Smells Like a Memory

We often joke around our house about Ava's amazingly keen sense of smell. She can smell anything from what seems like a mile away. She's always the first to comment on dinner cooking, or the smell of flowers in the air, or fresh cut grass. She can smell from downstairs when Bailey has pooped in the playroom (damn cat!) on the far end of the house. She can't even walk into Target without commenting, "Mmmm, I smell popcorn!"

It's no secret that smells can induce memories and feelings, and most scientists agree that smell is in fact the strongest sense tied to memory. Most of us will have a strong visual image when presented with a particular smell from a good or bad memory in our childhood. I know, for me, that the smell of a campfire floods my brain with wonderful images, camping with my dad when we were kids, or attending a campfire at Camp Eberhart in my teens. I simply can't smell a campfire smoldering and not feel the smile creep onto my face, literally lighting me up from the inside. My nose knows:)

But I found an interesting article about the correlation between olfactory sensitivity and emotional sensitivity that intrigued me. (http://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/13/correlation-found-between-sense-of-smell-and-emotional-sensitivity/). Are people who smell better more emotionally sensitive? And why? It certainly might explain my extremely sensitive daughter, who seems to feel every emotion like it might be her very last. It might even explain my own over-sensitivity when it comes to my emotional feelings.

Whatever the scientific reason for the link between smell and memory, I know that as a parent I plan to use it to my advantage:-) I want my children to smell a campfire, or my homemade macaroni and cheese, or even just the chlorine in the pool at the Y, and be comforted. I want to conjure happy, loving memories that will last a lifetime. Can you smell that? It's a memory:)

Picture post

Just a quick picture roundup from April, as I've been meaning to put these all up but keep forgetting. We had a very nice Easter dinner at Chuck's sister's house and I remembered to take some pictures of the kids with relatives, since I haven't taken any new pictures in ages. You'll notice that Chuck is absent from all of these photos...one of these days I'll manage to convince him to actually be in a picture with his own wife and children (hint...hint...) ;-)

I hope everyone had a nice Easter and April, despite the terrible very UN-spring-like weather we've all had. I'm sincerely hoping that May is better than April, though is the forecast for this week is any indication, I am going to be disappointed, lol.

Please keep Ava in your thoughts as she's pretty sick with some sort of fever virus, poor doll:( She's been running a pretty high temp for the past two days, I hope she feels better soon!