TC, is Karen still in the picture?
She is indeed! It's been a busy two and a half months(ish). Since the last time I posted on this thread, we've spent quite a large portion of our off time with each other. We waited until the two month mark before I introduced her to the kiddos. While I'm glad I did, I will say any reservations I had didn't materialize because the kids like her, she likes the kids and we're all having a good time together doing things.
She has remained authentically KAREN throughout the last two months which is nice to see. She is extremely open and honest which is something that I greatly appreciate. She's fun to be around, she's kind to the kids and is a great activity partner. I love spending time with her and my love bank is quite full! I will say though that we have had a few challenges that have caused a moment of quiet or two.
At one point, she told me that while I treat her like a queen while my kids aren't with us, when I have them I tend to treat her the same as them in regard to tone of voice, more authoritarian, etc. I acknowledged that this is true; my exww said the same thing. We talked about it in brief but I know we need to have a longer conversation about it. I don't want this to be an issue.
Another sticky point is she has a tendency to get moody on occasion, most of the time at the drop of the hat. I normally don't know why at the time and we're working on communicating during these periods. She says that I'm fantastic at this so it's nice to be validated in that regard. The last major challenge that I can see is that I'm in the middle of my last class for my BA that I've been working on for the last seven years so I'm up to my eyeballs in work, school work, kids, house and girlfriend. It's hard budgeting time but it's something we're talking about and making sure we get as much as we possibly can; at least 20 hours each week.
The short of it is we're still doing really well and I absolutely love her. It's nice to be in a relationship where your partner is just as into being with you as you are with them. We're talking about MB principles in abstract and trying to apply them when we can. Heck, we're even planning a vacation with the kiddos down to Orlando in June. Good times. :-)