BEACH! DIG!!

All this summer we have been trying to get over to the beach in Ocean City, NJ with the kids, but any time we finally set a date, the weather ruins everything! So, studying the weather forecast intensely we decided that this past Sunday showed promise. Carl's aunt Vicky has a house in Ocean City, so even if the random storm blew through, we'd have somewhere to bunker down until it passed.
We told Carl IV about heading to the shore the day before we left, and all he said for the whole day was, "Beach! Dig!" because he found a new shovel that he's been told is for digging in the sand. ALL DAY LONG he was carrying this shovel around following anyone and everyone saying repeatedly, "Beach! Dig! BEACH! DIG! YAY!" Paige of course found this hillarious, and kept falling over on the floor laughing her head off. All in all a very loud Saturday at 1120 Egypt Road.
Carl III and I woke up around 6 Sunday morning and packed all our crap up (on that note, I swear, I used to just take a towel and a book to the beach, but with kids it's like we're packing up for a month!). Before I even finished brushing my teeth, I could hear Carl IV in his bed singing to himself..."Beeeeach...Diiiig...Beeeeach...Diiiig..." What a weirdo. I opened his door, he popped up, ran to his dresser, pulled out his swim trunks, pulled them on, and ran to the front door with his shovel in hand. "Done. Less go (his saying Let's go)." All before my 1st cup of coffee. Ugh.
We finally arrived in Ocean City, and had a BLAST! He dug half-way to China, went in the water with my mom-in-law and Carl III, chased seagulls, etc. Then, we took showers and changed to head to the boardwalk for dinner and some rides. That's right, Floridians, rides! There's a whole mini-amusement park for kids right on the boardwalk! He rode a little kiddy roller coaster, the Tilt-a-Whirl, but his favorite was the Scream Machine. I have pics and video to put up soon, but I forgot my camera today, so you'll have to check back again soon...

*yawn* Ugh...

Let's just get this out in the open...I don't do babies. Even if they're mine, I just don't do babies. The crying, the drooling, the spitting up...ugh. Poor Paige has been absolutely miserable the past week. She's teething like crazy, and has the inevitable diarrhea that accompanies incoming teeth (by the way, can someone please explain to me why those 2 go hand-in-hand?!), which has resulted in excessive wiping of her rear, giving my poor little lady the WORST diaper rash I have ever seen! Her little hiney was bleeding on Saturday. So, I guess she has every right to be crying, etc. Still, I don't like it.
Sunday morning was a success, though. Rather than go to mass on Saturday evening again, I decided to try Sunday morning and see if that went any more smoothly. It was an especially brave endeavor, since Carl had volunteered to help a buddy take down a tree in his yard, I was going to be outnumbered. But, I knew if there was to be any hope in getting the kids used to church, it had to be a weekly thing. No excuses. So, I packed the munchkins up with books, bottles, graham crackers, etc. and headed to the church for 7:30 mass. Yes, I said 7:30. I used to go to the early mass all the time when I was pregnant, because I couldn't sleep anyway, and it's nice to go to church, and still have time to enjoy the rest of your day. So, I knew from experience that this early service was very no-frills. No music, no long-winded homily, just the basics. This was exactly what we needed! We were out of there before Carl had even finished his juice, and Paige was only awake for about 10 minutes of the whole service! Whoo-hoo! We have a new plan! Mass at 7:30am Sunday, then to Dunkin' Donuts and the park! What a great day we had!

Little angels?

In the spirit of just having had the kids baptised, Carl and I decided to start packing up the whole fam-damily for mass on Saturday evenings and then having a family dinner out every week. Figured it could be a nice opportunity for family bonding. Sounds nice, right? Well, if this past Saturday was a sign of how it will always be, I know for certain now that God has a sense of humor. We are officially "that family" with "those kids" at church. My son is VERY 2, which means sitting for more than 2 minutes is so far out of the question is preposturous. And since Paige started crawling, she starts whining the second you pick her up off the floor. She's aparently a very busy girl with places to be, and me interrupting her crawling to these places is the most frustrating thing for her. I was anticipating these problems, so I loaded the diaper bag with toy dinosaurs, coloring books, animal crackers, Matchbox cars, a bottle, teething rings, Baby Orajel, etc...and that all worked beautifully...for about 3.5 minutes. I'm beginning to wonder if there's something pumped through the venting system at church, because my kids can be absolute angels all day, and the second we open the doors to church, they're like rabid monkies! Ugh! 43 long minutes later, we were piling into the car to head to dinner. We had made it through mass, how bad could dinner be?! My son is the happiest when he's got food in front of him! We decide to go to Friday's since it's a family restaurant, and it's early enough that a crying kid won't attract dirty looks. Keep in mind that by now it's almost 6:30, which is when Paige is usually snuggling up for the night with a nice bottle and her daddy in a rocking chair. So, the loud, bright atmosphere at Friday's was lost on her. She was miserable. Carl, on the other hand, was behaving as though he had been mainlining espresso for the past 2 hours! He was bouncing off the walls! Our poor waitress...I left her a really good tip, so I'm hoping they won't run screaming should we decide to go there again!
That being said, in hindsight, things could've gone much worse than they did. I'm a firm believer in beginning as you intend to go on. So, this will be our Saturday evening routine for years to come. If they don't get used to going to church now, it's only going to be more difficult in the years to come. So, for those of you in the King of Prussia area, if you hear screaming children around 5 pm Saturday night, don't worry...it's just the Rudegeairs.

Baptism...check!

At last! We finally had Carl and Paige baptised. It was a royal pain in the you-know-what getting everything in order, but the planets aligned and we pulled it off.

My mom flew in from Pensacola on Thursday afternoon and stayed with us for the weekend, which was nice, but crowded. Fortunatly, we have a comfy couch, so I think she was okay. Friday was a pretty laid-back day of running errands, and Saturday we packed up and headed to the zoo. I have to say, this was our best trip to the zoo yet! Carl appreciates it more every time we go, which just makes it really fun to be there with him. It was ridiculously humid (I blame mom for bringing the stickiness with her from Florida), so we had ice cream...whew! That was messy, but delicious. I was EXTREMELY proud of my little potty-trained man. He made it the whole time without an accident! Granted, I was well-aware of the risk of an accident, and was therefore only giving him just enough water/juice to keep him alive! Still...it counts as a success! So, after trekking around the Philadelphia Zoo for a few hours, we were all exhausted and just hung out at the house the rest of the afternoon. Fast forward to Sunday morning (the day of the baptism) and the entire east coast is being SOAKED! I think Ryan put it best when he texted Carl that morning with: "Hmmm...the Rudegeairs are getting baptised the same day we're getting terrential downpour and severe thunderstorms...coincidence?" But, things dried out right before we had to head to the church, and it ended up being a relatively nice afternoon. To all that were there, thanks so much for being a part of such a special day!