Remember Linus from the Peanuts cartoons? Audrey loves her blanket about as much as good 'ole Linus does. She loves it so much, in fact, that we got her 2 identical blankets in the event one happens to be MIA at any critical moment when she needs it most. (It helps to have at least 2 of lots of things when you're a parent.)
When Audrey first started talking she struggled with the letter "b" so she called it her "mankey." Now that she is verbally proficient she says the word correctly; mom and dad, not being able to let go of the past, continue to call it mankey.
Audrey loves to smell her mankey almost as much as she likes to carry it around. She takes her 2 little mitts and just holds it against her face, taking it in. It has that certain baby smell to it that just hasn't gone away as she's gotten older, even despite many trips through the washing machine. It's faded and so soft that, quite frankly, I've been thinking of getting one myself.
Her other addiction (we all have 'em) is her pacifier. In fact she's the only 2 year old I know who started using a pacifier when she turned 2. She calls it her "pacie" and, at any given time, there are usually 7 or 8 of them scattered about the house. And while her 2 mankeys are interchangeable, her pacies are not. Like a clothing accessory, she is quite particular about which one she is using when.
How are these seemingly disparate objects intertwined? Well, Audrey can't smell her mankey without her pacie in her mouth. She has told us the same many times. I, for one, can't figure it out, but one of the reasons I write these posts is to force me to think through the quandaries presented by my little girls.
I can tell you that most of what we perceive as taste is actually due to our sense of smell. (Think about how well you taste things when you have a head cold.) But in this case does blocking her little taste buds with that pacie help her smell better? Or, weirder yet, is she "tasting" her mankey?
Such are the questions on the minds of dads everywhere. And I'm not sure we'll ever know.
