Hi, Heather! We have another thing in common - I have 4 kids too and the youngest and oldest have a similar age difference to yours , mine are about 11 years apart. Our difference is that my youngest is 16 and yours only 15 months old- wow, I know from experience that you have your hands full! You mentioned your son's stepdad - do you mind my asking how long you've been married? That's got to bring its own interesting challenges into the mix. Parenthood just ain't easy no matter what, is it!! I've had my moments with the kids, bipolar or not - you throw in hormonal changes, etc - and all children can have their share of moments that really try our patience - I had a good amount of that with one of mine and told the youngest she wasn't allowed to even think about it - I had had enough of it with the older sibling and wasn't going to go through that again!! Fortunately, I'm very close to my youngest and she took it all in stride.

You asked me about where I live - I'm going to send you a pm( personal mesage) - you'll see where it says ezinbox ( 1 new) just click on that. I'm pretty protective of specific personal info here because I'm sure my DH would be none to pleased if he knew I posted on a bp website - although he actually has showed little interest in learning about bipolar - he has figured all he has to do is go the dr's, take his meds and he's all right. But I'm protective nevertheless. Does your DH understand how your son's illness affects his behavior?

It's getting late here so I better go - I'll send you the pm first though! Goodnite!! :zzz2