The Smelly Life I Wouldn't Trade

Yesterday I was walking with a friend along a sidewalk above a canal. Finally unable to keep it to myself any more I exclaimed about the horrendous smell accosting my nose. She agreed it was bad and thought it might be the canal. Or a dead animal. I could hardly focus on conversation I hated the smell so much. A little later on we saw a Roto-Rooter truck outside of a place of business. Ah, the culprit: sewer. EW!

I'm not sure how far into the future I will remember this particular sensory walk, but smells have a way of holding onto my nostril hairs long after the smells have dissipated. You probably have several memories connected to smell. Several smells that make you want to hurl and some that bring pleasant thoughts. Lately I have filled our house with the aromas of brownies and banana bread baking because something kept smelling funky every time we would walk through the door. I noticed it. Luke noticed it. Geddy probably created it.

Living with boys brings lots of new smells to my life. Take, for example, the pair of socks on the couch. Or the pair on the floor staying cozy with Luke's shoes. Or the pair under the bed. Luke gets home and his socks come off wherever he happens to feel inclined to remove them. At least I haven't found them on the kitchen counter! I don't spend any time smelling these socks, but it's summer and, well, it's hard to wear any item of clothing for very long before it gets damp and stinky.

Let me just pause for a moment to say that yes, I smell pretty ripe sometimes, so I realize that icky smells don't only come from the guys. And I was the one who lived for two years in a small rectangle attached to my landlady's kennel-for-a-home dwelling. It was like having dog and cat urine anti-air fresheners. For some reason it annoyed Luke more than me, but I guess I got too used to it. But there was the time I returned from a weekend in Boise and ended up sleeping in a tent in the yard. It took awhile to locate the source of that awful smell, but it wasn't animals. My landlady finally checked some sort of tray under the refrigerator that had collected a brown goo. They cleaned that out and gave me a ton of plug in deodorizers, which were extreme in the other direction of smell.

Now when I come across disturbing smells at home and I've showered, collected all the socks and tossed them into the laundry basket, I turn to the other guy in the home and go after all his diapers and diaper accessories. We're part-time cloth-diaper parents. It was my choice: save the landfills a little, save some dollars. While we stay part-time to make nights and travel away from home less wet and smelly, the stench from messy diapers is bad with both systems. One day I returned from a walk with Geddy and was attacked with an odor as soon as I went upstairs. Oh the horror when I discovered that I'd left a wet cloth diaper in Geddy's room in my hurry to get outside! Most of the time we get a good system going. I change the diaper and Luke runs outside with it. Or I change the diaper and flush the poop and rush it to the bucket while Luke takes the Geddy. Or Luke changes the diaper. It does happen. He's a hands-on daddy.

I must say, the little guy smells rather good most of the time. And so does the big guy. I'm thankful to be living with my guys because their smells are very worth it to have this awesome family. Right now Geddy is smelling his lambie. Hmm. That is probably a sign that I should wash it!