Lice!

Can't believe I missed recounting this memorable chapter in the story of Lovebo. At the beginning of November we were staying with my parents overnight before one of Beckett's hockey games in Ithaca. In the morning we all went to the game, and when Beckett was changing in the locker room after, I was tousling Reed's hair, which I do fairly frequently, and saw bugs crawling in his hair. Bugs. Like lightning-bug size bugs.

Phase one: complete freakout. Jeff goes to the store to buy the lice cream and comb, I put all the kids in the bath, contemplate shaving everyone's hair (including mine).

Phase two: 90 minutes of picking out nits from Reed's hair. Performed in shifts by Joan, Jeff and Bryn. Theo, Beckett, Reed and I use the lice cream rinse. Many many nits are found in Reed's hair, and probably a dozen adult lice. A few adult lice are found on Beckett. Reed appears to be the vector.

Phase three: Doing all the laundry in Joan and Stu's house, spraying everything with permethrin spray, texting Mama Sara for advice and mostly for reassurance.

Phase four: Informing Chase's mom, who Theo has been with for 24 hours for the longest and most fun sleepover in the entire world, that my other kids have lice. I felt pretty awful about it until Chase's mom was exceptionally kind and gracious. By pure luck, she is a nurse and used to do school lice checks so she went out and bought the lice kit and put Theo in the bath with the cream rinse and combed his hair, finding no lice. Calm begins to take over

Phase five: Doing all the laundry in our house, including all bedding and stuffed animals, and spraying the entire house with permethrin. And continuing to comb and comb and comb.

Phase six: Fighting with Reed's school nurse. Apparently the new trend in school lice policy is not to do a damn thing about it. They don't want to stigmatize kids for having lice, or restrict kids on coming to school when they have it. Unfortunately this means that Reed comes home with more adult lice the next day. And the next. And the next.

Phase seven: Nine days after initial treatment, all the kids (but especially Reed) have tiny living nymph lice. Complete freak-out ensues until I realize I can retreat them, that this is the natural life cycle of lice, and that of course we missed some nits but retreating will completely quell the problem. All the kids are re-treated.

We've now been lice-free for about 7 weeks. I know way way more about lice and lice treatment now than I did. When you start talking about lice, you realize how many other people have had it, which is very reassuring. This is not something I had as a kid and so I didn't know much about it, but I'm confident we'll get it again but we'll be ready.

adventures in air travel

We didn't have the best air travel experience this trip. We had a four hour delay on our way down to Florida due to various parts of the airplane being broken, but luckily they let us off the plane for about 30 minutes, which was enough time for everyone to use a non-airplane bathroom and Jeff to get lunch for everyone to take on the plane. Then on the way back, Jeff had a tough time getting on the plane because his wallet had been stolen on the way to Jacksonville a week prior, so he had to run to the airplane. But we made it and once everyone has snacks and an electronic device, we are pretty self-sufficient for the flights.

Thanksgiving trip to Florida videos

Thanksgiving

Diane and Peter hosted Thanksgiving for the Grinnells as well as one of Peter's brothers, Paul, and his wife Jen and kids Shea and Will. There was plenty for the boys to do, from playing Uno with cousins to ping pong, after a long day in the sun at the Ponte Vedra Club where the boys played in the pool and enjoyed the water slides.

Here are all the kiddos of the same generation, my kids and some of my cousins' kids.

And here's the older generation: me and Jeff, plus my cousin Barbi, and cousin Diane, with her husband Peter and Peter's brother and his wife.

And the next up generation: my mom, dad, and Aunt Lucy.

In a fit of the spirit of Thanksgiving and togetherness I agreed to participate in a 5k Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. I have been running for about two years, usually 2-3 times a week for 2-3 miles each time. I run in all kinds of weather, cold and hot, snow and rain, and my neighborhood is fairly hilly so I get a lot of hills in on my runs. This 5k course was entirely, completely, in all ways FLAT. Temperature was about 65 and sunny. So yes, I made a lifetime 5k record. Of course, I've only ever run one other 5k, and it was when I was 16 and didn't run. But nevertheless, I shaved 5 minutes off my time!

Jacksonville trip

This Thanksgiving holiday we traveled to Jacksonville Beach to spend time with some of the Grinnells. We stayed with Barbi, Sawyer and Lucy and spent time at Diane's house with Great Aunt Lucy, along with the rest of the Burches and Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu. We also had some awesome beach weather. The first day after we arrived, we went to the beach near Barbi's house to "check it out." The boys were soaked within 10 minutes, and loving every minute of the surf and sand and sun on their skin.

Later that afternoon we headed back to the beach with Sawyer, who showed us some great sand digging techniques while Beckett entranced us with dance moves.

When the boys have some video game/iPad time, this is how they often end up--on the couch, all touching each other.

The boys have been taking swim lessons on Tuesday evenings and we often stop for ice cream at Gannon's on the way home. We are forced to drive past not one but TWO ice cream stores on the 5 minute drive home, so it's hard not to stop.

Beckett and Reed came with me a few weeks ago to a community meeting about nonpartisan redistricting. Shockingly, the gerrymandered demonstration map and scintillating conversation about electoral map redrawing did not hold their attention, so they took the car keys and went out to the van, where I found them reading books together in the front seat.

In October there were two weekends when Daddy and I were invited to weddings so Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Stu have been holding down the fort. Theo and Grandma Joanie have been having a great time playing the piano together.

Leaf Jumping