vroom vroom" sound

Ellie's castle

Alden's hangout place

James usually just sleeps through the fun

I usually prefer indoor play places because I don't like to be in the sun, but it is such a rare thing that we tried going to a park today since the sun was out. We went to the Robinswood Park with Lara and her kids. It was a really nice park with walking paths, playgrounds, fields, and a duck pond. The kids had a blast and didn't even want to go home for lunch, even after face planting (Ellie) and a giant bump/scrape on the forehead (Eli). Even James loved it and slept very soundly the whole time in the stroller next to Sunmi's stroller.

Big kids playing together

Little kids sleeping in strollers