Just when you're feeling on top of things...

Head lice hits! I must say, I consider myself lucky that it took eleven years of motherhood before having to experience this awfully disgusting critter. Here's how it went down.
Let me first set the mood: First week of summer vacation, we were just getting into the groove of summer camps and activities. Biggirl is doing two, sometimes three mornings of gymnastics and staying there in the afternoon to help out with the little guys while babygirl has two mornings of skating a week. So on the first Wednesday, babygirl spent the afternoon in her bubble, playing quietly in her room and giving me the chance to get some work done. When biggirl came home she had tons to say and she was ecstatic about her first-ever working experience. I dared to contentedly say to myself that my summer plan was absolutely perfect... I felt serene until biggirl screamed from the shower that night.
At first, I didn't go running because sudden screams and cries of despair are quite common in our house and usually add up to a knot in one's hair or a missing necklace. This time however, biggirl had "captured" a bug in her hair! At first, I just brushed it off as a bug that fell in her hair while she was outside, it is summer after all right?
But, while completing my motherly duty of checking her hair, I found two other tiny, microscopic little beasts which I delicately (angrily) deposited in a plastic bag and took on a trip to the drugstore for a confirmation I really did not want!
30 minutes later, biggirl was back in the shower for a conditioner-free wash before applying the strong,chemical-smelling treatment.
The next day, I headed back to the drugstore for confirmation that what I had then found in her hair were nits. I still can't believe how tiny they are! No wonder there are head lice epidemics all the time!
The upside of the story is that it seems we discovered the little guys just in time and, even if I did have to spend about 20 (totally unpaid and unrewarding) hours checking the girls' hair and vacuuming and washing bedding over and over again, I do believe I have been victorious in the war against head lice... but I have not let that feeling of serenity come back just yet, just in case!