The smell of… paint thinner

A few days ago I painted some woodwork in our living room. I did this while the boys were in school and when I was done I cleaned up and opened the windows to get the smell out. By the time the boys were home, there was hardly any scent left. The paint was still drying so I told them to stay away from the wood, which they did (or so I thought).

The next morning I woke up the boys in their bedroom and I smelled paint thinner. How strange I thought, as I had not painted there. But as we are living in an old house I thought ‘maybe all the smells went up through the ceiling?’. So I opened up the windows to make sure it would evaporate quickly.

But as soon as the boys were home from school, I could smell that nauseating smell again. And I had not even been painting. I sniffed everywhere to make sure I had not left anything with paint on it. I threw out the rags and the newspapers that I had used, even though they were not so smelly. And still I could smell paint thinner when I was around the boys. I sniffed and sniffed. Maybe I was going crazy? Was I smelling things that were not there?!
Right. I admit it looked a little crazy, me going sniffing through the whole house…. but the next morning I finally found the source of the smell. My son’s favourite stuffed animals had a slightly black ear. He hardly lets go of that animal so when I got it from his grip, I nearly fainted. YAIKS, that thing stank!
I have absolutely no idea how he managed to get his animal anywhere near my paint stuf, my guess is he probably threw it against my painted wood. Anyway, the mystery has finally been solved and is in the washing machine right now. Toddlers: never a dull moment.