Whew. After 5 hours of painstaking combing and combing and picking and braiding, Pepper's hair is pristine.

(I hope.)

I shampooed her again yesterday morning, leaving the lice-killing shampoo on for even longer this time (per pediatrician's advice.) She sat there with a plastic bag on her head, looking adorable in a crazy homeless lady kind of way, while we watched "Enchanted." We took a break, showered off the special shampoo ("It's POISON! Am I going to DIE? I don't WANT to DIE! Waaaaahh!") and then calmed down and sat patiently all freakin' day, combing each little section of her delicate flyaway hair.

At the end of it all, we'd finished the movie once and began watching it in French with subtitles*, and she resembled Bo Derek, with teeny braids all over her head. I kept Peanut home from school, too, just in case, but luckily his head was totally clean. In the evening, we shampooed again, and this morning, I hauled her out into the sunshine to double check everything before taking her off to school. So, yes - that was me standing in my driveway this morning, picking one or two remaining nits out of my daughter's hair. Our neighbors LOVE us! We are CLASS-AY!

The school nurse checked her out and she passed inspection, so all in all it has not been a horrifically awful experience. Of course it's a pain in the ass, but our giant washing machine helped a lot. I've got spare sheets over all the furniture that doesn't have washable slipcovers, which I'm washing and changing each day for the next 2 weeks, and I've bagged and banished all the loose couch pillows and stuffed animals to the basement. I've got a bag full of blankets and throws to go to the dry cleaners, all the coats have been washed, and all the bedding is being changed daily. I still have to use the lice-killing spray on the kids' booster seats for the car, but other than that I'm in pretty good shape.

I did go grocery shopping this morning, so I'm counting that as my one productive thing today. Now I have two hours to just fart around on-line and eat pie.

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* For some reason, this has become a tradition with any new DVD. We watch it, then watch it immediately a second time in French with English subtitles. I'm not sure why my kids think this is so entertaining, since they don't speak French, but s'il les garde heureux, je suis heureux!

Labels: family time, kids, modern housewifery, nothing I'd rather do, out-of-control hair, Pepper