"Yay...BEER!"

I really can't believe we have reached this point already, but it appears that we have. I am referring to the ability of your child to spontaneously say things that embarrass you. In public.
I should preface this whole story by saying that Emily is a real chatterbox. She talks, sings, and babbles almost incessantly. It is very cute. She also will repeat almost anything you say to her (not always perfectly, but she's not shy about trying). This can be a fun game with her, especially if she doesn't know what she is really saying. Or if you THINK that she doesn't know what she is saying. For example, Greg thought it was funny to teach her how to say "Yay...BEER!". And it was. She is very exuberant when she says anything prefixed by a "Yay!", it's like she knows it's exciting. Couple the "yay!" with "beer!" coming out of a 17 month old's mouth and it's endearing. That is, unless it's in public.
I am home with Emily every Thursday, and it has become part of our Thursday morning routine to do our weekly grocery shopping right after breakfast. So here we are, like any other Thursday morning, strolling innocently down the aisles of Meijer. I take a shortcut towards the greeting cards down the soda aisle. Which is right next to the beer aisle. Emily spies the familiar blue-and-silver logo of the ever-present Busch box (so we're on a budget, OK?) and without missing a beat yells "BEER!". As she points. Oh dear.
I actually broke out laughing and thought it was just the cutest thing (in a dysfunctional-family sort of way), that is until I saw the strange looks the old lady at the cheese cooler was giving me. I just kind of giggled and high-tailed it towards the cards, expecting this slightly embarrassing yet still funny incident to be behind me as soon as the beer was out of sight. Not so. Emily continued to yell "BEER! BEER!" pretty much all the way across Meijer until we finally entered a checkout lane, when she became distracted by a familiar Doggy book that she has at home, and suddenly "BEER!" was replaced by "DOGGY!".
*Sigh* This incident made me examine my own history and look back on all of the highly embarrassing things I myself said in public as a child, and I am amazed that my mom didn't give me up for adoption at some point. I guess that it's moments like these that, while embarrassing, are in fact the spice of life. Kids really do say the darndest things. Oh yeah, and "YAY BEER!!"