My 19 month old daughter got drunk today.
We were getting ready to watch the game between the Mariners and the Yankees, and I decided to have a beer. Henry's, in a bottle.
I opened the bottle, took a sip, and then set it down on the desk next to the computer. I was going to check my email before the game, but got distracted by all the toys scattered all over the place, so I started picking them up and putting things away.
A few minutes later P comes in and says, "Do you know what your daughter is doing?" He only says "your daughter" when she's doing something she's not supposed to be doing.
I turned around to see her standing next to the desk, bottle in both hands. She was CHUGGING my beer. I had apparently set the beer down too close to the edge of the desk where she could reach it. It's so easy to forget how tall she's getting.
The bottle was almost full when I set it down. It wasn't full when I took it out of her hands. Within a few minutes, she was walking kind of funny. Staggering, actually. Bumping into things. Wobbly. She seemed to be dizzy. We didn't know what to do! So P got out the video camera. I tried picking her up to hold her, but she wanted to play. After a few minutes of wobbling around, she got extremely energetic. You'd think just the opposite would happen. She was more hyper than I have ever seen her before. She was running around, bumping into things, climbing all over stuff, and babbling like crazy. She wouldn't be quiet. Squealing and stuff. And taking all her toys and books off of the shelves and scattering them everywhere.
I thought maybe if she ate something and drank some milk it would counter the effects of the alcohol. Well, she wasn't terribly interested in eating, but I did manage to get a few bites of lasagna down her, and a little milk. And a cookie.
She calmed down quite a bit and seemed to be returning to normal. So we took her upstairs and gave her a bath. I cuddled with her in the rocking chair for a few minutes and she fell asleep (passed out?) in my arms.
I don't think she drank enough to hurt her. It was maybe a quarter cup, but for a 24 pound toddler, it was enough to make her loopy.
I'm alternating between feeling horrible and bemused. On the one hand, I shouldn't have left the beer someplace where she could get to it. I know that. I will NEVER do that again. On the other hand, it's kind of funny to see a drunk baby. I don't ever want to see it again, but I'm sure it's something we'll watch on video in the years to come and remember as being kind of amusing.
Tonight I plan to just feel bad about it.
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