The Rutledge Family: I should charge admission for this...

because everyone just thinks those Rutledge boys are sooooo entertaining. I guess I can see that. If I were not their mother, I would find them hilarious. However, as their mother - their wild and crazy antics are just a teensy bit embarrassing from time to time. Take this past Sunday for example...

Both boys spent each evening last week at Vacation Bible School. They had a great time (except Brooks on the first three nights, who spent each night begging everyone who walked passed the nursery to help him escape). Will loved it. I was a little worried that he would be shy or a little clingy when I dropped him off, but none of that happened and I was greatly relieved.

So Sunday was the final VBS Celebration - a little musical production put on my the children in front of the whole sanctuary full of proud and eager parents and grandparents. Yayyyyyyyy. NOT. Will refused to get up on the stage, and I was fine with that. Except that he really did want to stand on the stage, he just didn't want to sing, clap his hands or any other behavior that would have been acceptable. Nope. He wanted to climb up and down the stairs, grab the microphone stands, try to get the teacher's attention and a lot of other nonsense. So after about 10 minutes of going up and down the stage, I pulled him down to my lap and made him sit. That induced a minor tantrum that got him dragged out of the sanctuary and got him a nice little warning about behaving in church. On the way back into the sanctuary, he began pitching a MAJOR tantrum about where he wanted to sit, so we didn't even sit - we just kept walking out of the church. The whole way down the aisle, mothers were smiling that "I know exactly what you're dealing with and I'm so thankful it's not mine this time", grandmothers were nodding with approval, and my aunt even said "he's just like you."

3 minutes later, I'm back in the pew on the first row watching little Brooks sit so sweetly on the first step to the stage. He's so cute - just sucking his little paci while all the older children sing and dance around him. Welp - he decides to get up. No big deal, he gets up and comes to see me. Then he decides that the stage was much more interesting, so he head back up on the stage. He waddles up the stairs to the stage and is so proud of himself. But then I see the look in his eye - the I'm coming back down look. I see him look around for something to hold onto as he makes his way down the stairs and the rest happens in slow motion - Brooks grabs a curtain that's draped over the piano (making the piano look like a field of bamboo) and before I can get to him, the curtain is slowly falling off. I know better than to try and grab it or fix it - more than likely making it worse and thus making my presence on stage that much more noticeable, so I just grab the kid and back off the stage. Yep. Before I get back to my seat, I hear the swoooooosh of bamboo sticks falling left and right and finally, a huge cardboard panda falls right off the piano onto the stage.

I just covered my face with my hands and prayed one of those prayers you pray when you're lying in the bathroom floor with a stomach bug - "Lord please take me out of here. Just zap me up right now." But he didn't answer that prayer - instead I was left to hear the whole congregation burst into laughter and my sweet Brooks of course began laughing too, if only because he thinks he needs to when others do. Needless to say, the Rutledge boys made quite the impression on Vacation Bible School. I did manage to get a few good pics of the boys last week. I guess that's a good thing since we may never be invited back....