Micah's Nose

Micah has a very keen sense of smell.

Today, while we were playing in the room, he suddenly said to me, "Max smells like he poo-pooed. Check, check!" He said excitedly. Sure enough, Max had made a mess.

Other times, it would be in the car. Once we were all in the car, with Micah in the car seat in front, Max with mommy at the back. I opened a container of cereals for Max and Micah exclaimed, "Is that honey stars? I smell honey stars." Another time grandma was secretly giving Max sweets to stop his crying for want for Mommy. She does this in secret because she knows I disapprove. I had also caught the scent many times, but as not to get Micah in her ploy, I usually keep quiet about it. But there had been a few time Micah would suddenly ask, "Mah-mah, what do you have? I want to see that. What is that? Is it sweets?" When she had a Listerine strip in her mouth, he said to her, "I can smell mouth wash. Did you use the mouth wash, Mah-mah?" and yet another time when she had put some "minyak angin" because of a headache, he said to her, "Mah-mah, I can smell the hot-hot oil. Do you have a stomach ache?"

Sometimes when we walk into a public wash room that is clean, especially at the Science Centre, Micah would say, "I cam smell strawberry. Mmmm." Yeap, it's a strawberry scented cleaning agent. In a new environment, when uncertain, he would ask, "what is that smell, Mommy?" It could be a spice or some other detergent kind of smell. "Chemicals," he would say. At church it would be, "I can smell orange. Mmmm."

Once, January this year, we were at a shopping mall and I walked into The Body Shop to get a birthday gift for a friend. He was attracted by all the colourful bar soaps on display and he began sniffing at them. So I helped him along, not wanting him to be unsupervised in a store. I handed him different ones and asked him what did it smell like. After all that, we concluded they are fruit juices! The next time we walked pass a Body Shop, he would say, "Mommy, lets go smell the fruit juices."

I recall now that when he was very young, maybe 10 months or so, I carried him around the back of the house and gave him different plants to smell: pandan leaves, lime and bay leaves. In the kitchen I gave him orange, banana and mango. And of course durian when it was in season. I don't know if that is what made him so sensitive now, but he sure is amazing.

These days he has this thing where he wants to smell all the bottles on the bathrooms counters. It can really drive us crazy as he will press on the pumps or open up the bottles and squeeze the soap, shampoo, cleansers, etc. and sniff at them. He does the same with lotions and whatever else he sees lying around the house (on the shelves or on dressers) and being a child he has powdered the floor, rubbed lotion on the bed, oiled the kitchen floor, salted the dining table with soy sauce, and yesterday, sniffed and licked a bar of butter from the fridge. On hindsight, it is all very funny, but when you have to deal with a mess, it can be such pain.

Another things he does, which drives his grandparents crazy, but does not bother me, is that he wants to smell all his food before eating them. Most of the time he will go, "Mmmm. Nice." Sometimes we get a "I don't like that," or a "what's that?" response. The grandparents thinks that it is rude, but I think it's fine. Let him use his nose. He's got a good one. :)