Of Lice and Gin

Here are Daphne and Kev, celebrating Father's Day. You may be wondering why Daphne is wearing a Father's Day shower cap, and I'll get to that.  But first, let's back up a little.

Since I last blogged a blog, Daphne turned nine.  Her birthday was on Free Donut Day, which is awesome.

She spent the night with her girl scout troop in tents at the National Zoo.  Lions roared in the night.  Also awesome. Once in a lifetime.

She bridged from Brownies to Juniors.  Again, awesome.  (Look how pretty her hair is.  Sigh.)

She finished third grade.  Woohoo!

This is all great, right?  So, why the long face?  And the shower cap?

BECAUSE THIS HAS BEEN THE SUMMER OF LICE.

We are a family with more than our fair share of critter invasions.

First, there was the Thanksgiving Mouse.  Then, there were ants.  And fleas.  There was squirrell-in-the-wall day.  And then more mice. 

But THIS is the evil evil Summer of Lice.

Sometime between her birthday and the last day of school, Daphne put her head in the wrong place at the wrong time.  

Do not let anyone tell you lice is "no big deal."  It is a huge deal.  It is a NIGHTMARE.  There have been tears, arguements, battles, and moments of complete and total give-up.  There might have even been cuss words.  The stuff from Rite-Aid did not work.  Lice these days have become SUPER lice, and are no longer affected by OTC treatments.  Plus, it's toxic.  I don't know about you, bu I don't like pouring pesticides on my kid's head.

So, eventually, desperation set in. The interenet was consulted.  Various home remedies were suggested, including olive oil, tea tree oil, and MAYO.  No way was I going to cover Daphne's head in mayo.  So we went with the most experimental home remedy we could find.  It was only tried by one person that we could find on the internet, but it worked for him and his family.

Gin.

Yep.  Gin.

Not ketchup...the ketchup bottle was just the vehicle for completely saturating my child's head with distilled alcohol.

So, that is the reason Daphne was wearing a shower cap on Father's Day.  Because Father's Day turned into Gin-on-my-Head Day.  

Poor Daphne.  

Poor Kev!  It was not the greatest Father's Day.

Daphne spent four hours that day with a gin-soaked head.  She couldn't even help me cook Kev's Father's Day breakfast because I was afraid to let her near the open flames on the stove!  The last thing we needed was a kid with hair on fire, although I am positive the lice would not have survived it.

Anyway, several weeks later, after two more "just in case" gin-on-my-head treatments, countless hours of combing, and a very uneven (but cute!) haircut executed by yours truly, I THINK we are at the end of this terrible terrible experience.  The gin worked!!!!  DANG!!!!!!

There is always a chance we missed something and they could come back.  But I am feeling hopeful for the first time since summer started.  

In spite of the lice, there have been some happy fun times this summer, but I will save those for the next post.

I hope you are having a bug-free summer, wherever you are.