Hiya sistahs…
How has your weekend been? Well let me tell you what mine was all about. And this aint no “AFTER RELAXING SHOWAH PICTURE” (taken by my Iphone)
So this is what happened.. in the midst of CHA preparations ,cutting, stressing, regurgitating (LOL) etc..
I decided to take my darling children to the hairdresser.. they were SO excited to get their cuts and Tyler decided to mention at that moment that kids were sent home from school for LICE. And then I get some FLASHBACKS whilst (love WHILST) sitting at the hairdressers waiting for their turn.. I decide to inspect their heads there and was unsure what I was looking for. Now here’s something I should not admit but Tyler has been scratching for a while and he told me that it was because he was RUNNING (LOL at the association of the two).. and LOL even MORE at the MAMA who was too busy to even realize what was going on… So then I see he has white stuff in his hair and DEMAND that he CONDITION his thick locks and he did… Ok so now back to the hairdresser.. one of them inspects and says it is nothing so Jayden proceeds to get her hair cut.. Tyler is in his chair with his hairdresser and I ask that they check him. So then the BIG KAHUNA OWNER comes over, parts his hair and immediately finds the MAMA wandering around my sons head. I almost FAINTED. The BK (BIG KAHUNA) decides to amble over to my daughter’s head and proceeds to PART IT and sure enough he found the MAMA wandering around there.. I literally almost needed an ambulance to come scrape me off the floor. Ryan was working.. I was on my own. Then the 2 hairdressers proceed to look helplessly at BK and ask if they should FINISH the haircuts!! Tyler was being BUZZED so UM… AHEM.. they saw the look of horror on my face and they finished the job. KINDA. There ARE a few crooked sections .. LOL.We had a group of people staring at my poor kidlets and I proceeded to pay VERY quickly and tip VERY MUCHLY. Then my darling son decided that he should STICK HIS hand in a chocolate box for a snack.. I almost DIED of embarassment. Thank goodness there was a pharmacy next door where we bought a $36 OIL shampoo and SNACKS of course and made it an afternoon’s event.
Both children were stripped at the door (shivering), beds were stripped in about 6 seconds and then they were hosed off..LOL.
Then Denabella came to the Rescue, with lice comb in hand and showed me how to do my job properly.
That night we mushed OLIVE OIL and GEL on their heads and covered them in showercaps for them to MARINATE…LOL.
Sunday was a day of combing and nothing more was found. The scary part was thinking that my head of hair had it but THANK GOODNESS it doesnt..
That was my weekend.
HMPHH.
Mwah to da sistahs who feel so sorry for me and da kidlets
Em
p.s. Don’t forget this week’s BELLARIFIC sketch! due thursday night!
Oh, don’t forget to wash those sheets and towels….lice are known to come back too…here’s hoping they don’t. 🙂
done!
That is a nightmare! Hope it’s all gone from the house and the kids!
Oh my goodness. I hate those vile little creatures. I have had a few go rounds with them and let me tell you, my darling girl has the thickest curliest mass of hair, (I’m sure you don’t have the faintest idea what I am talking about), I finally got rid of them by shaving her head. She was 3 and luckily not yet in school, but it broke my heart. She rebounded and is just fine 11 years later, but I am constantly worried about her picking them up again. Horrid, Nightmarish, worries I tell ya! I’m glad you got to it.
Oh I know how you feel. Sharing in your pain! I went over the top and cleaned, vacuumed, hot dryer everything – toys, clothes, coats. I even had stuff bagged in the freezer that I couldn’t put in the hot dryer LOL. I washed the kids sheets everyday! Those little bugs just make you scratchy. Good Luck! One tip I was given – couple drops of tea tree oil on their brushes and put product on the kids hair as the bugs don’t like it. Fingers crossed for you…
Know how you feel Emily. Been there, done that. There is such a stigma attached but I don’t think there’s too many of us with kids that can escape the dreaded little bugga’s.
Aargh. I went through it in my household…it’s since been dubbed “The Lice Scare of 2000”. I washed sheets and vacuumed daily for two weeks. I greeted the kids at the door with the lice comb in hand. Makes my skin crawl just thinking about it, especially since I am also “blessed” with thick, curly hair.
I suggest shampoo with tea tree oil, or check out http://www.nontoxicsoap.com/botaic-gold-head-lice.html. Word of warning…this stuff will strip hair color…not that I’m admitting to anything. 😉 And I’m not a distributor…I just wanted a non-chemical alternative for washing the kiddos’ heads. Stuff lasts forever. Works great as a fruit/veggie wash, too.
Good news is that lice like clean hair…they can’t do their stuff if the hair is greasy…so take that as a compliment! Hang in there.
I’m sending you the MOTY (mother of the year) trophy from when I earned it last week, when my son said his neck hurt and I thought he slept on it wrong till three days later when he couldn’t move it and had strep and swollen glands the size of Texas! Missed it… and that is what this award is about. Otherwise glamorously clad, infinitely good-ish mamas who miss things! I’ve earned quite a few…
Anywhoooooooooooo remember Jan on the Brady Bunch? Long, down to her bottom…. well that was me till 5th grade when I got the lice. ALL THAT HAIR… they cut it all off into a shag. The haircut was HIDEOUS!
I hope they are all gone now and thanks so much for being REAL!
Quelle horreur! My head immediately gets itchy whenever someone says the dreaded “L” word!
I got them the summer I was on mat leave from trying on cute summer hats in a store – never try on hats in a store! I was so fearful that the baby would get them too, but the pharmacist recommended a few drops of tea tree oil. Don’t know if that helped, but noone else in the house got them.
Run the sheets in the dryer on the hottest setting a few times.
Oh I remember this whole scene VERY well! My oldest daughter had the most beautiful dark auburn hair with natural ringlets down to her knees and I found nits in her hair after receiving the school lice letter! Thank goodness I had a fabulous neighbor who came over to help – 4 hours later, taking turns using those darn little nit combs and oodles of lice shampoo, we got rid of them! I refused to cut her hair! I feel for you! Yikes, it gives me the willies and my head itches even thinking about it!
Ick. I’m a teacher, so I have to check heads regularly. (yaaay! We were all clean after Winter Break!)
Don’t forget that you’ve also got to spray the couches, car seats and headrests – anything cloth their heads have touched – and, sadly, their bedtime snugglies have to be quarrantined, or in ten days (You’ll re-check for nits then. They look like dandruff, but won’t come off the hair shaft.) you’re right back at it.
Don’t feel bad -The day before Sping Break a couple of years ago, I had a parent come to pick up a child who was plainly lousy , and as i attempted to hand her the county’s brochure on how to eradicate the little buggers said, “Oh, I’m not even going to bother. He has a flight to his father’s (in California!) this afternoon, so I’ll just let him deal with it!”
Eeeewwwww.
Oh, no. I’m so sorry, Emily. Luckily (KNOCKING ON EVERY PIECE OF WOOD IN THE HOUSE), I’ve not had that experience, but your recap is so entertaining. I didn’t laugh because it’s NOT funny, but I could just picture the whole event as you described it. And the “marinating” (ok..i might have chuckled a tiny bit at that)… I hope that’s the end of it for you! Sheesh! Now I’m off to shower…I’m feeling…icky. Hugs!
I noticed my sons head lice at 2am, I’d looked in on him and as I bent to kiss his forehead I saw one of the nasty little blighters, he had fine blond hair and this blighter was black so it showed up. I whipped him out of bed and in the bath, stripped his bed and got going with the steam cleaner, then I proceeded to do the same with my other two children, and as Mum was living with us at the time she got the treatment too. By 8am, the whole house was steamed to within an inch of its life, my family were scrubbed clean and anything that would go in the washing machine went in there, I went through the house like a dervish. That was 20 plus years ago, the little devils gave us a wide berth after that, the word must have gone out. I also thought I was a horrid parent for not catching them sooner; truth is I was and am a good parent, you too are a good parent, good, not perfect; gosh how awful would it be to be perfect? If one of your children came home with a broken arm or leg and you didn’t notice, this might be cause for concern, but not head lice, so stop with the guilt trip, repeat after me, ‘I am a wonderful mother to my children’, because you are.
Awww yessss, every mother’s nightmare – we went through this last summer only I found out the day my daughter arrived at her grandfathers 1000 miles away from me for her vacation!! I was helpless and to boot, he ‘didn’t really think she had it anyway’ so didn’t comb her hair 🙁 So here I am for 10 days worrying about how it must be getting worse. She combed her hair as much as she could. When she got home, we treated her and I combed and combed and combed. Three days later there wasn’t a nit to be found!! And she has long hair!! And guess what, my daughter told me before she left that her head was itchy and said oh, it’s nothing!! I will never do that again!! LOL!!
oh, em and gang! everytime I hear about a lice issue I start scratching my head! 3 kids in this house and I have not yet had an issue, just knocked on wood! but had a few friends that have had the issues of lice and as long as you really treat it well and get all the buggers out and wash everything fingers crossed they don’t come back!
Emily, 20 years ago…the same thing happened minus the kids going to the hairdresser…the note comes home from school. I really didn’t think much about it…I always washed the kids hair, but the darlings have dark hair, I don’t see a thing. Combing my daughter’s hair a few days later, I see them. A trip tp the drugstore a lice comb and I’m washing everything in the house stripping beds..frantic…I comb the poor kids hair for a month whether I see them or not…better safe than sorry. I had my son’s hair shaved, my daughter’s hair cut very short…she’s so traumatized that she gets bald spots in her hair…I take her to the dermatologist to find out she had alopecia which can be be caused by stress (she’s only 4) I think I’m the worst mother in the world. I now know I’m not, but nobody could tell me that back then. It’s a kid thing. I know you are a Wonderful Mom too! You’ll laugh alot later! I know I did…except the part about the bald spots…I never did get over that!
okay, this is funny…but NOT NEARLY as funny as hearing it from the mouth of the babe herself! thanks for the chuckle yesterday! and here I thought i was gonna make you smile! big {hugz} to those trooper kidlets of yours! i don’t know that mine would have looked so happy!
oh…i forgot to mention…i see little ‘snippets’ of the utensils hanging on the wall! LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM!!!!! last night i hung my two new dave matthews posters that we brought home from his winery! i love them too!
Oh Em, this is a hoot!! I don’t mean to laugh (uh, yeah I do!) but I can just see this playing out. You’re freaking out and they look like they’re having a blast! Kids!!!
your kids are beautiful even with shower caps! love the grins
Just a word of warning, if using tee tree oil, please please do not use it around cats. It is poisonous to them.
OMG – you poor thing. OK so I have to share my story, too. Lice was always like my biggest fear because my daughter and I also have a whole head of full, thick hair. Well – one day the school nurse calls me to tell me that my son is itchy and I say yes, I know, the darn kid won’t stay out of the poison ivy. She says “Welllllll….” I was like “what???” She says “actually, it’s scabies.” I have to admit, I didn’t even think scabies were real. They are basically like a bug that burrows under your SKIN and itches… and guess what? His sister and I also had it and thought we had poison ivy – it just looks like a bubbly rash that itches. My husband did not have it – but we all had to use the insecticide body wash (ewwww!) and it really was a bonding experience…
Oh geez, I’m itchy just thinking about it! ROFL
Been there done that. Brushing hair especially from bottom with head upside down disturbs the lice and breaks their legs so that they can’t hangon to lay eggs. So regular brushing is a good way to help deal with and prevent infestation. Also smoother hair in conditioner and then use lice comb makes it easier to get comb thru long thick hair combing sections starting from underneath. Good luck and know that it happens to most families but alot of people done say anything even if it’s their best friend.
Been there, done that- several times with my daughter who is now cured of the temptation to share a brush or a hard band with anyone! Combing is the key and the combs you get in the drugstore don’t do anything. Here is a link to the Texas Lice Squad that has very helpful links/advice and the best lice comb out there-
http://www.texaslicesquad.com/products.html
Em, I am SO there with you and the rest of the gang. I, too, have been there and done that. My daughter picked them up from a friend in kindergarten days before we were heading out for fall break. All of the comments and suggestions are right on! Be sure not to let your guard down in 7-10 days. One tiny nit can start the whole thing over again! Best of luck.