Do we stink??

So, as I'm sure you all know, Nick is a spitter. Everything he eats is eventually seen again - either on his shirt, or mine...or Todd's...or Gramma's...or the floor...or his play mat...you get the point. He has had an issue with spitting up since the day he came out...and it's pretty disgusting. But after 6.5 months, we're pretty used to it, and now when Nick spews on Todd's shirt, instead of geeking out about the fact that it was his "only clean white shirt, dammit!", now Todd just yanks off whatever he's wearing and let's Nick grab hold of his five chest hairs and dribble leftover lunch carrots down his stomach because "the hell if I'm washing TWO stained t-shirts in one day!"

Naturally because of this issue, we arm ourselves (or Nick rather) with tons of bibs. We have every kind of bib from plastic backed, to thick and absorbent, to stylish bibs for those in-between meals moments where we're hopeful he doesn't spit up and stain the cute bib, but glad it's there when bananas come out 3 hours after he last ate them.

Obviously, the babysitter likes to have lots of bibs on hand as well, considering Nick spends 90% of his weekdays in her house, and she would prefer to not have baby-vomit stains on her carpet and sofa. So, we bring an arsenal of bibs to her house each week.

On Wednesday afternoon, when I picked up Nick from daycare, our babysitter said "I need more bibs". I wasn't surprised considering Nick's laundry basket at home was overflowing with clothes that desperately needed washing...including most of his bibs. So I assured her I'd bring a stack with me on Thursday morning.

That night I went home and sorted Nick's laundry, and threw the majority of his bibs in the washer and then the dryer.

On Thursday morning, I walked into daycare with Nick on my hip, took one look at the babysitter, and cursed myself (possibly out loud, I can't be sure) because I realized I had completely forgotten the bibs. They were clean, but they were still in the dryer waiting for me to untangle them from the mess of baby laundry they were velcroed to.

I made it a point to grab three clean bibs from Nick's room to bring with me back to daycare on Thursday afternoon, JUST IN CASE I forgot to bring more on Friday morning. I handed the babysitter the three bibs as she handed me Nick, and we scurried on home.

Fast-forward to this morning. I made sure to sort through all of the laundry in the dryer and came up with a stack of 8 or 9 freshly cleaned, plastic-backed bibs. *side note -- we use Dreft detergent for Nick's clothes in the washer, and BabyGanics baby-fresh-scent dryer sheets in the dryer - and both smell GOOD*.

We arrived at daycare and I proudly handed over my kid, and then my stack of clean bibs. To which the babysitter instantly replied "why do they stink?"

Me: "Huh? Stink?"
Her: "yes, yesterday the three you gave me smelled like rotten eggs so I had to Lysol them."
Me: "I have no idea...I didn't smell anything"
Her: "Smell these" (waving the freshly cleaned bibs under my nose) "See? They stink!"
Me: "I swear I cannot smell anything...they smell normal to me"
Her: (giving me a very surprised look like she is shocked I can't smell them) "It smells like rotten eggs. Does he spit up a lot at home?"
Me: "No more than he does here or anywhere else...I honestly don't smell anything! They just came out of the washer. Oh my gosh -- does my house just stink all the time?!"

She just gave me another 'yikes...your whole house probably smells that bad' look and said "That's ok, I'll wash them again".

So I kissed Nick goodbye, turned and left, and got in my car. And then I started to cry. (ugh, hormones)

I remember going to friends houses growing up and thinking "ew, their house smells different".

By the time I was in middle school, I realized that every family had their own "house smell", and I came to embrace it -- and actually enjoyed smelling other people's house smells. To this day, my brother and I still take extra deep breaths when we come across a smell that reminds us of our Grandparents old houses.

But today, with one small comment, our babysitter has made me completely self conscious. I honestly did not smell ANYTHING on those bibs. They didn't have any sort of smell to me at all. Now I'm worried that we have a house smell -- and that our house smell is fart. All morning I've been intermittently sniffing items around the house, while sniffing myself, to see if I can figure out the culprit. I still don't smell anything but "normal".

Now I'm wondering if people that know us think "well, they must just always smell like fart". I'm totally bothered by this...especially because it's one of those things that I may never find an answer for. Why did the bibs smell to her? Why couldn't I smell what she smelled? Does our house really smell awful? Would you tell me if it did? Do we stink??