Picked up SS13 from school 2p. Had a nice chat with his teacher, got the latest details. Took a pic of them together. Chatted with him on the way home. This one is a real challenge because he has language difficulties and it's taken me half the school year to come up with a formula that is reasonable -- makes him grow, but doesn't overwhelm him. I think I've got it down now.

DH managed to make SD15 disappear Sat afternoon. He took her off to the mall to meet some friends. When he came back he was toting a giant new TV! He was pretty happy and giggly and not a hundred percent but it seemed to have just a shade of peace offering about it.

SD15 never did come back the rest of the weekend. We had a party to go to so BM was going to pick up the girl from the mall. But instead of delivering her to our house later, BM just kept her. DH did not object. Again, peace offering.

Last night DH made his nightly phone call to SD15 to check on homework. She currently has 3 Fs. She's been collecting them for the last 1 1/2 years at an impressive rate. Since nothing else has worked and her attitude gets more and more apathetic with a sidecar of squirrely, he tried something new.

He said to her, "At this rate, you will not be able to graduate with your friends. You may not be able to already. You need to start thinking about what your plans are and what you are going to do when you turn 18."

I so wanted to say that to dh this morning. In one of my finer moments as a reluctant grownup I did keep my mouth zipped for once so I needed to say it here instead.

SD15 received DH's fine intellect. She received BM's slothful, mean temperament. So now we have an evil genius who will out-vicious her mother because she's smart enough to power her "mean" better.