"I love the way you smell, even when you stink"

This was the last conversation I had with Neisan tonight. Every day, about 100 times, he has to stick his feet in my face, I have to sniff them, then I have to scream and tell him how badly they stink. He cracks up every single time. And after a long day with shoes on, his feet really do stink! And I love the way they stink...

Do you ever come across a scent that takes your mind back to the exact time you smelled it? They say that our ability to smell is the most powerful of all our senses. I couldn't agree more. I can step out of the car onto a freshly paved parking lot and suddenly I'm with my best friend Sarah at Worlds of Fun spending our summers riding the Timber Wolf. The smell of Old Spice makes me feel like I'm sitting on my grandpa Gene's lap in his old red leather chair, him asking me if I want to get married - to which I always replied "I can't marry you Grandpa! You're my Grandpa!" - he still asks me to this day. The smell of medical tape reminds me of being a little girl and watching the home health nurses change my dads dressing on his chest catheter from which he received his chemo therapy. Scents can take you back to so many memories, good and bad.

Smelling Neisan's feet on a daily basis might sound like an unpleasant thing. But it's quite the opposite. His stinky feet are part of him. Every morning I get to wake up to his breath on my face as he plants a huge open mouth kiss on me. He has awful morning breath - and I love it. I've used the same soap and lotion on him pretty much since he's been born, and every day when he gets his bath I think of the first time I bathed him. The smell of Burt's Bee's will always be close to my heart. So tonight's blog isn't philosophical or full of bottled up feelings - it's just about my son's stinky feet. Because I really do love the way he stinks.