we are officially lice free.

deep sigh of relief.

i feel like i am pretty much an expert on lice now.....i've done A LOT of research.

anyone wanting any info on the life cycle or reproduction or feeding habits of lice- you know who to call.

and it all ends with the hatching of the babies from any eggs that got missed during the first treatment.

the babies are not contagious during the first 5 days of life because they are too small and weak to travel. and they are not old enough to reproduce until day 10.

we started seeing babies on ty and shaeya's heads on sunday night.

we combed through all of their hair that night and picked out all the babies we found.

4 on shaeya and 1 on tyden.

then on tuesday afternoon i did the final treatment on them both and combed through their hair again.

i took 1/4 inch sections of shaeya's hair and combed through it piece by piece.

it takes FOREVER.

she had 5 dead babies and 0 eggs. she is done.

and tyden had 0 babies and 0 eggs. done.

we've been checking the 3 other kids too and they never had anything.

one interesting bit of info here-

there are lice that like caucasion heads and lice that like african american heads. they don't really interchange unless they are desperate.

so little neiko was probably never at too great a risk.....:)

and for all of you who have been asking WHERE in the WORLD did we pick up lice......

we did spend every monday of our entire summer at the south side mission....interacting with around a hundred kids each time.....

and the only other thing i can think of is the bike helmet i bought tyden at a garage sale a few weeks ago....

now lice won't live on a helmet so it would've had to have been tried on or worn by a kid with A LOT of lice sometime not too much before tyden put it on his head at the garage sale.

who knows.

moving on.

i am also now very well informed of the reproductive habits of bunnies.

IT IS VERY TRUE WHAT THEY SAY.

ask any one of my children.

we agreed to keep my nieces bunny for her for a few months until she moves into the house they are building down the road.

their bunny happens to be a girl. ours is a boy.

we were having a lovely time roasting hot dogs over a fire on our back patio when they brought the bunny over. and put it in the cage with ours.

exactly 2 minutes later the cage started shaking and all the kids ran to see what was going on.

many shrieks followed of, "what are the bunnies DOING?!?!?!?!"

"WHY is our bunny on mae's bunny?!?!?!?!?" "why is he JUMPING?!?!?!?"

and i calmly said, "oh they are just getting to know each other. cuddling a bit. cause they want to get married...."

and shaeya (always a bit too bright) says, "i think they are mating!"

now somebody had told her when we first got the bunnies (mom? justin?) that they would someday mate and have babies. she has been dreaming of baby bunnies ever since.

something about selling them and buying an ipod or something.

and i don't think she even really knows what mating is......

but dave and i desperately need to have a chat with her because she is talking about the mating bunnies to EVERYONE. our neighbors, our families, our friends, and any company that we have over. telling them all about the shaking cage and the jumping and the baby bunnies yet to come. quite embarrassing.

but funny how there just hasn't been a good time for that talk....really not quite ready for her to know any more than what she does. but it's time....sigh.

and then in the midst of all my recent research into lice and bunnies and such, i discovered that bunnies have the very disturbing ability to get pregnant while they are pregnant. resulting in a very large amount of babies.

so as of yesterday they are in two separate cages.

although this morning tekoa announced to me, "i put the bunnies back together, mom. you know, so they could mate for a little while. "

see how out of hand it all has gotten?!?!?!

but speaking of bunny cages.....

a couple of days ago neiko broke the door on our hutch.

and we were having quite a few close calls with escaping bunnies.

one day i decided i had had enough.

so i spent the morning repairing the door.

just another day in the life of a stay-at-home mom, right?

i'll show you the play by play i gave to dave.

i texted him and said, "fix door on rabbit hutch. check!

let me show you how we did it...."

and tekoa helped me take the pictures to show him what we did :)

tape measure, pencil, table saw

compressor, nail gun, nails

freshly cut and fitted piece of leftover wood

nailed to the back of the door

and viola. no more escaping bunnies.

i think he was quite proud :)

as were we.

and no making fun of the stay-at-home mom uniform, ok?

it's what works best for maximum comfort, versatility, and style.

ok not style.

and now a few pictures of two of most beautiful little boys on the planet.....

first day of school is tomorrow!! ahhh!!