Soooo not what I wanted to be doing today

Since about a week and a half ago, Anya has been getting little red dots on her body. Like mosquito bites. Only, there aren't any mosquitoes. And she's REALLY itchy. I thought it might be a mild case of chicken pox, except A) she was immunized, and 2) there's a little tiny hole in the middle of the bump, like a bite. My conclusion was she was being bitten by something while she was playing outside. Then more bites appeared. And more. In funny little lines down her body, like something was "sampling" her. I tested the outside bug idea by keeping her inside one day, and yet she had more the next day. I thought maybe fleas? Spiders? We had vacuumed her room, washed all the bedding, and finally came to the conclusion today, after 30 or more bites over the past week, that it must be bedbugs. Aw crap.

For Valentine's Day we stayed at a hotel in Sudbury. And when we came home, we put the suitcase... under Anya's bed. Poor little itchy girl.

So today we vacuumed again, sprayed the bed frames and the baseboards with an insecticide, sprinkled the room and all the cracks in the floor with diatomaceous earth (a non-toxic grit that kills bugs), treated the mattresses, sealed the mattresses in their vinyl coverings with duct tape, washed all the linens again, and did the same for Dhara and Elora's room. Tomorrow I want to do our room. Ewwwww. (Shivers.)

I hope we covered it. If we didn't get all of them with the spray, it'll be 2 days before they die of the diatomaceous earth.

I wanted to go hiking today. Sigh...

...I feel itchy.