Astrid – Fall 2019

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.

Skin prick test

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

Astrid – Winter is Coming

It’s November and cold and flu season is officially upon us. That means all the kids at daycare are snotty-nosed germ carriers now. Our doctor told us that Astrid would likely get her first cold in mid-September – two weeks after kids go back to school. And like clock-work Astrid got sick on September 14. Luckily the first cold wasn’t too bad and barely triggered her asthma. A few weeks later she had another cold which took longer to get over. The third (and most recent) moved quickly to her lungs. She was wheezing and coughing, and Ventolin was barely making a difference. So off to BC Children’s Hospital we went for Astrid’s 9th emergency visit for asthma. We’ve since started Astrid on a new asthma drug (montelukast) that we’re hoping will get us through the next 5 months of cold and flu season without regular hospital visits. It’s going to be a long winter.

On the positive side, Astrid started gymnastics at the beginning of September and loves it. On Sundays, she gets to jump, swing, and climb for 45 minutes at the gym. Then she comes home does all the same moves in our living room with piles of pillows and our couch as a trampoline. She’s learned to do somersaults and has gotten much better at jumping with two feet and landing with bent knees.

Astrid had her first dentist appointment and it wasn’t a complete disaster. I was surprised she let the dentist poke around in her mouth. The feedback was mostly positive (she has all of her teeth and no cavities). She needs to stop sucking her thumb before it causes lasting damage, and we should be brushing her teeth twice a day and flossing them too. There is little chance we’ll be able to floss her teeth, but we’ve been more persistent since the dentist that she actually brush her teeth, instead of just sucking on a toothbrush before bedtime. The thumbsucking is going to be a harder habit to break, but we’re working on it.

Astrid’s vocabulary has really exploded in the past two months. Unfortunately her pronunciation is lagging. We’ve gone from understanding 90% of what she was trying to tell us to 50%. Sometimes it’s like charades – “Astrid I don’t know what that means, can you point and show me?” She also likes to sing and make up new words to her favourite songs.

For Halloween Astrid dressed up as a cute monster. This is the first year she understood what was going on. She enjoyed the costumes, riding the ghost train in Stanley Park, decorating a pumpkin, making the hallway spooky, and going trick-or-treating. The hard part is now limiting how much candy she gets. Last year she didn’t eat any of it, but this year she knew what it was. We took away the really sugary stuff and have been letting her have one treat a night.

Loves: Jumping on the couch, running around with her daycare friends, building towers with blocks, helping daddy make pancakes on Saturday mornings, and her Mickey Mouse pajamas.

Hates: Getting her hair washed or brushed.

Mastered: Turning on/off the lights, putting on her jacket by herself.

Favourite expressions: “I no like it” and “my turn – 2 minutes.”

More photos from September, October, and Halloween.

Apartment Halloween

We had about 20 kids come trick-or-treating through the apartment this year. Not bad. I noticed it was mostly younger children with their parents. I think the older kids prefer to hit the streets with their friends.

We did our best the make our hallway look spooky for them.

Boo was very confused by the plastic rat.

Costumes at work.

Halloween 2012 Pictures

Happy Halloween

This year Emily and I carved a ‘ghost train’ Jack-o’-lantern.

I dressed up like Zorro and my bike was my faithful steed.

I was impressed by all the costumes at work (Pulse Energy).

Here are some of our pumpkins from years past (most of them carved by friends):

Pumpkin Party

Pumpkin carving and dinner featuring pumpkin casserole, a salad with pumpkin seeds, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin wine.

Dressing in Drag

Despite coming down with a nasty flu the weekend before Halloween, I still got to enjoy most of the festivities. On Saturday, I wore 12 layers of clothing and a frog hat (that my mother made for a school play when I was 7 or so) and attended the Parade of Lost Souls on Commercial Drive.

Then for Halloween, I was feeling a bit better and dressed up as a naughty school girl to complement Emily’s school boy look, and headed out to the bar. I got lots of comments, but no one tried to pick me up. The pictures speak for themselves.