Illegal Alien

No, not Grace. She has her certificate of citizenship.

Most of you have heard by now that G's daddy found a stow-away from China in Grace's diaper: Ascaris lumbricoides , AKA a roundworm. Round, and long -- 5 inches long. After a week to identify it (no thanks to Labcorps, who had to ship it to three states and as many labs to get a definitive ID) and another 4 days to have the meds shipped here, we will finally be able to rid her of this parasite that has been sharing her yogurt and goldfish crackers since China and who knows for how long before we joined her.

Poor baby -- our little wiggle worm, we used to call her! All the restless nights may have been a symptom. I'll never look at ramen noodles the same way again...

For those who are wondering, it's extremely unlikely to be passed along to others unless there are some exceptionally unhygienic diaper changes. There's lots of hand washing going on Chez Grace. Further, dogs don't give it and dogs don't get it (not this variety, anyway). It is common in warm climates where human waste is used as fertilizer. Yummy. The good news is that it's a quick treatment and she should be A-OK in 24-48 hours.

I would post a picture but we couldn't figure out which end of the worm was the smiling end.