Lice-pocolipse

Oye. I thought we were going to be safe since we'd already made it eight years with kids and without lice, EVEN through several class and neighborhood bouts of it. But no one is immune; this week lice entered our home.

A few weeks ago I caught wind of someone in Eli's class possibly having lice so I started looking through Eli and Maddux's heads each night. Since I'd never looked for lice before I didn't really know what I was looking for, but I still searched thoroughly. Nothing, nada, zilch.

Fast forward to this Tuesday when Eli comes home, plays all afternoon and then tells me at dinner that his head was itchy. Since he'd been running around all afternoon, getting his longer hair sweaty, I didn't think much of it. But I still checked. I checked for over ten minutes before I found one live lice bug. Holy moly. It was the EXACT same color as Eli's hair, so it was very hard to see, but I found him. Off to the shower to buzz his head. He didn't need much convincing and I knew it would make the whole process go much smoother.

I frantically checked Maddux's head for several minutes before sending her to bed to stay out of the way of any thing that could take residence in her hair. (She still has yet to show any signs of any lice existence.)

Once we buzzed him, we coated Eli's head in olive oil and vinegar (to smother anything living and then to loosen any eggs still there). After an hour we rewashed and then I combed, and combed, and combed, and combed (finding nothing further). All sheets, blankets, stuffed animals and backpacks were banished to the garage and/or washing machine and dryer. Are we having fun yet?

The next morning, I combed Eli's hair (nothing) and decided to keep him home, just to be sure. Maddux was still clear, and I hadn't yet found anything concrete in my hair either. Days and days (and days!) of combing *to be sure* followed, along with me pulling almost all of my hair out during the combing process as well.

Aren't you jealous?