It tastes like car wash

Noah smells. As in, he likes to smell, not that he stinks. We noticed this quite a while ago. He is always asking to smell things. Like when I am in the kitchen cooking (especially if I pull out the vanilla bottle), or we are washing his hands in a public bathroom where there is some new exciting odor to be had from the soap dispenser, or a new article of clothing, or Claire's vomit on the floor (yes, I'm serious), or his Grandpa's tie. Grandpa thought Noah was trying to wipe his nose on his tie until I explained he just wanted to catch a whiff. We have no idea where he got this obsession. OK, that's a lie, his Mama is the same way, though I do refrain from sniffing vomit. Doug can't say he didn't know what he was getting into when he married me. On our first date we were sitting outside Outback waiting to be seated. I leaned over and sniffed his shirt and said, "You smell good." Bold, yes? But he married me anyway.

Back to the story. On Monday we were travelling back to M-town after a nice weekend in NC visiting family. We stopped at a Wendy's in Mocksville for lunch. As we were ordering, Doug saw that they had Cheerwine. Being that our fine state is Cheerwine-less, he got quite excited and decided to order one instead of our usual water. In case you've never had one, it's a cherry-flavored cola, far superior in taste to Cherry Coke or Cherry Pepsi. I have to admit, it's tasty stuff. Though thoroughly laced w/ the deadly high fructose corn syrup which we make a habit of avoiding.

As we sat down to eat, Noah wanted to taste Doug's drink. He took a big swig and made a bit of a face since he is not used to carbonation. I asked him if it was spicy (our word for fizzy). He said, "It tastes like car wash."

This may sound funny, but I knew exactly what he meant. There is a particular car wash we like to use, as it uses brushes instead of those useless "touchless" car washes that don't really work. The soap it uses has a distinct cherry smell to it. Noah, being the smell-a-holic that he is, noticed this. And since the senses of smell and taste are intricately linked, he made a connection between the cherry smell of the car wash and the cherry taste of Cheerwine. Neat, eh?