And so it went this weekend when we found a louse in my daughter’s hair.  Just one.  Not that we were counting.

Luckily, our school district along with the American Academy of Pediatrics is changing its tune on  return-to-school-lice attitudes and policies.  After a treatment and thorough nit removal, our daughter was back in school on Monday.

And along with that change goes the stigma of lice. Lice are not a sign of an unclean house, and they cause “no medical harm” according to the AAP.   But so much has been written on lice, I will refrain from writing an educational blog.   If you are looking for info check out these two AAP links 1, 2.

Instead, I provide you with our family’s lice lessons: ten ways to have family fun with lice.

1. Vocabulary: While you could go with the self esteem route and tell your kids they are not bad or dirty people, or that millions of kids get lice, or that they should hold their head up high even if it itches.  Instead, teach them to say that they have pediculosis. Other parents will think it’s related to bad breath or something.

2. Grammar: While Pediculosis may be the noun form, how might you make it into an adjective? The answer: Pediculous. Which is fun because it has lous in it which is nothing to do with a louse, but its fun to play with words.

3. Rhyming Game: What rhymes with Pediculous? Meticulous, like how meticulous we have to be to insure we got all the nits. Or ridiculous. Like how ridiculous it feels to wash all the clothes in the house when you could just throw them away.

4. Family Game Night: Since you are tending to the new mountain of laundry, your evening plans are shot. Why not crank up a game of scrabble. You can make the word Pediculous in two steps. Start with lou (3 tiles) and then on your next turn surround it with pedicu and s (7 tiles) in the next step.  A three tiled “ped” play is also an option.

5. Math: 5 points for lou, and then 20 points for pediculous makes for a total of 25 points.

6. Science: Save the nits and lice, and get out your microscope. Make a slide out of the lice. If you want you can even take the slide into school for show and tell.

Don’t worry, the slide is made of plastic.

While in this photo the bubble does not look closed, I assure you it is.

Meet the louse.

A nit, for your education.  Tear drop shape.

Enough you say?  Read on.

7. Photography: When the teacher rejects your child’s show and tell, provide her with a picture. Using the macro lens on a point and shoot camera, you can even get a picture of the lice and the nit.

These are actual pictures from our recent infestation. My kids were overcome with excitement to see this, and it was all their parents could do to talk positively about the images.  We would not want them to think science is icky.

Your head will begin itching now.

We noticed that the hair looks like a hollow tube.

8. Art – Draw the lice using the photograph as reference. In a different life I might have been an scientific illustrator. Check here for some inspiration from Gina Mikel. http://www.scientificillustrator.com/insects.html

9. Writing Lesson:

Mom: Are you going to blog about this?

Dad: Yes.

Mom: I’m ok with that. Really.  I mean, you know.  I, I, well I’m ok with that.

Dad:  And I am hoping that our daughter will  write about it this week in writer’s workshop. I hear the teacher will be posting her work on the wall for parents’ night!

10. Jokes: Let the lice jokes fly. Seven year olds seem to go through a developmental stage where they love easy jokes. And lice jokes are ripe for the picking. If you and yours are unable to generate your own, the internet provides: http://headlicecanbefun.blogspot.com/

My favorite: What is a louse’s favorite dessert? Lice Cream.

Finally I leave you with a Dad Labs classic video from the vault -  about lice.

Then I realized that after spending full week, and almost a thousand miles, behind the wheel of the 2010 Buick Enclave, I had gone soft. After all that time being spoiled in the relative peace of the Enclave’s quiet cabin, the interior my minivan now sounded like being inside an activated trash compacter being pulled behind a dump truck.

When I first told my tween son that the good folks at GM had provided us with an Enclave for the road trip down to Houston for his soccer tournament, he turned at said only one word: “Fail.” He was hoping for a Camaro, so the news of the impending arrival of a crossover SUV was a bit of a letdown. As soon as he crawled into the middle seat captain’s chair, he changed his tune pretty quick. “I can roll like this.”

He was responding in part to the legroom and comfort of the middle seats, but what really captured his imagination was the gadgetry. For a twelve year old boy, nothing is more horrifying than six hours trapped in a car with your dad and having to listen to his music. The Enclave solves this by offering a complete back seat entertainment suite. I may be listening to the Coffee House on the XM up front, but in back he’s scanning for hip hip on the FM, playing DJ on the iPod, or watching a DVD. He also fully approved of the GPS system that guided us to out hotel, and he insisted in being sole operator of the power tailgate.

The younger kids were pretty enthused as well, proud to show their friends in carpool, and a bit bummed when I explained the concept of “loaner.” As a long-time minivan owner, I was most interested in how kids would move in and out of the third seat of this vehicle. I like my sliding doors. This morning, with a few round trips to school under their belts, my younger kids (9 and 6) were able to operate the folding second row seats without an assist. Though on arrival at school they didn’t bother with the folding mechanism, and just climbed over the center console in the second row.

I found driving the Enclave surprisingly pleasant. I’ve insisted on the superiority of minivans over SUVs on three points — sliding doors (see above), unibody construction (handling), and fuel efficiency. I think the solid steering feel and road manners of this hunky crossover may be partly a result of the unibody construction. So there goes that argument. And I got about the same gas mileage — 19mpg overall in mostly highway – -as I get in my van. Though my van has evidently been handicapped by a bad catalytic converter for some time (but that’s another story).

Trips to Dallas and Houston from our Austin base of operations gave me ample opportunity to gauge the long-haul comfort of the vehicle — outstanding. The seats were comfortable and ventilated. I’m a long time Garmin user, so it took me a while to get accustomed to the Enclave’s disc-based navigation system, but it guided us successfully to all of our various destinations.

Other plusses — The backup camera was helpful as I re-adjusted to a longer vehicle. And I geeked out over all the customization possible. When you first take delivery of this vehicle, plan to spend some time in the driveway setting up your “preferences” on your new car.

A few nits to pick — I noticed that even when in drive, this vehicle has a disconcerting tendency to roll backward on inclines when you lift your foot off the brake. It reminded me of my stick CRX back in the day. Also, I’m not a wood guy. Give me black plastic and leather in the interior of my car any day. I have a feeling that if I went shopping, I might gravitate toward the interior styling of the Enclave’s stablemates, the GMC Acadia or the Chevy Traverse. Though I do have a soft spot for any vehicle with a name that might reasonably appear on the SAT.

Given the luxury and options, it shouldn’t be surprising that the sticker for this vehicle comes in around $40K.

Overall, I would say the Enclave should be on the short list of any family going on the market for a 3-row SUV.

Clear Kids With Concussions Before Sports: “…young athletes take longer to recover than college and professional athletes…” (Reuters)

Weight Loss Cuts Risk Of Pregnancy Complication: Healthy mom, healthy baby. (Reuters)

The (Somewhat) Good and (Mostly) Bad News About High-School Dropout Rates: “…overall high-school drop-out rates have risen for the second year in a row, after nearly a decade of improvement and increased national attention.” (Newsweek)

Degrees Of Fatherhood: “Parenting is a series of never-ending milestones, and for many years we gauge our children’s growth and progress by their progression through school.” (Dadomatic)

Overheard:  “Dad, can I take it to the restaurant?”   or  “Son, why are you hiding behind the couch, you should be ready for bed by now?”  or  “Honey, you promised we would watch a movie tonight after the kids went to bed!”

And so, Perplexus officially gets the DadLabs Seal of Approval.    I know you read a lot of blogs that are hyperbolically effusive about a toy.  But Perplexus really deserves the credit.  Here is why:

1.  My seven year old and I both found it challenging.   Too many toys are either boringly easy for the adult, or too hard for the kid.  Moreover, there were some moves that, with a little practice, my kid could master before me, which built his self esteem.

2.  The pace at which you master it is evenly spread out.    It is not a one trick pony you get right away, but instead gradually over time you get better and better.  And the pacing of this increase-in-skill is well measured.   Kudos to the designer; I imagine it took a lot of testing to get it right.  And I appreciate done right.

3. Its in 3D. Really. Even in 3d movies or drawings, we are still thinking in 2D.  Things have depth as they move along the z axis.   This ball is the real orthogonal XYZ deal.    And once you start seeing the course in 3D you feel as if you have punched into the Matrix.

4. It is a track with over 100 paths/barriers/drops you must get around.   You ball must stay on the track using gravity, while you twist and turn the ball in all directions. If the ball falls it gets caught by the outer sphere and you go back to obstacle 1.   But check this out.  You don’t have to play in linearly.  At obstacle 26 then there is a reentry point to the game.  This allows you to start working on course 2 (starting at 26).  There is also a third course.  I use this example to show the level of design that went into this game.

5.  No batteries.

6.  Affordable.  Around $20 and worth it.

7.  It has a great story behind it.  Check out http://www.perplexus.net/ for the game’s website.  But also check out http://www.santarosa.edu/~mmcginni/superplexus/ for a story behind the toy as well as some other designs of giant superplexi.

8.  There are educational and developmental benefits to this toy from hand eye coordination to dexterity to mental mapping.

Off to get perplexed.