The Scents of Motherhood

I love the smell of my children while they sleep. That may be a weird statement for some, but I'm guessing most mothers out there know what I mean. During the day, my kids smell like a variety of things: fish sticks, graham crackers, diapers, what's in their diapers...but at night, after their bath, after they've fallen asleep, there's nothing to cover up their distinct, special scents. It's their little child scent, the one that hasn't been overcome by the onset of hormones. They each have a smell that is unique to them - I would be be able to identify them blindfolded. I love checking on them while they sleep and just leaning down to breathe them in.

Someday I won't be able to do that. Someday they'll loose that soft smell of childhood to the onset of adolescence and adulthood. Someday they won't be down the hall for me to check on while they sleep, kiss their foreheads and breathe in their scent. Someday they will grow up, move away, and have children with scents of their own. And that "someday" is probably closer that I think. Joshua is almost three - the next time I blink, he will be in preschool, then kindergarten, with his sister close behind. Then bigger, and busier, and then gone. Someone once told me that this period of their lives has "the slowest days and the fastest years." That's a pretty accurate description, and sometimes in the craziness of changing diapers and making lunch and settling fights and time-outs and everything, I forget that in a moment, it will all be gone. My children will grow up to have their own lives and families.

So for right now, I want to drink in these moments of their childhood. I want to take the time to watch them sleep, kiss them on their foreheads, hold them tight for as long as they'll let me - and take in the sweet smell of their childhood, making memories of all senses in my heart to cherish forever.