A Birthday & a Tick

Today is Lily's Happy Birthday! Lily is 9 years old, Happy Birthday Lily! I woke up at 6 and ran to the store for her presents. Yeah, kinda last minute, but it's been crazy and busy and we're just taking one "must be done now" priority at a time, and now it's finally time to face the birthday plans. Luckily I had helpers. Abi got the window ready, and Wesley wanted to make her breakfast in bed. When I got back, Lily was already awake, but the kids told her she had to stay in her room until they were done. Wesley wanted mangos and strawberries for her birthday breakfast, so he went to work on the finishing touches on her birthday crepes.

He started just writing "happy b-day" in the Nutella, but then he thought it didn't look good. Then he had a great idea to use thin strawberry slices to fill in the letters, brilliant!

He was working on it for a long time. Lily was getting impatient, but it was finally ready

They sang happy birthday and she enjoyed Wesley's homemade crepes.

It was worth the wait, huh Lil, fresh mangos!

After breakfast, she came down stairs to see her presents and the junk food I shouldn't have bought for the celebration. Singing Happy Birthday again, Wesley's feeling the power of the music

Opening presents from us and Corey's parents - legos, hatchimals, clothes, pringles and a few other goodies

Then the girls spent the day playing. The rest of us spent the day working and getting things ready - there was a flurry of activity going on. We had some of Corey's friends from Brazil some by and work their maid wonders for us, and also had the carpets cleaned with the rotovac cleaner, he was great! I just called him last night when we were on our date and he was available to come today, awesome! So we had all the carpets cleaned, even in the bedrooms, and the stairs and even the couches! It looks so great, I am very happy. We're having neighbors stop by tomorrow for a walkabout, plus Joseph is speaking in sacrament meeting tomorrow and family will be coming over after church to visit. It was our last chance to get our slave labor work out of Joe. He was edging and weed-whacking all week, today he mowed and finished up. He's a good worker. He's gonna be a good missionary.

My mother stopped by later with gifts and a cake. 9 years old!

So, the other story for the day.... Natalie fell asleep pretty early. We woke her up for some cake and ice cream. She ate it and layed back down on the couch. I was getting the tub ready for everyone to take a bath, and I considered to just let Natalie sleep and give her a nap in the morning. But then a small thought said No, give her a bath. And I am thankful for that still small voice and little prompting, because after washing all the girls hair and supervising putting in conditioner, as I was rinsing Natalie's hair out, I saw something in her hair. It was kinda skin color - At first I thought it was gum or Scuply clay, I don't know where gum would have come from, but Lily had gotten some from her older sisters for her b-day.... I fidgeted with it and tried to get it loose/untangled from her hair. Natalie was squirming and saying ow, I thought because it was pulling her hair - Sorry sweetie, you've got something stuck in here... Then as I tried to get it lose, before I got scissors to just cut it out, I noticed that the hair that I thought was stuck in it did seem very dark and thick... and evenly spread... and then as I studied it, it occurred to me this was not a gum or clay, but there was a bug really tangled in and burrowing in her hair. Gross. I thought it was some kinda beetle. I thought "You're coming out" and despite Natalie's flinching I just yanked it and threw it in the tub water. Her scalp started to bleed - oh my gosh that thing was biting her!! To her sisters and Daniel in the tub, I said "We're done, there's a bug in the tub, let's get out." They stood up quickly for a last rinse, towels on everyone, and off to go get dressed. I put a diaper on Daniel and then returned to the scene of the crime to drain the tub and fish out the bug from the water. I saw him floating at the bottom of the tub. The scene of the crime.

I grabbed a blue cup and scooped him out. Oh my grossness, what is this thing?

I sent a picture of it to Corey who was not at home, off some place that was quiet where he could get work done. It was 9:04 pm. I left him a whats app voice message telling him what just happened and asked if I should take her to the instacare or ER or something? Hyrum and Wesley were playing a game and heard my somewhat panicked message to Corey. They set to the computer to do some google investigation. Hyurm's quick study made him certain that it was a tick. Oh my heck, a tick!?!? Now I was worried. I called our pediatrician's wife first, they are neighbors. When she didn't pick up I called him directly. He answered, he wasn't at home but he asked me to send him a picture of the bug and Natalie's head were it was attached. Talking to him helped me calm down, no need to go to the ER, the ticks that carry Lyme disease are not in Utah, he said. He told me to clean the area really good and he'd take a look at her tomorrow at church. I wiped it with Hydrogen Peroxide, rubbing alcohol, and then put some Neosporin type ointment on it. Natalie, how are you, princess?

We all feel a bit violated by that bug! What is the deal, you gross thing, sucking on her head! That is not nice.

I let the water out of the cup the bug was in to see if it was still alive. In a matter of seconds it's little legs were moving and it was walking around. Bech, blech, blah ugh! We've had the heebie-geebies all night shaking and feeling our scalps to make sure we don't have any bumps, gross gross gross gross...

Corey got home and has been doing his own research. From our research the size of this, we're guessing it is atleast a freaking 4 day tick!! This image makes me think it's a 5 day or more... Ok, I am so grossed out at this thing - I know I washed her hair on Monday before we got family pictures taken, but maybe it was so small that I didn't notice it then. And we were trying to figure out where she would have gotten it. We do have deer going through our yard often, so it could easily been from our yard if this is a deer tick. Plus on Tuesday we were all out in the yard weeding for a few hours, something could have gotten her then. Ugh, again, so grossed out, we feel kinda violated, knowing it's been there sucking on her head for a few days. It's just the first time we've ever had or seen a tick, but we are on high alert now and will be checking heads regularly to make sure there's nothing hiding in there, gross parasites.

11 July 2018
Good news in a text from Corey to me, family, and our pediatrician:
"I sent the tick that bit Natalie off to a lab in California that tested for three diseases, including lyme disease. The test were negative for all three."