family traditions

Last night my phone alerted me to an incoming text from my brother. As soon as I saw that it was a picture, I got excited. Obviously it would be my niece-- what other photo-worthy things could possibly be going on in Jake's life that would necessitate a 9:00 p.m. text? Exactly. Nothing. Clearly gonna be Carley.

The caption under the photo said 'BUSTED!'

And there in the picture was my darling little niece, two days shy of her first birthday, looking up at the camera with a guilty expression on her face. Standing next to an open bottom cabinet, she grasped a large bottle of Wild Turkey in her tiny hands. Busted indeed.

Jake could hardly believe it. His precious baby...already pilfering from the liquor cabinet? What is this world coming to? (Relatedly...probably about time to start child-proofing the kitchen, bro.)

He followed up with another picture taken probably 2 seconds after the first one. In this one, Carley appears to be cracking up with baby laughter, still holding that bottle of bourbon. If she were about 16 years older, I'd have said that the second picture was the 'after' picture. After you drink some of that...this happens. (Or, you know, you're puking your guts out in the bushes. Equally likely.)

(I would show you the pictures, but Jake's kinda particular about plastering pictures of her all over the internet. I try to respect that and I forgot to ask about sharing these, but I'll err on the side of guessing it'd be a big NO. Hopefully I painted the adorable picture well enough with my words.)

As Jake and I laughed and mourned the loss of innocence at such a young age, I remembered something. I ran over to the photo albums from my own childhood and thumbed through until I found it. Then I took pictures of pictures and texted them back to Jake.

You're not a bad parent. This is clearly a family tradition. Possibly genetic.

That's right, folks. Apparently I had the same issues back in 1983. Maker's Mark was my poison, so apparently my niece and I share a one year old appreciation for fine bourbon.

Exact same guilty look.

Jake nearly died laughing (he'd never seen these before. Shockingly, they were not prominently displayed around our house growing up...???), but I think that at the end of the day he felt a lot better. Apparently this is just a normal rite of passage. At least in our family. And look what a fine and upstanding citizen I grew up to be! See, no worries. And I don't even like bourbon as an adult. Bonus!

And yes, if you're a long-time reader 'round here, you may recall that I shared one of these pictures several years ago. I hope you forgive me. To be honest, this is the kind of picture that is so funny to me that you're lucky I don't share it once a week.

If pictures of guilty babies holding bourbon can't get your day off to a great start, I don't know what will. Have a happy Wednesday!