Aromatherapy

Alternately titled - The Therapy I Need After The Aromas Of My Day Are Done Assaulting Me

But that's just plain too long, don't'cha think?

There are things about Motherhood that nobody shares with you.  Like how you will have days when everything makes you cry.  Eh.Vuh.Ree.Thang.  And if you haven't had one of those yet, consider yourself 'shared with'.

But here's the heart of this post...my kids smell.  They cause parts of my house to stink.

I cleaned their bathroom today.  It's a job that I freely admit to detesting muchly.  There's gummed up toothpaste on the counters, dried toothpastey spittle on the mirrors and sinks and faucets, jiblets of toilet paper strewn about, skid marks on the potty, and smelly laundry piled behind the door.

And that's on a good day.

I should probably just clean in there more often.

Their bedrooms have a distinct smell to them as well.  Thomas' room usually smells like sweat and wet athletic shoes.  I don't know how he manages that particular scent, but it's there.  It's mild now, but he's only 8, so I have all kinds of certainties that it will intensify.

The girls room usually smells like a wet diaper.  Anna has a habit of taking her pull-up off in the mornings and leaving it on the floor.  Occasionally, it gets kicked under the bed.  Once I found one in a dresser drawer.  It's another check-mark on my parenting list, though not one I ever wanted to check off.

And then there's my kids.  The smells range from unbrushed teeth and dirty diapers to that salty-sour smell that children emit after a hard days play.  The younger ones sometimes smell like they didn't quite make it the potty on time, and I draw the line, sending them up to that bathroom for a bath.

But man, when those cuties are scrubbed up and sparkly clean, I can't help but snug them up close and inhale the littleness.  They are growing so fast, morphing from my Munchkin Brigade into Big Kids before my eyes. 

And that's why I sometimes smell like a stinky kid.  Because I see them growing and changing and even if they do make my nose crinkle a bit, I'm gonna pull them into my lap and stroke their hair and hold them close.