I am not really sure how to address two issues with my SD9. I have tried talking to my DH, but he seems to write it off. The first issue is my SD9's terrible table manners. Her manners are about on the same level as DD4. The biggest issues are that she doesn't wait for everyone to get to the table before she starts eating. We have warned her about this before, but she continues to do it. It is like she is in a race. She will literally lower her face almost to her plate and shovel food in as fast as possible. She is usually getting seconds before the rest of us have finished.

DH saw BM yesterday. He ran into her while we were out shopping for Thanksgiving. We are staying in BM's home state for the next few days since our families are here. We didn't approach her. In fact, we turned and went down another aisle. She followed, telling him she needed to talk to him. When he told her they could talk later, she started nagging him immediately, calling him a child abuser and telling him all the things SD11 apparently told her. DH didn't engage. He just said, "okay" and started to walk away.

My DH and SD11 went to court today for the emergency petition that BM filed. She made some false claims that SD11 was being abused by DH. They were all hearsay and the judge dismissed them. The judge did talk to SD11 in her chambers for about 20 minutes today. She determined that there was no child abuse. She dismissed the petition because she had no grounds to change custody. She also warned BM if she tried to further damage DH's relationship with BM that she would remove her visitation.

DH and I have been through hell and back in the past four days. This is going to be long so I apologize up front. This all started on Monday. I got up at 4:30 A.M. to go to work. I didn't check on the kids because I woke up late. I normally go into all their rooms and check on them, but this time, I didn't. So I am working when my DD4 wakes up around 6:30. She comes into my office and asks for breakfast. Then she asks me where is SD11. I told her that SD11 is in bed. DD4 says no, she is not there. So I go into the girls' room and look. My DD4 was right. She wasn't there.