On Alcohol
Is it weird that my nineteen-month old can distinguish between champagne, wine and beer bottles? Seriously. He knows the difference. Okay, sure, he sometimes points to a bottle of olive oil and shouts: "Beer!" But most of the time, he's right. It's really embarrassing when we pass through the spirits aisle at the supermarket, he's all: Beer! Wine! Beer! Beer! Cham-pagne! Of course, the French are not fazed by this. They smile indulgently and tell me that it's good that I'm starting him on his English so early.
It's not like we drink a lot -- certainly we drink less than the average French family. Of course, being pregnant, I'm not drinking at all right now. But prior to the pregnancy, I had at least one glass of wine every night. And before LK was born, we probably drank an entire bottle of wine every night. I guess most American families would view us as having a problem, but having a bottle of wine with dinner is standard for France, and maybe below average for Germany. That said, when we have a party or a dinner, we do have lots of wine and champagne bottles in our wine rack and LK notices.
There's nothing really wrong with him knowing the proper names for things. But I don't like any kind of glorification of it. Like last weekend. We were in Germany with Dawg's parents, Dawg's dad found it amusing to pour a glass of beer and ask LK: "What is it? What's in the glass?" to hear him shout "Beer!" I found it less funny. I feel that by drawing attention to it, we're emphasizing that it's something desireable - and something he can't have, which, of course, makes it more tempting.
Am I being too sensitive? Not sure. All I know is when yesterday he pointed at a beer bottle and said, "I've some? I've some beer?" then wept hysterically when I said no, it creeped me out.
Then again, he does the same thing when I deny him matches...
It's not like we drink a lot -- certainly we drink less than the average French family. Of course, being pregnant, I'm not drinking at all right now. But prior to the pregnancy, I had at least one glass of wine every night. And before LK was born, we probably drank an entire bottle of wine every night. I guess most American families would view us as having a problem, but having a bottle of wine with dinner is standard for France, and maybe below average for Germany. That said, when we have a party or a dinner, we do have lots of wine and champagne bottles in our wine rack and LK notices.
There's nothing really wrong with him knowing the proper names for things. But I don't like any kind of glorification of it. Like last weekend. We were in Germany with Dawg's parents, Dawg's dad found it amusing to pour a glass of beer and ask LK: "What is it? What's in the glass?" to hear him shout "Beer!" I found it less funny. I feel that by drawing attention to it, we're emphasizing that it's something desireable - and something he can't have, which, of course, makes it more tempting.
Am I being too sensitive? Not sure. All I know is when yesterday he pointed at a beer bottle and said, "I've some? I've some beer?" then wept hysterically when I said no, it creeped me out.
Then again, he does the same thing when I deny him matches...
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