Mother Love

I always heard that, when you have children, the love you have for them surpasses all love you have felt. That it's so intense. That you would give your life for them in an instant, if need be. And it's true.

Something everyone knows about me - I have a bloodhound nose. I can smell a poopy diaper from across an entire house. If a dog has peed on a carpet, I can find the exact spot where he peed. It gets especially intense when I'm pregnant. I think that, if I was a superhero, this would be my special power - my super-sniffer. My catch phrase could be, "My sniffer senses are tingling." This bloodhound nose of mine can make life kind of uncomfortable for my loved ones and me. Like, if Ben has had one teeny, tiny morsel of garlic at all in a day, I can smell it on his skin and in his breath for days afterwards. Which makes me really nauseated. Sometimes, at night, I can't be in the same room as him if he's had something garlic-ey for lunch. Poor guy. I'm not mean about it or anything, but I'll be like, "I'm so sorry, honey, and I love you so much, but I just can't breathe the same air as you for the next few hours." And I flee to the basement to read a book or something.

But this Mother Love thing, it is even more powerful than my Super Sniffer. An example of this - I love the sometimes-unpleasant smells that my children emit. It's sooo weird. If Ben emits an unpleasant smell, I order him to the showers. But if my kids have an unpleasant smell, I think, "Awwww, how cuuuuute." When Ben smells sweaty, I'm repelled. "Ewwww!! Go take a shower!!" Or if his feet stink, "Ewwww! Go wash your feet!!"

But it's different with my kids. When Dylan was a baby, his head sweated really badly when he slept. (Trust me - it wasn't that his room was kept too warm or he had too many covers. He inherited this head-sweating-at-night thing from his daddy.) When I'd get him up in the morning, his head was smelly from all the sweat. But for some reason, I loved that smell. That smell was the Dylan Smell. So I loved it.

The other day, Sadie was at preschool. It was a rainy day, so she wore her sneakers. Her sandals were on the floor by my bed (a.k.a. the couch), and I could smell the stinky feet smell on them. And I loved it. That's a Sadie Smell. So I love it.

Isn't that weird?? But there are a couple of smells I still can't abide - poopy diapers and morning breath. My Mother Love doesn't go that far.