Fourth Grade and Deodorant

Ask MG the best part about 4th grade and he will tell you, well maybe not you but he has confessed this to me, that it is changing gym clothes and wearing deodorant. All summer he kept having me check if his had gotten his "man smell" yet. I being the indulging mother I am would smell his armpits after a long hot summer day and say nope just sweaty kid smell, he then ask if I was sure because it smelled like it to him. He would walk away disappointed. We played this out at least 3 days a week, each time he was for sure he had his "man smell." So now that it is a requirement to have deodorant for after gym, he feels he has been validated.

So along those same lines, he is in the bathroom a couple of days ago and hollers out "do you think Joe will be jealous if I get my man hairs before him? This shock and surprised mama says WHAT? he repeats, I ask very curious since he is only 10 which man hairs are you talking about? His reply, you know the ones that grow on my legs, arm pits and personals. My reply "ugh, not sure, why?" Because I am getting them now. Oh, is all I could say. My sweet son is not so modest and I have seen him naked everyday, in fact just that morning and didn't notice. So maybe it is peach fuzz getting thicker? who knows! I did ask Joe's mom if she thought he would be jealous, her reply "you know they are pretty competitive."

So I pick Katy up from preschool today, and she gets in the van, buckles her seat belt and then smells both her arm pits. Then looks up at me and announces "Yup, I got it." Got what I ask?, "My woman smell" she says.

What is it with both my kids want to smell funky?