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Tag >> holidays

Apr 11
2009

The Easter Scoop

Posted by Brett in milestones, holidays

This year we went downtown to the "Battleship Easter Egg Hunt" at the Cape Fear River. It was fun, but the boys were a little disappointed that it wasn't actually on the Battleship. I was too. Above is a picture of their disappointed faces. It should have been called "In the Vicinity of the Battleship Easter Egg Hunt." There's a big grassy lawn adjacent to the USS North Carolina that  was filled with activities, games and a big Egg Hunt Course divided up by age groups. I was pretty excited before we got there. I had envisioned eggs all across the deck of that gargantuan ship, in the turrets and in the ends of the huge 16 inch guns. No such luck. The boys had a good time anyhow.

In other news, baby Bodie's top 5 teeth (mentioned in the previous post) are all in, but he has just 2 on the bottom still. He's a much happier baby now that the teething has paused. He's showing his little mischievous personality with those teeth, biting the spoon with a little grin and not letting go when Sara's trying to feed him. He gets a real kick out of that.

He's also sitting up on his own. Actually, he's been sitting up for a couple months, I've just forgotten to blog about it. I hate that these little milestones come to pass without the fanfare that hailed our first son's achievements. We are just as excited, and I want Bodie to know that. It's also very relieving to see him develop normally without any autistic tendencies.

 Sitting up on your own is a pretty big deal to a 6 month old! Think about it - your whole life's perspective of the world is improved dramatically. You go from laying flat on your back or tummy, confined to a very limited view, to a much more commanding presence and perspective. Now that he can sit up he's greatly aware of his surroundings and happier for it. He's exploring and lunging at everything that comes within reach. I'm sure once he figures out he can get off his rump and onto hands and knees, it'll be off to the races. Our poor cat will have to go into seclusion. I know he's gonna go right for her as soon as he figures out how to crawl. Bodie loves that cat, but she is tortured by the mere thought of one of these kids touching her. (See Kids & Cats post Aug 2008) A crawling baby will also mean we have to re-check all of our babyproofing around here. That day isn't here yet...





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Nov 19
2008

Personalize a Snugfits Tee for Tots Contest!

Posted by Brett in t-shirts, surfing, snugfits, prizes, holidays, contest, clothing, babies, autism




Life around here isn't crazy enough, what the heck, let's do a onesie contest! Sara is busy updating this website to a newer, improved version while nursing a finicky 4 month old. Bodie has been so fussy lately during the day, Sara can hardly put him down. He spends most of his time in her lap on the Boppy pillow, cuddled up to the mammaries. Life is good for him.

I spend most of my free time, which is usually from 3:30 to 6 AM, stocking up for the Christmas flood and filling orders. Lately, even that little bit of free time has been getting cut short. We've got mice in the attic, so I've been trying to humanely catch them and banish them to the countryside. My humane trap has consisted of a 5 gallon bucket with a granola bar at the bottom. I positioned it next to a stack of small boxes so that the mice could climb into the bucket, but not get out. This morning the granola bar was half eaten and there were little mouse poops in the vicinity. Who knew a mouse could jump out of a 5 gallon bucket? Not me. All of my attic shenanigans every morning have made the boys get up earlier and earlier, and when Gavin and Garrett are awake in the house - nothing gets done by me. I try not to get frustrated, that's just how life is right now. They need attention. Someday they'll be self sufficient and I'll miss these days of chaos. I think.

Running a small business like this is a big undertaking, not a leisurely venture. I'm not complaining a bit though, this is a little slice of the American dream for us. We've taken our ideas and made them into something people will buy from us! It just kinda happened by a fluke that Snugfits is doing our first design contest! We've been wanting to do something like this for awhile, we just weren't sure on how to get the ball rolling...

Along comes an awesome company called Brickfish (and a dear friend of Sara's named Karisse Green who worked there) who said "HEY! Lets do a onesie design contest!" With their experience and ridiculously huge network of Brickfish members, soon we will be awarding prizes for the best onesie designs. It'll be really easy for anyone to enter this contest - you don't need a degree in graphic art or have Photoshop expertise. Brickfish has templates on their site for you to use, no special software required. All you need is a unique onesie design (just a good slogan we haven't thought of is dandy) and a desire to win money and prizes!





The Grand Prize winner (selected by us out of the top 200 highest scoring entries) will have a onesie or tee inspired by their design created, featured and sold on Snugfits.com plus a copy for themselves, a $200 shopping spree at Snugfits.com and $300 cash.

Runner Up (selected by us out of the top 200 highest scoring entries) wins a $100 Shopping spree at Snugfits.com and $150 cash.

Most Viral (selected by us out of the top 200 most viral entries) wins a $100 shopping spree at Snugfits.com and $300 cash. Learn about "Most Viral".

Best Surfers Healing Design (selected by us out of all entries that include the Surfer's Healing logo) wins a $100 gift card to Quiksilver.com and a copy of Clay Marzo's DVD "Just Add Water." Also, a onesie or tee inspired by the winner's design will be made and distributed to local surf shops around the country to be sold, with a portion of the proceeds going to Surfers Healing, a Foundation for Autism. We love Surfers Healing - see Gavin's video if you need proof!

Sign-Up Sweepstakes: Six winners who sign up for the Snugfits newsletter will be randomly selected to win a free onesie or tee of their choice from us.

Doesn't this sound like fun? And, if you are clever, the odds of winning are actually pretty good.

See all the details a link to the "official rules" by going here.

Helpful hints from the judges: By reading our blog, you've already got a leg up on the competition. We are going to keep an open mind and welcome any and all creativity, but keep in mind that this design will be added to the Snugfits collection (we allow ourselves the liberty of modifying it in any way we deem necessary for printing purposes and design feel). We want it to fit in and be attractive to the crowd of regulars that dig our modern baby style. If your design is completely different than what we currently offer - that's great! Maybe we can start a new line and collaborate with you. So, good luck Snugfits fans! Make yourself some extra money! You'll need it right after the holidays...

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Apr 13
2008

Preparing a Child with Autism for a Trip

Posted by Brett in youtube, parenting, holidays, autism
IMG_6563.jpg
Getting a child with autism ready for a big trip is essential to the trip's success, I think. We haven't ever really tried it yet. We're going to Disney World, and these kids couldn't be more excited. All that Gavin talks about now is Disney World. Every day, he thinks we are going to go there immediately. He understands that we have to take an airplane, but I think he assumes it's just across town. Gavin hasn't been on an plane since he was a baby, so this trip to Disney World will be a huge event in his life. He's never been on a roller coaster, so who knows whats going to happen. There is plenty of fun stuff to do there besides thrill rides, so I know it will be a great time even if the big rides are too scary.

The things I worry about with him are the loud noises and lack of room to move. Gavin is tirelessly energetic, and requires an outlet for that energy, especially when over stimulated. He likes to just hop and skip around when he's excited, and there's not a lot of room for that type of activity on a jet. We do regularly make trips to Raleigh and Greensboro to see family,which are 2 and 3 hour jaunts, but he's used to that routine. He knows what to expect: chicken nuggets at the halfway point and hugs and kisses when we get there. This is a totally new endeavor. We are talking long lines at security, possible delays, and a very loud take off. Not to mention the painful eardrum pressurization upon take off! How do you prepare a kid for that? If you've got a child with autism, you probably understand the apprehension we feel. Chernobyl type nuclear meltdowns are not a fun start to a vacation. Hopefully we can avoid that!

To prepare Gavin, YouTube has been a huge help. We've been watching videos of airplanes taking off, landing, the safety instructional performance and just views of the interior of 747's. He knows its going to be loud. I crank the volume on these videos for him. I'm thinking of getting him some headphones to wear so he can listen to his favorites (Blues Traveler or the Cure) on the way down. He loves music in the car, and I've tried those little earbuds that came with my iPod on him but he won't keep them in very long. Or if they fall out in the middle of his favorite song - not good. High meltdown potential. There are also a lot of great videos of roller coasters on YouTube, filmed from the rider's perspective. Gavin's eyes get really big when he watches those. I'm not sure if he's going to like it or not. He loves going down the big huge slides at Monkey Joes by himself, so maybe he can handle some of these. We will start slow, at the Tea Cups maybe, and gradually work our way up to Space Mountain and beyond.

Through her friends on the autism parenting discussion boards, Sara has found out that we can get a special pass for Gavin when we get to Disney World. It will allow him to skip the lines and just get right on the rides (with me, of course). That will be extra nice. Waiting in a line for 30 minutes is just not an option for a child with autism. I'm not sure if we need to take a note from his doctor or how it works, but that is the only way we'd be able to do a trip to Disney. I can get him to wait for some things, like an eggo waffle in the toaster, for example. I just tell him to count to 20 or 40 or 100, however long I think it'll take to cook. He quits his bellyaching and starts carefully counting. Standing in a line at Disney, he would have to count to about 6500. We've never ventured much past 1000, and that old trick would wear out quickly.

Yes, the waiting is the hardest part. Especially the waiting for the day we actually get on the plane and go! When we first told Gavin about the trip, he woke up the next morning and said "Now, Disneyworld. Yay!" We decided to print out a simple calendar with just the days left on it until the trip, with a little picture of an airplane on the last day. Every day he marks off a day with an X and counts the remaining boxes. Its pretty funny, on any day since we've started doing the calendar countdown, you can ask him how many days left until "Airplane to Disneyworld" and he can tell you. He thinks about it constantly! This is actually a great way to make him aware of the concept of time. This is going to be a huge experience for all of us. I'm sure I'll have plenty of topics to write about when we get back!








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