So, the last two times SS10 has come back to our house, he has brought something with him -- an indescribable, truly horrendous odor. He and his stuff get in the car and it immediately fills the vehicle. DH had to roll down the windows for the 10-minute drive.

A couple of weeks ago, DH isolated the stench to the red duffle bag SS takes back and forth, so he texted BM, told her what the problem was and basically said, "Unless you want it, I'm throwing it out. But it's not coming back here." She said to just toss it. DH put a plug-in and sprayed a lot of Febreeze in SS's room and it was fine. (It was not coming from SS.)

Yesterday he came back and there it was again. The fleece blanket SS likes to bring from his mom's was the culprit and then I smelled it on his school backpack, too.

DH is a germaphobe/neat freak with a sensitive nose so he nearly flipped out. He suspects the various animals at BM's (two cats, three dogs) are at least partly to blame. Anyway, today he's buying a new backpack and fleece blanket for our house only and the backpack will stay in the garage until next Sunday. When it comes to soft stuff, there will now be a strict "there v. here" rule.

Fine by me. I'm not as sensitive as DH but this was seriously disgusting and powerful.

For a bit, SS wasn't bathing properly (a true shower takes longer than 30 seconds and one should actually get one's hair wet) but DH addressed that (and he's been using deodorant for over a year now), thank goodness. But no clue if he's actually following instructions at BM's or if he's just faking it to get back to his games.

Speaking of which, he came back this time with a new, $600 iPad (his other was only a year old). And a month ago, she bought him a $750 custom-made bicycle. It's her money, her business, but good grief. No wonder he shows no interest at all in birthday or Christmas. Every other week is the best Christmas ever.

I just roll my eyes at this point.