Nitpicking

I finally know where this word comes from! It's because the tiny little larvae (or is it the eggs?) of lice are called nits, and the process of picking through your child's hair in an attempt to comb them out is very detail oriented, laborious and time consuming. 

How do I know this, you might ask? Because the school nurse called at 8:30 this morning to inform me that Amelia was in the office with a case of head lice, sigh. 

Mike had to pick her up from school and start the below outlined process until I managed to get home 2 hours early after pawning off several of my patients. 

All bedding, sheets, towels, blankets, clothes and heck even bath mats washed. All stuffed animals, bolster pillows and various other items too big to wash bagged up and put in the garage for two weeks to ensure anything that might be on them dies (as apparently lice cannot survive without a human head.) 

All mattresses and other surfaces sprayed with lice killing spray. All carpets vacuumed. Amelia's purple shag carpet joined the stuffed animals in the garage since I didn't think vacuuming it was fully adequate. 

And Amelia herself went through the lice killing treatment and comb out 2 times. During neither time did we actually pull anything off her head, but as of this writing Mandy has apparently found one dead louse on Rebecca (the girls were brushing each other's hair yesterday with the same hairbrush omg) and I am feeling decidedly itchy! 

What a way to start a Monday!