Grooming...

Up late, after last night's late night grooming session. I left the kids in the car at school - as a neighbour had told me you have to keep them off school with lice. Turns out not to be the case - so in they went (with Katherine's hair scraped back into a ponytail and both told firmly not to go near anyone else, head-wise). And I headed off to the pharmacy for the strongest treatment possible and some lavender oil for good measure.

Lunchtime, then, was a delightful round of ointment, head massage, combing (with admirable lack of crying from thickest-hair-in-the-world Katherine), shampooing and conditioning. And a bit of lunch.

Post-lunch, it was my turn. So I turned my head upside down and, over a white sheet of paper, vigourously combed. Nothing. (Well, lots of broken hair and a few tears, but no lodgers.) So this is what my hair looks like when combed with a nit comb. Upright, I looked a bit like Diana Ross, but this way up was more fun, and having deprived you of a shot of me stuck in a child's desk the other day, it seems I owe you a shot you can laugh at.

Once I was all re-tamed, off to school to face the friends' parents. But, turns out, every parent I told about the nits, and how they should check their kids... replied "Oh yes, {insert name of friend} had those last week". Not that they felt like saying anything, or telling the school... And they all recommended this fabulous homeopathic remedy. Two told me they've been using it since the start of August, but they're very hard to get rid of, these lice. Grrrr. No wonder my kids have lice if their friends' parents have been sprinkling wee drops of water* on their heads as a defence.

Later, with Conor at an extra reading lesson, I headed home with K and P - a neighbour - to do some baking (Distracted Hausfrau's apple pockets - which went down as well as always, and were entirely made by the kids, not me).

Still later, a facetime with Mr B where somehow our microphone stopped working (or, we suspect, his speaker) so there was miming.

Now I must wield the comb of death once more....

*Clever water, obviously. Remembering water. That, as Tim Minchin says, somehow forgets all the poo that's been in it.

EDIT: there are a couple of backblips, if you like, caused by lazy Sunday and busy Monday.