July 4, 2012 will forever be a day of infamy in my mind. Not that we didn't have fun--we were in small-town northern Utah, after all, the perfect place to celebrate the 4th: there was a fabulous breakfast; there were parades, before which the kids boogied in the street and during which the kids raked in the candy; there were fun afternoon games planned by my mom--water balloon volleyball, the farmer game, an obstacle course; there was delicioso food; and there were plenty of fireworks, both in front of the house and at the local park.
BUT there was also the lice. Before the parade, I was fixing Sweetie's hair as fast as I could and I saw that she'd been scratching her head again: I thought I saw little scabs. "Sweetie, I said, stop scratching your head." "But it itches," she said. And then I saw the scabs move. So, after the parade, we made a stop at the grocery to purchase the lice shampoo. Sweetie and I both did a treatment, since we share the same brushes and combs. My mom and I combed out Sweetie's hair for more than 2 hours and didn't come close to freeing her/us from the lice. We also sanitized all of the combs and brushes and washed all of the towels and bedding. Two days later, up at the cabin, J and I tried another treatment, took another 2 hours, and still didn't succeed. Her head was completely infested, with lots of little eggs on each strand of hair. I feel like a terrible mom to have not noticed--we think she's had it since school got out. After a 13-hour drive home, I immediately started washing bedding and towels, throw pillows and blankets. And we tried a prescription treatment, which burned her head and stunk up the whole house, but successfully killed all of the live lice. After picking them and nits out of her hair from 7:15pm to midnight a week ago, I felt a glimmer of hope and rush of sympathy for those Egyptians and their plagues. Every day since, I've picked nits of her hair, but the numbers are getting fewer and fewer, thankfully. Today I only picked out 7. Friday, my friend came and did a second treatment on my hair--just to make sure. She combed through it for 2 hours and only found 6 nits, but on Friday I also found them in the boys' hair--just a few, so again we washed and vacuumed and sanitized and bought lice treatment. So here we are after well over 10 hours I've spent picking lice and nits out of hair, and I still don't feel completely free of them. So, July 4, 2012--the Day of Bondage for me. Next time I think I will just pay the big bucks for the Lice Dr to deal with this mess.
But, enjoy the fun 4th of July pics that show that we really did have fun that day, lice and all.
The Parade
The Afternoon Games
The 4th of July Girls--Sweetie made her own tutu because I was too busy grading.
The Fireworks
5 comments:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
YIKES! Let's just say, I am only jealous of half your fourth (and I'll give you a hint: it's the half spent with family, food and fun).
I love the nose picking picture! So classic of my boys.
So sorry about the lice!!! Yet another reason you must be glad that you cut her hair. Hang in there!! This too shall pass. I heard olive oil helps kill them. A little less toxic. Nothing to get rid of the combing though!! So so sorry!
My favorite photo is the one with the grand kids on the porch! So cute! Hope the hours of hair care are over!!
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