Ticki Ticki Tembo-...

...no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo. An interesting book, Tikki Tikki Tembo, retold by Arlene Mosel... try reading that to your kids after a glass of wine.

Where was I? Oh yeah, ticks.

Starting in late April, early May, Southern Maryland is riddled with ticks... and living on an acre and a half, a majority of which is woodsy, does not help.

The current tick count is: little e - 2, with 1 tick head embedded in her head; super K - 2; big K - 2, plus 2 more found crawling on me; and leading with a big goose egg - super big E. Way to go Superman!

Whilst enjoying ice cream with the girls tonight, I mistakenly thought KK got a glob of chocolate on her head... which is by no means unusual. Instead, I found this...
Yuck, ewww... definitely something to make your skin crawl.

With the help of my trusty assistant...

...I employed this technique:

'To Remove the entire TICK safely..........

Tick Removal Please forward to anyone with children .... or hunters, etc!! thanks! A School Nurse has written the info below -- good enough to share -- And it really works!! I had a pediatrician tell me what she believes is the best way to remove a tick. This is great, because it works in those places where it's sometimes difficult to get to with tweezers: between toes, in the middle of a head full of dark hair, etc. Apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball. Cover the tick with the soap-soaked cotton ball and let it stay on the repulsive insect for a few seconds (15-20), after which the tick will come out on it's own and be stuck to the cotton ball when you lift it away. This technique has worked every time I've used it (and that was frequently), and it's much less traumatic for the patient and easier for me. Unless someone is allergic to soap, I can't see that this would be damaging in any way. I even had my doctor's wife call me for advice because she had one stuck to her back and she couldn't reach it with tweezers. She used this method and immediately called me back to say, "It worked!"'

...provided to me by my good friend Amy's mom, Doris, when she originally heard about e's tick head-head problem.

I did not work quite as promised, but did stun the nasty bugger enough for me to get it completely out.

As for me, one of the two little f*%@ers that bit me a month ago, must have had it out for me. For the past week I have been extremely tired and have had horrible knee pain. So, I loaded up the crew, including one 2 year old, sans nap, and headed to Naval Medical. After speaking with the doctor and providing three viles of my precious blood, I received a 21 day course of antibiotics to treat Lyme Disease. My results will not come back for a week, but hey... definitely better safe than sorry, right?

Darn, military housing or model home are sounding really good right now!