"We asked Costco if we could borrow the cart," explained grandpa Tony Jidu. "We're Rotarians. They knew they'll get it back."
The King made no parade pronouncements. He spat up. He slept. He sucked his Binky.
"He's at a loss for words," quipped Dad, also named Anthony.
At this spectacle, who isn't?
Family fun through the ages
I came fearing the worst, thanks to TV shows like Toddlers & Tiaras, where pageant parents scar little kids for life with all the eyeliner and the spray-on tans.
But the baby parade is all about families coming together, and Ocean City is about as tame as it gets. The Shore town is proudly dry and boasts that it is both New Jersey's best beach and "America's Greatest Family Resort."
Even a controversy surrounding the baby parade is kinda cute.
This year, friendly rivals Wildwood and Ocean City both claimed to be celebrating the 100th anniversary of having the nation's oldest-and-best pint-sized promenade. Never mind that Wildwood skipped a few years due to lack of interest or that Ocean City abstained during two World Wars and the 1916 polio outbreak.
In the 1950s, Rosemary Bonner rode a pony in the parade. This year, her grandkids graced a princess carriage, pulled by a Shetland named Icing on the Cake.
Mary Lou Donahue honored the Liberty Bell in the 1974 parade and Pooh in 1976. In '77, she stormed the Shore in a Viking ship.
Last week, the Bala Cynwyd mom pulled her girls, Riley, 3, and Emma, 10 months, in a rolling photo album of parades past.
Participating is "not even a choice in our family," she told me. "Every year, there's another baby."
Nature loves a parade
