Smells

After opening the garage door this morning to get the kiddos in the car to take Audrey to preschool, Ayden was very impressed with a smell.  So impressed that he responded, "Mmmmm....me, me smell camp fire!"  This really is a smell he enjoys.  We talked about how it was more than likely someone's wood stove verse a camp fire, but either way he was happy with the smell.  He proceeded to talk about camping and having a camp fire for the entire car ride to preschool.  This was actually nice to talk about our experiences of camping.  We discussed how Audrey prefers to camp in Meemaw and Papa's camper and Ayden just loves his camping chair.  He probably does not care which type of camping he does, but really enjoys the elements of camping such as the camp fire and of course his Lightning McQueen camp chair.

It is funny how smells can bring us back to some great memories.  I think when I smell wood stove I think about the times we had a stove to heat our house when I was little.  Or even in either of my grandparents homes the small wood burning stoves they had in their homes.  Today I would never think of having a wood burning stove in my house just for the simple fact that fire and kids really scares me.  Like sends my anxiety over the edge of no return.  However, I survived as a kid, so why am I so scared as a parent?  I tell you why in one word:  Ayden!

Another smell that Ayden absolutely loves is that of donuts!  He says he can smell the donuts as we sit at the intersection of Cornhusker and 72nd.  Of course Dunkin Donuts is right there, but he smells donuts all the time, and the crazy thing is this kid could eat a donut at every meal.  He loves all kinds, even lemon ones as long as he is aware it has lemon filling in it.  :)  This is a great story to ask my father about as he got to share a lemon donut with Ayden and the experience was priceless.

Audrey really has no sense of smell, or if she does she doesn't use it to her advantage.  Currently her splint that she does not need to be wearing anymore has an odor.  It is the smell of sweat and dead skin.  Even Ayden tells her it smells, but she is determined that the splint smells like lotion.  She needs to keep telling herself that and convince herself, but in the meantime, I need to either find her a new splint or saturate that bad boy in perfume because it is makes me nauseous.

Whatever the smell, I think we all have memories that are triggered by our sense of smell.  It is something so simple that can take us back down memory lane, and I think as Ayden brought that to my attention today it is something simple that can help us remember some great times to make our day better.