Lousy

And I mean that in the literal sense.

But first:

Have you seen the new Dove Real Beauty video? The one with the forensic artist? It's a good one. I recommend watching it. Now.

It's not a perfectly executed message, but I appreciate what they're trying to say: that we are too critical of ourselves and our perceived flaws; others don't see the imperfections that seem to stand out so much to ourselves. I read this book once called "The Art of Imperfection." It said something like "we have no idea what it is about ourselves that other people admire, find charming, find attractive, love." Or something.

I could go on.


Try to remember this message as you continue reading this post.

You may have noticed that I have changed my blog header. It was long overdue, since June looks so different now. Just as a refresher, here is the old one:

Cute Baby June, Cute Dane, Cute Joel, Less Cute Ami. I knew it wasn't a great picture of me. I actually didn't like the picture at all. But I was a couple of months post-baby, and it was the best picture of me from that photo shoot to crop for the header. I didn't like it, but I didn't want to be too vain, and I figured no one would be as critical or care about my appearance as much as I would. So if I didn't care that much, everyone else would care even less. 

Apparently, I was wrong.

A certain younger brother of mine told me the other day that I really needed to update that header. Here, I will quote him verbatim:

"it still has fat face ami, puppy dog marcshmallow june, goofy dane, and a normal joel"

"tha picture of you is horrible

  I don't know why you ever put it up"

I later spoke with him on the phone, and he went on:

"Man, it is horrible."

"I would never have put that up."

"I would have destroyed that picture."

"You really need to change it."

I think you get the idea. 

So thanks for nothing, Dove. You were wrong. 

I'm laughing about the interaction with my brother. It sort of typifies much of the interaction in the Hood family--not for the faint of heart. 

I think it's pretty fair to say that his reaction must have been so negative because he normally sees me as so gorgeous, photogenic, stunning, and lovely. Captivating, you might say. Right?

Right?

*crickets*

Anyway, on to the lice.

That's right: lice. We had lice. 

It was kind of a crazy story. We have a Frost family email group so we can keep each other updated on the goings-on in our lives, and one sister-in-law (in Dallas) mentioned that all four of her kids had ear infections. Not fun. Another sister-in-law (in North Carolina) responded, "At least you don't have four kids with lice." Ugh. Another sister-in-law (in Seattle) responded, "We do!" And the lice-talk began. Another sister-in-law (also in North Carolina [I have a lot of sisters-in-law]) said they had recently battled lice. I think it's natural for people to feel a little more heightened paranoia about lice after hearing several stories like that. Your head might even be feeling a little itchy right now. Mine was.

I kept thinking about lice. So the next morning, Dane was sitting on my lap, and I started casually looking through his hair. I found some weird looking things stuck to his hair, close to the scalp. I start madly Googling. What I found looked very much like the pictures of lice eggs, nits. 

He had lice. 

It was a crazy coincidence. With all those miles between us there was no connection between any of the Frost lice infestations (except the North Carolina ones). We just all happened to get lice at around the same time. 

I was mortified. I kind of freaked out. 

Joel found one louse on Dane's head, and about 30 nits. I found one louse on June's head, no nits. I found two nits on Joel's head. He found about 10 nits on my head. 

We just did over-the-counter treatment, and it worked out fine. I was only a little mortified as I frantically searched for the lice shampoo at Wal-Mart and Dane kept loudly saying, "We need to buy stuff for the bugs on my head, right? We're here because of the bugs on my head?"

I'm feeling kind of stressed just remembering. Anyway, we did the OTC treatment on the kids, and I doused my hair with olive oil and kept it in overnight. I'll spare you most of the details of the ordeal, but PLEASE don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions. I feel pretty much like an expert now. 

To ensure total lice annihilation, we shaved Dane's head. Here is one last look at my beautiful boy's beautiful hair:

Here is one of his "cool guy face."

Bzzzzzzz........

I cried.

Dane was a little worried that we would look weird with less hair, but we assured him (and me) that he was still handsome. Still cute. 

But I'm looking forward to it growing back.

Now, if anyone comments on his new short hair, he just matter-of-factly says, "Yeah, I had lice." I like that he's not embarrassed about it.

In the end, I can think of a million things worse than your kid having lice. But it was not fun. At all. And I hope it never happens to us, or any of you, again. 

Two worst things about having lice:

1) The laundry

I washed all of Dane's clothes/coats/hats. All of our bedding, every day. I dried everything that couldn't be washed in the dryer on high. Anything that I worried might melt went into a trash bag and suffocated for 2 weeks. So much laundry. I was doing so much cleaning and laundry and stressing out that my hands cracked and bled. Just a little. 

2) The searching

The CDC says you don't have to freak out about finding every last nit. But anecdotal evidence strongly encourages you to. And wouldn't you just feel better knowing you did everything you possibly could? And, let me tell you, we here at Paradise Frost have a LOT of hair. It is hard enough to get Dane's hair all the way wet, let alone make sure there are no tiny eggs in it. And I have even more hair, and it is LONG. We were basically lice paradise. Lice Paradise Frost. Boo...

My eyes were constantly searching. The one louse I found on June's head was a stray the day after treatment; she must have picked it up from the floor or something despite my maniacal laundry and vacuuming. But I zeroed in on it because of my paranoid eagle vision. Looking, searching. Even after the school nurse had cleared Dane to go back to school and I felt like we were in the clear, I washed all the bedding again just in case. And I couldn't turn my brain off from searching. I had a mini heart attack one day when I was making sandwiches for the kids; I saw the flax seeds in the bread and my body automatically reacted like I'd found more lice. Joel makes fun of me, but I am still paranoid. It'll lessen soon. I hope. 

At least two of my sisters-in-law ended up using professional lice services; yes, those exist. Professional nit-pickers. I very seriously considered using them, too. The services my SILs used apparently do free examinations of the whole family and then you pay about $100/hour for the treatment and follow-up. But the services here in OKC did not have free exams, and the $100/hour just to be checked (and knowing our lusciously thick hair would take longer than an hour to go through) kept me from taking the plunge. I'm not discouraging it though. If you can afford it, it is probably worth it. If you can't afford it, I have some tips for you. Give me a call if you need it. But I hope you won't have to.

Ugh. 

To end on a positive note, here is a St. Patrick's Day photo of our blissful, pre-lice days. We had gone down to Dallas to visit Stephen/Meghan/Lauren/Molly/Claire/Baby Ben. 

The babies were slightly less blissful:

Also, for those of you who don't know, I started another blog in which I chronicle my adventures baking through Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. I'm having fun doing it, and you can, too! I personally got permission from the authors to post the recipes, so I post those along with photos and commentary. Come on by!

http://bakedodyssey.blogspot.com/