Not smelling like breast milk
Small Boy has been hinting for some weeks now that he's getting kind of sweaty. Well, duh, it gets hot in the summer and we're out riding bikes and gardening and using our bodies. "No," he says, he's sweating because he's "becoming a teenager. Want to smell my underarms?" he inquires pertly? I have always replied the same thing, "No, you're not a teenager! You're my baby! I'm sure they smell exactly like breast milk!"
So we've had this exchange a couple of times now and it suddenly occurred to me last night when I was tucking him into bed and kissing him goodnight that maybe he was trying to tell me he wanted to start wearing deodorant. I remember not having language to discuss this with MY mother. Furthermore, I've been through this with the older two kids, too. Except they were like, TWELVE when this happened. Small Boy is my baby! Uh... except he just turned twelve last month.
So last night I gave him a stick of our cheap unscented default brand of stick deodorant and told him that he could start out using that and change to whatever he wanted if he found something he wanted to try out for himself at the store. (Which is how we did it with the other two.) He was stoked, and leaped out of bed to go ask his father how to use it. (I assume it was because he wanted to show it off to his Dad, because I doubt he thought woman pits functioned significantly different than man pits.)
I'm so proud of how my babies are turning out. I alway intended that they should turn into adults. I didn't have babies in order to have BABIES. But... waaaaah! My baby does NOT smell exactly like breastmilk anymore!
So we've had this exchange a couple of times now and it suddenly occurred to me last night when I was tucking him into bed and kissing him goodnight that maybe he was trying to tell me he wanted to start wearing deodorant. I remember not having language to discuss this with MY mother. Furthermore, I've been through this with the older two kids, too. Except they were like, TWELVE when this happened. Small Boy is my baby! Uh... except he just turned twelve last month.
So last night I gave him a stick of our cheap unscented default brand of stick deodorant and told him that he could start out using that and change to whatever he wanted if he found something he wanted to try out for himself at the store. (Which is how we did it with the other two.) He was stoked, and leaped out of bed to go ask his father how to use it. (I assume it was because he wanted to show it off to his Dad, because I doubt he thought woman pits functioned significantly different than man pits.)
I'm so proud of how my babies are turning out. I alway intended that they should turn into adults. I didn't have babies in order to have BABIES. But... waaaaah! My baby does NOT smell exactly like breastmilk anymore!