Did the experiment do its job? Who can really know. We had the most incredibly mothering doggie we could have ever dreamed of, and she would have watched over our babies no matter what. Meanwhile, what the parenting books don't tell you is that babies produce and use a zillion other smells for which there's no way to prepare any dog: diaper fillers, spit-up, cradle cap, ear wax, breast milk, formula, rice cereal, mashed peas, and those are just in the first nine months.
The reason I'm writing about all of this is because I decided to do a much more recent experiment with the olfactory magic present in Johnson's Baby Shampoo. As my youngest son turned five a few months ago, I began to really become aware that he's not a baby and really hasn't been for a long time. After twelve years, we no longer have the need to buy or keep baby products in our home. Nothing that really takes me back to those days of being a young mom of babies.
Nobody misses the stinky smells of babyhood, but what I do miss are the sweet, irresistible, can't-get-enough-of-'em smells. The ones that you only know if you've been a parent. The newly opened package of Pampers baby wipes, the fresh from the dryer Onesies just washed with Dreft, and my very favorite smell of all, the top of a baby's head, just coming out of the tub, gently cleaned with Johnson's Baby Shampoo.
Part of being aware that I don't have anymore babies was when I noticed that I physically do not have to bathe any of my children. They are all fully independent when it comes to bath and shower time. Well, making sure they enter the tub is still all my job, but once they're in there, the washing is up to them. I hadn't even noticed that I wasn't needed in that department until just a couple of weeks ago, when Marshall actually asked me if I would help him. He never wants help in the tub, but for some reason, that one night, he asked me to wash his hair for him.
Trying to be increasingly present in their short and fast-moving lives, I willingly marched up the stairs into the bathroom to help my boy, noticing the floor already soaking wet with bath water. Along with the Axe and Pantene for the older kids, I do still buy Johnson's Head to Toe Baby Wash and Shampoo. It's for the sensitive skin of these kiddos, whenever they feel they need it. Of course, that's the bottle that I was going to use. I didn't want my little guy smelling like a teenager.
The very instant that I squeezed that golden goop into my palm and began to create the lather for Marshall's hair, I was wondrously transported to the countless days of standing over our miniature bathtub, gently washing away the dried milk from the creases of all four of our babies' necks.
It only took a few seconds to wash up Marshall's hair. He wasn't squirming or crying or peeing on me like the days when we counted his age in weeks or months. It was almost too easy. When the bubbles were rinsed from his hair, he asked me to go out of the room so he could keep playing in the now sudsy water. I hated to leave the room, because the smell from the baby shampoo was so enchanting to this sentimental mama.
But...I left.
When Marshall was all dry and warm in his jammies, I made sure that we spent added time reading books that night. His head was just below my nose, in the perfect position for me to sniff his clean and delicious hair for an extra long time.
The next week, I decided to wash my own hair with Johnson's Baby Shampoo. No need to explain, right?
What do you miss most from when your kids were babies? Maybe they still are babies, and you're trying to soak up all the yumminess of them right now! Let's talk about it.
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