We had a very strange episode this morning. I was feeding Natasha her morning oatmeal cereal with squash; meanwhile Matthew was shaving in the bathroom. Once I finished feeding her, I took her to the bathroom (which Matthew just left) so I could wash her messy face, but before I could even do anything Natasha dissolved into hysterical sobs. The tears came out of nowhere, the screams were ear piercing. I tried holding and rocking her for a bit and once she started calming down, I put her on the changing table so I could take her dirty sleeper off. Oops. Wrong move. The sobs and tears and screams and hysterical Natasha all returned at once. Matthew and I had no idea what the heck happened but the only other time I remembered seeing her in this state was at her doctor's. So we tried putting it all together...

My initial instinct was the smell of Matthew's aftershave because Natasha started screaming when we entered the bathroom where Matthew put on his aftershave just seconds before. The next thing I did was undress her. Matthew also realized he did not use his usual aftershave that day, but a different one he hasn't used before. Anyways. The only conclusion we were able to arrive to is that maybe this new cologne/aftershave smelled like the one her doc was using, and the undressing part did not help because we undress her at each appointment for the weighing. Arhh. Poor baby girl. You should have seen it. She was absolutely hysterical. I felt so sorry for her.

Of course there might be an entirely different explanation to this, a more logical one, but we really don't think so. Natasha is a very calm, laid-back child and this was very unlike her. They say babies don't have a long-term memory at this age, but I think otherwise. At least they remember enough to associate certain smells, sounds, and actions with either safety or danger. I really believe that much is true.