Little Critters

So, um, we got lice. Again. Granted, it's been almost two years since the last episode, but it's bad enough getting them once in your mommy career. May I pass on a little known fact? Lice like clean hair. If the hair is dirty, they cannot hold onto the hair shaft. My children and I are not dirty! Sigh. (Don't panic, playdate friends, this was back in May. We're most likely clean. . . .)

So, the de-bugging began. The lice shampoo packaging forgot to give hints on what to do when the child screams, "It burns! It burns!" We washed it off almost immediately; $25 down the drain. We then switched to mayonnaise. The idea is to coat the hair with mayo, which suffocates the lice. My amazing girls left that mayo on their hair for three hours. Every 20 minutes or so, I would stop what I was doing and wipe the grease that was dripping down from our heads. (Yes, mine too.)


While we were marinating our hair, I was taking every washable thing from each room before vacuuming and spraying with delouser. Once the room was stripped, the girls were not allowed back in it. They stayed quarantined within certain areas almost all day. I pulled every sheet, blanket, towel, and stuffed animal out of the rooms for their turn in the washer and dryer. I pulled the car seats out and sterilized the entire car. Once I got a fourth of the house done,

I sent this picture to Mike at work, and I called the folks for help. I bagged up six huge trash bags and set them on the driveway. My dad later picked them up so he and Mom could wash them for me.

After three hours of mayo, I picked out all the visible eggs, and switched to another overnight treatment. In the morning, when I checked Abby's hair before school, I saw one of the buggers walking around, snubbing his nose at me. I then did a FOURTH treatment (within 24 hours) and called it a day.


Do you know that these treatments do not get rid of the eggs? They hatch soon, and you have a week to kill them before they begin mating again. For the next month, the girls and I did weekly overnight treatments. Please, God. . . .

Writing this has made my head itch.