The Smeller and the Bug Collector

Anderson is our smeller. He has an incredible nose. We can be out on the street and he can smell Brasilian bar-b-que before anyone else. Shortly after, the rest of us will catch up to the smell as well, and it will be bar-b-que.

His smelling doesn't stop at food. He has no problem catching a whiff of people and isn't shy about telling them what they smell like. Dangerous, I know.

Some examples:

"Grace you smell like ketchup."

"Dad, of all the kids in my class Lucas smells the best. He smells just like milk."

They aren't always good people smells however:

"Dad he smells like coco bricks." (Even after repeated questioning we still aren't sure exactly what coco bricks smell like but he's assured us it's not a good smell. Cocó is the brazilian word for poop.)

Yesterday, while walking to his school a man passed us and Anderson shot out (loudly), "Hey dad, that guy really smells bad!" So I said, "Shhhhh, let's don't say that." He replied, "Okay dad, but he REALLY smells bad." Here you can't just assume that people don't speak English, because a lot do, so this type of honesty is always fun.

Carys has always been our nature girl, bug collector, specimen provider. All you have to say is, "Carys, bug" and she's on it. She will grab just about anything and isn't afraid to let stuff crawl on her.

What happens when you put these two together?

Our kids go to three different schools. In the mornings I drop the three oldest off first, then Carys, and then Anderson. Anderson gets out of school first, so when I pick them up at lunch I do so in reverse order.

When we went to pick up Carys on Tuesday she handed Anderson a glass container. Anderson immediately said, "cool!"

What was it? A slug. She found it and kept it and shared it with Anderson. Anderson immediately wanted the lid off. So as we are driving to the older kids' school we take the lid off and Anderson is looking down into the container. He then says, "It smells like brown sugar." I assure him it doesn't and he keeps telling me it does. We go back and forth. He's begging me to smell and I really don't want to smell the container.

Finally I give in, and guess what it smells like? Brown sugar.

So I ask Carys if, by chance, she happened to get this container from our kitchen. She, completely innocently, responded "yes." I mean why would that be a problem, right?

I'm not sure the slug liked his new home though. You've heard of something scaring the poop out of somebody. With this guy it wasn't just a saying. We left him out during the night with lid off and he made a slimy break for it. Not to worry though. The night he escaped it rained, and then yesterday morning Carys found two worms to take up residence in the "brown sugar" bug container.

And they live happily next to the "killer tomato."

It's never boring in this house.