I fully intend to share the highs and lows of this year, but I was hoping our first low would at least be polite enough to wait until after the first week. Apparently not.
During our short time in Toronto, we discovered that Izzy, Em, and I all had lice. Yes — lice. Honestly, I have no idea how it happened. I started getting itchy, we checked, didn’t see anything, shrugged it off… and then both girls started complaining about itchy heads too. At that point, it felt like the writing was on the wall.
In the girls’ darker hair, it was easy to spot once we started looking. And through this whole ordeal, I learned something new: if it’s your first time getting lice, it can take weeks before you feel itchy. Which means we likely picked it up before even leaving home. After surviving countless days of daycare, school, and camp, we somehow managed to get lice during our time homeschooling and right before leaving for a year. The timing is almost impressive.
So I had a quick panic cry and then we spent our last days in Canada researching and treating lice, and wondering how this became part of our sabbatical story. Now that we’re on the other side of it, I’m feeling much better… but wow. What a rocky, unexpected start to our travels.