Jinx!

Today A and I were talking about how she used to get so angry and upset about a year ago, but she hasn't really had a big blow-up for quite a while. Less than an hour later, M said he wanted to ride bikes to the park and I agreed--it was a beautiful spring-like day in a winter than has been either unpleasantly wet or unpleasantly cold, and disappointingly without ANY snow at our house. A had a total screaming, crying fit. Stomping around, screaming that she HATES riding her bike and I just don't understand ANYTHING about her!!!!! OK, after several back-and-forths, we finally did ride our bikes and that was a good call and turned out fun, thank heavens. 

After we got home, I was working on some math with A, and she again had a big freak-out melt down, sobbing, throwing her math book, screaming that she isn't stupid but she just HATES AVERAGES!!!! And both of these came out of nowhere--they didn't escalate from milder frustration, nor did they seem like she was bursting out at me because her brother was driving her absolutely crazy and she didn't know what to do about it (these were the typical patterns a year ago).  

Is this a sign that we're moving into the new phase? Did my reminder show her that she's been good long enough, time to indulge herself a bit? Did I just remind her about how satisfying it is to have a big screaming fit? Who knows. Funny thing is, after these fits of temper she is always really cooperative and loving and sweet. They seem to serve a function of releasing some built-up frustrations, and I think that when she is in a good place emotionally those small frustrations don't really bother her much, so they are more easily released without needing a big angry, crying moment. But when she's not feeling so solid and confident, she can't shake off the small disappointments and frustrations so easily.