We had the quietest night. Rosa took her kids to her friends house to spend the night with their family. My kids ate snacky things for dinner and just hung out. The twins asked me if they could shower and go to bed at 7PM. The rest fell into line and we were all in bed shortly after 8PM. My poor DH worked until very late and we didn't see him b/c he was up and out this morning before we all got up.

Today we are off to the AT's office. I need some encouragement to deal with Patches' need to be nasty. She is 11 yrs old and pees or bleeds all over herself and then leaves the underwear stuck to the pants inside out on her floor or the bathroom floor. She is perfectly comfortable sleeping in poop and pee when the dog goes on her bed. I saw her at school yesterday and she stands out from her classmates. She looks homeless. She runs around with bedhead (I check her before she leaves and she manages to "fix" it on the bus), her shirt was too short and her belly was hanging out, her pants were unzipped and she was walking on them, she had underwear sticking out the top (as usual) b/c she wears granny panties with low rise jeans, her bra was ABOVE her boobs so they jiggle a lot when she walks, and she wears her glasses on the end of her nose so she has to throw her head back to look at you. I am rarely embarrassed by my kids anymore but this child is bringing it to another level. She looks wild all the time and seems to to it intentionally. I chose to leave her at home yesterday when I went to the store so strangers wouldn't think I don't take care of my children. That is so sad to me. She is one of the prettiest children I have ever seen and she looks and smells like I drug her out of the sewer. No wonder her teacher thinks I am a loser.

I want to report that Ava seems to have, at least temporarily, stopped stealing. I took Lisa's advice and gave her permission to steal. I give her a grocery bag every day and tell her to fill it up. She is welcome to steal anything she wants, just put it in the bag so she can put it back w/o losing it. The first day she filled it and realized she would have to carry it so she turned it all back in to me. When she didn't get in trouble she was surprised. Her bag has been empty since. No one talks about it except to remind her to get the bag. So far so good and it has been over a week. She is also cleaning the kitchen properly so she will be off kitchen duty tomorrow.