I am not accustomed to being defeated, particularly by something the size of a sesame seed. So far we’ve treated everyone in the house with lice-killer chemical shampoo. All of the bedding, coats, hats, etc., have been washed in hot water. The car has been cleaned and all of the kids’ car seat covers washed. All of the kids have had haircuts. I have checked everyone’s head at least twice a day, and I have spent 4-5 hours combing through Aliya’s hair looking for nits. When the substitute nurse arrived yesterday, she looked at Aliya’s hair and saw more nits so I had to go pick her up.

This morning I was giddy with the knowledge that I had found and annihilated every single nit. Until the other substitute nurse found about 12 more. What a letdown. We came straight home and saturated Aliya’s head with olive oil, wrapped her in cling-wrap, and left her like that for almost 5 hours. She was a good sport but she had a hard time keeping the dog away. That olive oil just smelled too good! She’ll kill me for posting this picture but if we make it through inspection tomorrow morning at the nurse’s office (if we don’t have a snow/ice day), it’ll be worth getting the Silent Treatment for a while.

Wish me luck!
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How is it that 47 seems sooooo much older than 41? Time to get Daddy a set of nose- and ear-hair trimmers. I remember when I was 10 and my best friend Karen Harrington and I both thought our moms were ANCIENT at the ripe old age of 29. Our kids must think we’re ready for the rocking chairs.

Ben’s big birthday celebration included – big surprise here – dinner at Bugaboo Creek. He refused to kiss the moose, but one positive was that kids eat free on Tuesdays after 4 p.m. Who knew?!

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German Lovers – Aged Six and Five – Try to Elope to Africa

It is a dream that has been shared by lovers across the centuries – the chance to elope to exotic lands. But few would have been as bold and spontaneous as six-year-old Mika and his five-year-old sweetheart Anna-Bell who, after mulling over their options in secret, packed their suitcases on New Year’s Eve and set off from the German city of Hanover to tie the knot under the heat of the African sun.

The children left their homes at dawn while their unwitting parents were apparently sleeping, and took along Mika’s seven-year-old sister, Anna-Lena, as a witness to the wedding.

Donning sunglasses, swimming armbands and dragging a pink blow-up lilo and suitcases on wheels packed with summer clothes, cuddly toys and a few provisions, they walked a kilometre up the road, boarded a tram to Hanover train station and got as far as the express train that would take them to the airport before a suspicious station guard alerted police.

“What struck us was that the little ones were completely on their own and that they had lots of swimming gear with them,” said Holger Jureczko, a police spokesman. He described Mika and Anna-Bell as “sweethearts” who had “decided to get married in Africa where it is warm, taking with them as a witness Mika’s sister”.

Anna-Bell told the German television station RTL: “We wanted to get married and so we just thought: ‘Let’s go there.’ “

Mika said: “We wanted to take the train to the airport, then we wanted to get on a plane and when we arrived we wanted to unpack the summer things and then we wanted to go for a bit of a stroll in the sun.”

Mika and Anna-Lena’s mother, who was not identified, said she had known nothing of her children’s plan. “I’m still in a state of shock. I thought ‘I’m playing a part in a bad movie.’ When we realised the kids were missing we went looking for them.” But only when the police called did they realise what had happened.

Asked why they failed to let their parents know, the children said they thought they would not be gone for long.

Mika told police he instigated the plan having been inspired by a winter holiday with his family in Italy. “Based on this the children began to make plans for the future,” Jureczko said.

To allay their disappointment at being caught, Hanover police gave them a tour of the police headquarters. Jureczko said: “They’ll have the chance to put their plan into action at a later date”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/05/german-children-elope-mika-annabel
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I almost cried in the office at Aliya’s school this morning. We were waiting for the nurse to arrive so she could check Aliya’s head, and two boys brought another boy in to see the secretary. They said that the lunch lady told them to bring him to the office because he didn’t know where his classroom was.

The secretary was confused. The kid looked like a 3rd- or 4th-grader. How could he not know where his classroom was at this point in the year? She kept asking him questions and finally figured out that he wasn’t enrolled at the school. His mother had dropped him off in front and sent him in without registering him. It made me so sad. He was just sitting there waiting for the principal to figure out what to do with him.

I have a “thing” about being the new kid. When I was little we moved a fair amount, and we were sporadic about Sunday School attendance and didn’t participate in a lot of other activities. I hated the uncomfortable feeling of not knowing the routine or the rules. I was very insecure about it, and it affects me to this day. I’m obsessive about making sure that the kids don’t miss the first practice/meeting for anything – soccer, swimming, skating, etc., and that they start at an early age so they’re not the lone 10-year-old who has never played soccer. My kids don’t seem to share my insecurity – they can walk into a room full of strangers and find a new best friend. I’m really glad.
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This is a public service announcement.
Lice are really really tiny.
Almost invisible.
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Aliya has been complaining for a week about an itchy rash on her neck. I’ve checked her at least 3 times for lice because the rash looked exactly like a symptom of lice that I saw online. I could never find anything on her head. So last night I was online again to research whether she had flesh-eating bacteria or whether there could be another possible answer, and I saw yet another photo that looked exactly like Aliya’s mysterious rash. You guessed it – it was a photo of someone with lice. So…I checked again, and just as everyone was sitting down to dinner, I saw one. Ugh. I had a stash of lice treatment from one of the NGCC scares, so I treated her right away. I sent Ben to Walgreens and proceeded to treat the entire household. Since I had specifically looked for them on Aliya and missed them, I wasn’t taking any chances. By the time we had stripped every bed, plastic-bagged every pillow, and soaked every head, I sat down to dinner at 11:10 p.m. I had lost most of my appetite anyway.
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Today I took the kids to Snip-Its so I could keep a close eye on the situation without all of that hair to distract me. The stylist wouldn’t cut Aliya’s hair because it was too soon after treatment. I think that’s baloney, but whatever. It didn’t help with Aliya’s ultra-sensitivity to the problem. She came to me at bedtime and said that she was worried about her classmates finding out. I’m pretty sure she got them from school, so my guess is that the head-check will turn up some other victims. Aliya probably has the most louse-free head in first grade at this point. I have literally spent hours going through her hair strand by strand. I have not seen anything alive since the treatment, but the nits and eggs are extremely small and don’t come out from shampooing. You have to pick or comb them out. I talked to my own stylist today and she is going to cut Aliya’s hair after school tomorrow. Ginny spent the entire day washing laundry, for which I am eternally grateful.
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Fun Facts About Lice:
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~ The term “feeling lousy” relates to an allergic reaction to lice.
~ A nit was found on a human hair in a 10,000 year old archeological site.
~ Nit combs have been found in Egyptian tombs.
~ Lice outbreaks were uncommon from 1945-1975 because of DDT use.
~ 6-12 million people nationwide get head lice every year
~ Lice prefer clean hair – having lice is not a sign of poor hygiene.
~ Children age 3-10 are most often infested.
~ White people get lice more often than other ethnic groups in the U.S.
~ Girls get lice more than boys (they like the warmth of long hair).
~ One louse can lay up to 10 eggs per day.
~ Lice live about 30 days but only survive 24 hours if they leave the head.
~ Eggs take about 7-10 days to hatch.
~ Natural remedies include a coating of mayonnaise, vaseline, or olive oil.
~ Lice don’t like tea tree oil so shampoo with this may be a good deterrent.
~ Moroccan lice are way bigger than American lice.
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