Someone asked me once, “What’s your favorite smell?” Easy. The smell of my children’s hair after a bath. I’ve always washed their hair with Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo or Head to Toe Shampoo/Body Wash. You know the stuff. It smells like a baby. We’ve all had it around the house forever. My obsession started when they washed Charlotte for the first time in the hospital. I breathed her in. When they took her to the nursery I could still smell her on the receiving blanket next to me. I needed her back with me to breathe her in some more. That’s when I fell in love with the smell.

She’s four. I still wash her hair with it just to smell her. She’s had a ton of cherry-bubblegum scented bubble bath or whatever, but her hair is washed in Johnson’s. Always. For Christmas she got a box of princess bath items. A comb and mirror, complete with her first bottle of body wash. Surely it would make her skin princess-smooth. She was psyched. My heart fell a little when I saw the shampoo in there too. I knew nothing would keep her from hair that magical and I knew it wouldn’t smell like Johnson’s.

That night I reluctantly sniffed the pink bottle and washed her hair. When I went to check on her before I went to sleep I leaned down to kiss her. I smelled her hair.

It was a new smell. A non-Johnson’s princess smell. It is not the smell of a baby. It was a mixture of cherry-bubblegum and sparkles. I loved it. In the whiffs of fruity candy, her curls carry the scent of my four-year-old. The smell is bright and spirited. It somehow represented my funny kid who is learning about a bike with training wheels, builds Lego towers as high as she is and wears dress-up clothes while drawing pictures. My cherry-bubblegum girl who sings loud, runs fast and hugs hard.  It’s perfect for her hair now. All too soon it will smell like highlights or hairspray and I’ll long for the scent of cherry-bubblegum.

Plus, I get to wash her baby brother in Johnson’s until he cares about shampoo, if ever. I think their hair will always be my favorite smell.

Fresh from her princess bath.