Astrid has been a bundle of 3-year old energy and emotions. She can be imaginative and creative, grumpy and volatile, and silly and energetic. She’s quite the character.

One of the biggest achievements is she can now recognize most letters and even type her name on the computer (video evidence).

Astrid loves doing puzzles and playing board games (not as much as she loves watching Peppa Pig but we try to keep her away from the tv as much as possible). The best games we’ve found so far are Robot Run, Richard Scarry’s Busytown, Cranium Seek and Find puzzles, and Pete the Cat: The Missing Cupcakes, but we also like pulling out some of our older games (like Blokus) and just playing with the pieces.

For Halloween Astrid dressed up as a dragon this year. I was happy she didn’t want to be a princess. We went trick-or-treating in our building and in the co-op next door and Astrid had a blast. This is the first year she was really into Halloween and collecting candy (most of which we sneakily took away after).

Astrid is now old enough to do swimming class on her own and we get to sit beside the pool and watch. It’s great. She’s also getting more comfortable in the water.

On the health front things have been pretty good. Astrid’s asthma is under control and we haven’t had any recent hospitalizations. During our last visit to the respirologist at BC Children’s, they did an allergy test and Astrid didn’t react to any of the main allergens (dust mites, pet dander, pollen). Things are going so well that Astrid has been discharged from the respirology clinic and our pediatrician will be managing her asthma now, and we’ve started talking about a plan to scale back her medicine next summer.

The only cause for concern was a spell in early October when Astrid was waking up a few hours after going to sleep in extreme pain in her left hand. It happened for 10 straight nights and then a few more times over the following weeks. It really freaked us out the first few nights and we ended up going to the hospital but by the time we got there she was fine and we waited over an hour before going home without seeing a doctor. We visited a walk-in clinic on the 3rd day and got x-rays after a week, but nothing was physically wrong. The only symptom during the day has been reduced hand strength in her left hand in the morning that goes away after a few hours. It doesn’t seem to be night terrors or growing pains and some doctors we’ve talked to have suggested a few possible causes (like possibly childhood arthritis) but more tests will have to be done (if it comes back again) to confirm.

More photos from:
September
October
November