When the Bed Bugs Bite

At the beginning of  May we discovered a bed bug problem in Sophie's room - NOOOOO!!!! We're not sure when it started or where it came from. Sophie is our girl who isn't afraid of creepy crawlies. She had apparently been finding bugs in her bed for awhile, but had just been moving them to the trash can whenever they showed up. One night she told Dave about it, who told me to wash her bedding in the morning, and as I stripped the sheets I saw we had a big problem. 

What an adult bed bug looks like. I hope I never see one again in my life!

It wasn't a major infestation visible bugs everywhere, but I did see a few on the mattress and box spring, and there were a few blood spots on her sheets. I called Dave to report the bad news and him schedule an inspection and then I immediately got to work treating the room as best I could. 

Bed bugs are luckily pretty fragile and high temperatures will kill them at any stage of their life cycle. I removed all clothing, bedding, stuffed animals, and her rug to run through the washer and dryer on the highest temperature. All books came out and went through a 200° bake in the oven because they supposedly like to hide in cracks and love paper/cardboard. I removed all the toys from under her bed and closet shelves and rotated them through pots of boiling water. I also had to be careful removing stuff from the room so I wouldn't spread our problem. Every thing was transported in a garbage bag that was then thrown out after one use. Vacuum canisters got emptied directly in the dumpster. I changed my socks every time I entered/exited the room. Then after decontamination was finally complete, everything got boxed or bagged and then put in the attic because it couldn't return to the room. It was an arduous process!!

When the exterminator from Orkin came, she confirmed the problem and checked the entire house. Sophie's room was the source, and we are incredibly lucky it stayed mostly contained. There were signs of eggs in Davey's room and later I did find a bug on his sheets, but the rest of the house was clear. Unfortunately, she quoted us a crazy expensive treatment plan that went as far as coating our attic in boric acid. We thought that sounded a little extreme given that the bugs were only in two rooms, so we found a different company (Truly Nolan) that would spot treat the problem areas for thousands less. We also had to wait 10 days to get treatment. Apparently it was a bad pest season and every company was booked out at least a week.  

Our treatment day happened while I was out of town in St. George, which worked out for the best. They spray all the furniture and baseboards in the affected rooms and it made me more comfortable to have our crawling baby out of the house during and after that time. The spray is actually a fungal barrier that infects the bed bugs when crossed, and then they die shortly after. To be effective, however, a person must be using the room. Bed bugs are attracted to CO2 (exhales) and if there is not a food source present, instead of moving around and crossing the barriers, they will go into hiding where they can stay dormant for up to ONE YEAR. Yikes! We didn't tell the kids how the poison worked, so they wouldn't be freaked out when they had to move right back into their rooms after treatment. 

Over the next several days I would check around the bed frames and mattress for bugs. Dead bugs were good, and live bugs were ok as long as they were tiny. Because mature bugs were present, there were eggs that still needed to hatch over the next month. When those tiny bugs would emerge and move towards food, they would cross barriers and then die. After about 40 days I was still finding the occasional bug so we called Nolan back to retreat and luckily since that second spray we have seen no activity. Hooray!!

Sophie handled the whole process amazingly well. From bugs in her room, to loosing all her clothes and toys for months, she never cried or got mad. I did find this drawing she made though, of bed bugs parachuting down onto her sleeping self from the jellyfish canopy (which had to be thrown away). Maybe this was a way of processing some lingering emotions about the ordeal.

All the cleaned bedding waiting to get bagged and taken up to the attic. I figured that even if something had survived the laundering process, that a full summer in the intense heat of a Texas attic would finish them off.

All the books that had completed their bed bug bake

Literally cooking the books and boiling groups of plastic animals and Legos

Sophie and Davey's rooms stripped of all belongings and ready for treament. All furniture had to be pulled away from the walls so they could have 360° access. We also encased their mattresses and box springs with special covers so any hiding bugs would not be able to escape and starve. We can supposedly take them off in a year, but I'm not sure I want to see what's inside.

Back to Back Van Mishaps

One of the kids left a brown crayon in the passenger seat of the car and, in the heat of the summer sun, it melted all over. I cleaned up what I could with baby wipes while we were out, but there was still lots stuck to the seat. A friend suggested that I use a steamer to help melt the wax and it worked great! I spent a very hot night in the garage steaming and wiping the seat on repeat until I was able to get almost all of it off. There is still a few residual stains, but at least whoever sits there won't look like they have chocolate or something worse on their rear end!

It doesn't look like a huge mess, but more and more kept lifting off every time I steamed and wiped. I went through so many paper towels!

The very next morning we had another incident. I went to check on how the van seat looked after everything had dried during the night and Griffin climbed into play. I let him mess around while I cleared the breakfast dishes, but then when I went to get him out, I made the mistake of closing the passenger door before going around to the driver's side to get him out and found that he had locked the doors! Ahhh Griffin! Of course he is too young to understand "press the button" and our spare keys were no where to be found. 

Luckily it was early morning so he was not at risk of overheating, but he was still not happy to be trapped and I was powerless to help him. I found a locksmith that was able to come right over and the technician was able to force the door open in just a few minutes. He refused payment, but I tipped him anyway to show my gratitude. If we ever have another situation like this, I have since learned that the fire department will also respond to get a child out of a locked car, but I hope I don't have to test that out.

This was taken a week before the incident when he first learned to climb into the car

He stopped enjoying playing in the car once he realized he was trapped. Dave brought me some books to read through the window to him while we waited for the locksmith.

A Mother's Day to Forget

 I asked Dave to take a picture of me with the kids on a whim the week before Mother's Day while we all looked nice in our church clothes. This was either incredible foresight, or I jinxed the universe, because come Mother's Day our house was ground zero for a stomach bug. It started with Griffin, then Charlie joined the party, and between those two we had over a dozen incidents in one day. Needless to say we did not go to church or do anything "Mother's Day-ish" between trying to keep the two little boys happy, hydrated and clean. 

Unfortunately it didn't turn out to be a 24 hour bug. While Charlie seemed to rebound, poor Griffin was feverish and could not keep anything down for more than a day. He was sick off and on for a few days and, just when it felt like he was turning a corner, I would find him in bed after nap or night covered in vomit once again. It was so sad! By the fourth day I felt like something else must be going on so I brought him in for an exam. 

Sure enough he tested positive for strep, poor baby. The doctor also tested Charlie, who was positive, and knowing that I brought the other kids back after school to be tested as well. This was the second time our family has had strep without the classic sore throat, but at least we figured it out eventually and were able to get everyone, including me, started on antibiotics. 

The Sunday before the plague hit

Griff did his second barf all over Dave and then his third one all over me just after taking the photo below. Somehow he never got the carpet or the rug so it was at least fairly simple to clean up.

Another one bites the dust

Griffin looking miserable at the pediatrician's office

All four kids tested positive for strep. Sophie and Davey never had fevers or vomiting, but they did seem more tired than usual. Luckily antibiotics helped clear everything up quickly and got the kids back to feeling happy and healthy.

Added bonus! As we were walking into the appointment for the big kids to get a strep test, I noticed these bumps on the inside of Davey's elbow and behind his knee. The doctor confirmed it was a case of Molluscum and also found a patch on his chest. We are lucky it wasn't too wide spread, but it was still an unpleasant pothole on our already bumpy road.

Sophie Looses Another Tooth!

Sophie lost her second tooth, another one from the bottom, at school. We had read the Fancy Nancy book about loosing a tooth several times, where Nancy gets a little tooth necklace from her teacher, and Sophie was excited for that to happen to her too. Unfortunately her story had a different ending, and instead of going into a necklace, her tooth was put in a paper towel and thrown out :(

She was pretty disappointed, but actually handled it quite well. We wrote a note to the tooth fairy to explain what happened, and it must have worked because the next morning she found a $1 bill under her pillow.

Her new smile, and one of Davey too, because he wanted to show off his teeth as well

Weekend at Park City

We went up to Park City the first weekend in March to stay with my uncle at his timeshare. My brother and his wife also came up with us so it was a fun group!

On Saturday we took Sophie skiing at the base of the ski lift. She had only been once before and is still in the very early stages of learning, but any practice she can get is good for her! The stretch of snow she was practicing on was narrow and slick, with a metal bar on one side and a drop off on the other so the conditions weren't ideal, but she did pretty good. Hopefully we can get her up one more time this year before we move. After dinner we enjoyed the hot tubs, put the kids to bed, and then played cards.

Video: Sophie skiing for her second time ever

Enjoying the fire afterward

On Sunday, we found a ward to attend and were surprised to find it was a special Sacrament Meeting just for visitors. The Park City ward receives anywhere from 100-1000 visitors each week so they have a dedicated meeting for guests, separate from their own meeting. It was just 45 minutes long, which was perfect for the kids, and then we went back to the condo for lunch. My parents arrived early that afternoon to join the fun. We played more games. went back to the hot tubs, and then had a big family dinner. The weather reports showed snow moving in around 9:00, so we played just a couple more games, and then left shortly after 8:00 to beat the storm.

Playing a game with Uncle Brent and Grandmari

My happy boy

Unfortunately, the reports were wrong. The storm came early than anticipate and snow was coming down fast and hard just as we were leaving. It was also extremely windy, which made visibility really poor. We slowly made our way to the interstate, and luckily traffic was light so it didn't matter it we strayed from our lane because the lines on the road were impossible to see. Once we got on I-80, Google maps told us there was an incident a few miles ahead, but it only estimated a 25 minute delay. We wanted to get home and were a little frustrated with the slow down, but at least the kids were sleeping so it wouldn't matter if we had to sit for a few minutes. Unfortunately, 25 minutes turned into an hour, then two, then three....

It was miserable. We were stopped with hundreds of other travelers while the snow just built up around us. We knew the incident was less than a mile ahead, but there were never any reports on what had actually happened or how long it would take. Since we were in the canyon there was no way to turn away and no way to get off and take an alternate route. Sometimes we would crawl forward a few feet, but it was just cars compressing and then we would stop and sit again. We saw a lot of cars make really really risky/dumb moves trying to use the narrow, snow covered, shoulder to pass traffic and get ahead. I know at least one got stuck and really had to fight to get going again and another ended up off the side in a ditch. So dumb.

It could have been much worse though. It had been 55 and sunny earlier that day and we had considered taking the Focus instead of the Escape, but our stuff fit better in the bigger car so we took it instead. I was so glad that we had 4-wheel drive and weren't in a little sedan! It was tricky driving even in a good car! The kids stirred a few times, but stayed asleep (huge blessing). We also had plenty of gas and didn't have to worry about shutting our car off to save fuel, which was good because ice was building up on our windshield even with the wipers going and the defroster on high. The lack of a bathroom made me a little nervous, but in the end I was fine. It would have been tricky if nature had called because there would have been zero privacy on the side of the road (plus it was a blizzard) and Dave forbid me from even thinking about using the cooler as a travel port-a-potty :)

After 4 hours we eventually started to move and found that the back up was just tons of cars and semis (at least 20) that couldn't make it through the storm and got stuck. It took that long for the tow trucks to pull everyone off to the side to create a path where others could pass through. It was crazy. After we made it, the rest of the drive wasn't too bad and we climbed into our beds sometime after 1:00 am. What a terrible end to an otherwise fun weekend.

Video: Stuck on I-80