Update about Jason and Gracie

Okay, I've been blogging so much about the stuff that's been happening in my life that I haven't shared anything about Jason or Gracie for a while. Jason's doing great- his volleyball season started up the first week of school and he is always so excited about that. He has some tall girls on his team this year. Hopefully, that'll be an advantage. There have been a few years where he's gotten tall girls but they're pretty much on the court for their presence and not much else. Also, his team has done so well in these past few years that he's gotten moved to a much tougher league this year. His team is going up against girls who play club volleyball and have had experience playing the sport. A lot of girls who play volleyball at Wawona are learning the sport for the first time. It's pretty amazing to see how much he's able to teach them during their season. As for teaching, well, he still says he'd quit teaching to coach full-time if that really were an option. Once again, he's teaching 8th grade US History this year. It's really interesting to hear about some of the things he does with his class.

Gracie is also doing really well. She was with us almost every second of the day for 6 weeks during the summer, so when we had to get back into the swing of things, it took her a while to adjust. In fact, she still cries when we leave her in the church nursery. What is up with that?!

Quite a bit has happened over the last few months of Gracie's life: 1) her vocabulary is growing by the day; 2) she now enjoys being in the pool; 3) she isn't terrified of the bath tub anymore; 4) she's been potty trained since our Edmonton trip (how is it that I did not blog such a momentous milestone?!); 5) she can spend an incredible amount of time playing by herself with her puzzles; 6) she can count up to 12; 7) she doesn't swallow her toothpaste anymore; 8) she's beginning to remember a lot of things that we never thought she would; 9) she's really good about cleaning up her toys and play areas; 10) she prays for our dinner meal (it sounds like this: Dear Jesus, Loves me I know, Bible says so, a few gibberish words, Amen); . I can't believe she's turning 3 in October! I wonder how she'll interact with a new sibling... It won't be too much longer of a wait!

Gracie can now carry on a conversation with her Ba (Vietnamese for Grandma)... Well, actually it's pretty one-sided. My mom tries to ask her all kinds of questions, but her response is always the same. She just sings some of the songs she knows, ends by saying "Wuv you, bye," puts the phone down in any random spot and continues doing whatever she was doing.