Small Victories

So, what a downer the past few posts have been, huh? Sorry about all that. We're just up to our eyeballs in 3 year old-ness.
The past week or so have been super busy with MOPS, me finishing up the semester at work, and all the Christmas stuff that has been going on. With all that, Caleb, Piper and I have been spending more time than usual out and about doing what needs to be done. I have to say that Caleb has been so great through all this. His behavior is getting so much better.
Yesterday, Caleb had a pulmonologist's appointment at the hospital. The boy that was right before us was a Down Syndrome child and was particularly difficult for the doctor to examine. (We knew this because our exam room was right next door to his.) We waited for over an hour to see our doctor and Caleb behaved very well. He watched the movie that the nurse chose for us and only tried to get to the tv and another DVD once or twice. Each time, I was able to tell him no and he immediately complied.
The doctor then decided that we needed to do allergy testing in Caleb, right then. That day. In the hospital. I don't know if y'all have all done a simple blood draw in an outpatient lab in a hospital before, but it involves the same check in procedure as surgery. Caleb was great through all of this. The only time he had a moment was when he saw the needle that they were to draw his blood with. He vividly remembers all the IV pokes from last year when he was in the hospital, so he did whimper a little bit, but was a trooper the whole time.
We left the hospital around 5.5 hours after we arrived and all of us were in one piece and still happy with each other. It was a small victory!
Today, he decided that he HAD to go to the bathroom before we went to his classroom before school. After he did his business and washed his hands, he decided that he was not. going. to. ride. on. the. stroller. I thought for sure it would be a fight to get him to his classroom without his running off or us getting into it. No, he walked calmly beside the stroller all the way to his room.
Like my title says, it's the small victories in life that encourage me that this whole situation might be turning around.
Coming up soon, pictures of Piper at her baby dedication on Sunday in a ridiculously expensive outfit. In fact, you may see her in this dress until she's 2! Monday is Caleb's surgery, so there will be a post about that too.
Thanks for all the patience with all the doom and gloom around here. I promise it will get better, it has to!