Only 2 more full days after today & SD8 goes back to BM's. Of course, the downside of this is SD8 spending an entire month with BM. Lots of time for BM to continue her pummeling of PAS. But oh well...BM's been doing this during SD8's month with us, so why does it really matter anymore?

It has been a LONG couple of days! BM called Thursday night & did her usual bragging about what they'd be doing in August & for SD8's birthday. SD8's behavior did a 180 after the phone call...nothing new. I asked my husband to ignore BM's calls for the weekend so we could enjoy SD8's party on Sunday. I also asked him to limit SD8's computer usage because she's emailing & chatting with BM while she's on.

So what happens Friday night? After dinner, SD8 does her usual sit & stare at us rather than finding something to do. So since she can't find anything to do, my husband tells her to clean off her desk, since she'd have to clean her room this weekend anyway. SD8 goes downstairs & cleans her entire room. Wonderful, yes, but this meant that SD8 now had NOTHING to do. So she asks if she can go on the computer. My husband, being so shocked & impressed that she cleaned her whole room so fast, says yes. Then the phone rings from an unknown number. My husband answers it. Luckily it was a telemarketer, but I was pissed. What if it had been BM? Did he not just agree the night before to not answering the phone if it might be her? Did he not agree with me that SD8 needed to stay off the computer? I was mad & told him so. I cried. He didn't understand why I was so upset. So I tried to explain it. How much work I'm doing for this stupid party & by letting BM get her hold on SD8, it's like I'm doing it for nothing.

Saturday was spent cleaning & preparing for the party. SD8 drove me insane all day. I have never seen a kid who would rather sit & stare at adults than play, read, watch a movie, play video games, etc. She always wants to "help" but then when you give her a job to do, she's bored with it in less than 10 minutes. My husband & I both tried to give her work to help with, but it never lasted long. So we'd tell her to go find something else to do then. And she would -- for about 15 minutes. Arg. At one point, when we asked her to find something to do, she stared at us blankly & then asked to call BM. My husband told her no, that she had just talked to her, but said that she could call BM Sunday night. But it was like that all day...she can't entertain herself. If you tell her to find something to do & even give suggestions, she stares blankly at you & acts like you're punishing her. She almost cries sometimes. When I had enough of it, I flat out told her that if she couldn't find something to do, I was going to pick out a book for her & she would have to read it & do a book report on it. lol. SD8 did not like that idea!

Sunday went pretty well. No kids showed up for the party (big shocker there), but my family came over & SD8 had a good time. She LOVED her presents, so that made me feel good since I'm the one that picked them out! She had asked for slippers & a watch (exciting presents, I know!), so I got her those. (And let me tell you, finding slippers this time of the year is tough! Everything is Hannah Montana or Princesses of some sort & SD8 isn't into that kind of stuff, so I got her a pair of small women's plain black ballet-like slippers. And she LOVES them!) I also got her, among other small things, a glow-in-the-dark solar system that you hang from the ceiling & a moon that hangs on the wall that copies the phase of the moon outside (or you can change it into whatever you want). Wasn't sure how much she'd like them, but I thought they were cool, and she ended up being thrilled with those. They were her favorite presents, she said. So that was good.

SD8 didn't even ask to call BM after the party. She was too excited about her presents. There was no mention of BM's "awesome" present, either, so that was nice. And when BM called last night, SD8 bragged about her cool presents, but BM kept interrupting. BM dominated the 15 minute conversation, with poor SD8 saying half-heartedly "oh, cool" every few minutes. SD8 was really grumpy after talking with BM. Sometimes I really feel bad for SD8. BM has to have the spotlight on her.