preliminary data on blood-letting looked promising enough

On Tuesday morning Miss A had blood drawn so her pediatrician can test to see wtf. Miss A did NOT like that. She hasn't had shots in several years, and her last blood draw was before she can remember. A nurse and I had to restrain her.

Tuesday evening she said, "Mom, do you know why I've been nicer since my dr appointment?"

I thought to myself, "Because it was only 10 hours ago and most of that time you were at school?" But I said, "No, why?"

And she said it was because she didn't want to have to get blood drawn again.

Hmm! The doctor/barbers of old might have been onto something! Perhaps the blood draw had leeched out her bad humours!

Miss A continued to keep it together last night, and then completely lost her shit tonight. First I asked everyone to get their jammies on right after dinner, but instead everyone chose to take everything in the boys' room and pile it in front of their door as part of some complicated game. Then I told her she had to help them clean their room if she wanted to watch "House of Anubis" at 7. That upset her, because she didn't feel she deserved to have to help with the clean up. She began to throw a screaming/kicking/stomping/throwing/slamming fit in the hall.

I forget what happened next -- I think I told her she could clean up her room instead, and that made her even angrier. So then I said she was out of luck and should just get her pajamas on and climb into bed.

Enraged, Miss A intensified her screaming/throwing/stomping/kicking. All the while, the boys and Haney are cheerfully cleaning up the mess all four of them made. Because Miss A can't calm down on her own, I suggested she take a bath, and after that she was calmer.

Until Jason got home. And I don't know what all happened then, except she didn't want to go to bed, and then Haney was talking or singing to herself which interfered with Miss A singing to herself, so Miss A came down from her bunkbed to thrash her. Jason stopped her three times, and finally she was set off into another sobbing and screaming fit that lasted until about 9:45, when Jason went upstairs and got her calmed down while I worked.

So she spent most of three hours having a fit. It exhausts me just dealing with her, so I can't imagine how exhausted she must be. And Miss A's new school will have her out the door an hour or more earlier than she leaves now, so we have to figure out a new afternoon and evening schedule. Forbidding her to play with neighborhood friends would allow us to get things done at a comfortable pace, but I feel like she needs that free play time. Then when she and any of her siblings place nicely together, I don't want to disturb that -- that's pretty much what I live for. Aside from those things we need to fit in homework (emotionally charged and requiring my undivided attention), dinner prep, eating, kitchen clean-up and baths, and somehow a two-hour period of time for Miss A to unwind before going to sleep. There aren't enough hours in the day!

Tomorrow I go to officially enroll Miss A at her new school -- I'm very excited. And very hopeful this will bring some sort of positive change.