I'll break the suspense now...

Bekka, you got it right. For those who didn't know, alopecia areata is patches of baldness. I don't remember all the why's and wherefore's from school, but that's the basic definition. And yes, someone in the house has a temporary case of it.


There's a little story behind this, as you might have guessed.

A week ago Saturday, I was sitting in the rocking chair in our living room, feeding Abigail. From that spot, you can look right into the kids' room and see Elisa's bed. At this particular time, both the older kids (who were supposed to be sitting quietly on that bed) started making a bit of a racket. I peered into the room and this is what I saw:

Elisa, sitting at the head of the bed, facing me.
Joshua, near the foot of the bed, back towards me.
Joshua, reaching over and grabbing Elisa by the hair.
And pulling - hard.
Elisa didn't make a peep. She just let him do it!
Then, they were both laughing.

Since I was holding the baby, David got up and went to deal with the kids (Joshua had ignored me) and sent Joshua to me. While I was telling him that we NEVER pull someone else's hair, David walked out of the room with Elisa and a handful of hair. A David-sized handful, that is. Every bit of it had once been on Elisa's head.

So now we have a child with a temporary case of Alopecia Areata. Thankfully it isn't too noticeable if her hair is parted just right. The picture doesn't really show it very well, but there are two little bald patches on the top of her head. I am just sooo glad that hair grows back...