shebazzle.com

I don’t know if I’m slaphappy today, but this site cracks me up way more than it should.

Especially this:

And this, despite that I feel for this poor creature:

And the winner of the “I can’t believe someone spends their time doing this” and the “Where do I sign up” prize goes to the cutethingfallingasleep.org rating system:

Rated for cuteness on a scale of 1-5. (5 being the cutest)
Rated for sleepiness on a scale of 1-5. (5 being the sleepiest)

P.S. Baby humans included.

December 2008 - Alli Piano Concert from Julie Bernstein on Vimeo.

And the winner of the 2008 favorite Alli recordings countdown goes to:

Oh No She Didn’t from Julie Bernstein on Vimeo.

Since I’m in a video posting mode, I had meant to post this some time ago to share the chuckle we got:

Entertainment Scientists Warn Miley Cyrus Will Be Depleted by 2013

2008 Softball from Julie Bernstein on Vimeo.

Alli’s commentary:  “Daddy, I think I’m going to really miss softball.  Can we still go out and practice?”

Can you feel Daddy’s heart melting from where you are?

Now that the end of June is upon us, I have no choice but to embrace that summer is in full swing.  My lack of posting is just one of many byproducts of my attempts to juggle a whole new routine, but since Alli has already professed to me that this is “the best summer ever“, I’m trying to take comfort in that and let some of the stress from so much undone fall off my shoulders a bit.  Emphasis on the trying.  It’s been a bit more of a challenge than I expected adjusting my part-time work to fit into a day without child-is-at-school time, but so far I’m managing.  I’m doing so while also trying very hard to live up to a self-imposed commitment to be as active as I can with Alli, for both of our good.  I’m hoping that I can add in a bit more attention to the job search for a teaching position for next year — that’s one of the balls that I haven’t quite caught yet.  More on that later after some meditative breaths…

A few photos (and video) from the to-date “best summer ever”:

Lounging on the beach:

“Playing toss” in the park with Harper:

Umm, taking the pretending to be a cat thing a little too far?

Playing tennis:

Playing softball:

Playing skeeball:
(homey got several in the 10,000 point bin and only 5 or 6 that went across the room…)

Hanging out with Simone:

… a little piano recital at the Custer Street Fair:
(my favorite moment is restarting due to a fly on the nose)

… and running the Youth Mile in the Race Against Hate:

Alli performing her newest composition to her biggest fan (recorded in the iMac Photo Booth):

Alli’s Song from Julie Bernstein on Vimeo.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jbya4kxC6E[/youtube]

I’m not sure
I really believed
this would ever
happen:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bexcR6L4gw[/youtube]

Today was the last day of arts/dance camp for Alli — she wrote a letter to her instructor professing it to be “the best camp ever”. Given her constant dancing in the house for the last 2 weeks and her continued countdowns to the next morning of camp, we certainly weren’t surprised. The culminating performance was this morning, and was put together completely by the kids — writing, music, choreography, costumes, etc.. What they put together was impressive (simply getting a gaggle of 6-7-year-old girls to agree on anything is impressive!) and entertaining, and it was a delight to watch Alli’s obvious joy.

Video follows for those up for the challenge (not for the faint of heart — it was 20 minutes long; I harriedly (and badly) edited the video recording down to 10 minutes). Also, I failed to recognize the backlight setting was on until the very end of the performance, resulting in massive overexposure and an extremely poor quality video that I wasn’t able to fix as much as I’d hoped — in my defense I hadn’t dug out our somewhat archaic videocamera for nearly 2 years).

If you aren’t able to make her out, Alli (in “mermaid” character) is wearing a turquoise sash across her black leotard, a purple ‘grass skirt’ and is more often than not on the left side of the screen. She can also be identified by the mega wedgi-fied leotard buttcheeks. Enjoy:

[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2303444181054037738&hl=en[/googlevideo]