Surfers Healing was pretty incredible this year. Gavin and Garrett both got to surf! Gavin was so sweet with his little brother. He wanted Garrett to go first so he could stand on the beach and cheer for him. It was a really cute moment when Garrett was heading out into the waves, and Gavin was standing on the shore shouting "WOO Garrett! Great job! High five!" Izzy (the founder) took Garrett out and caught some really good waves, Garrett even got to ride in the tube for a minute! I asked him if it was fun or scary he said "It was fun! Lets go again!" Gavin did really well, too. He actually put his feet on the board this time and got to ride high on the shoulders of Puna Moller. For a couple of the rides in, the boys were side by side! That was pretty cool. In the picture you can see Garrett looking over at Gavin.
The local news was there and interviewed Gavin, but he didn't cooperate very much. He wasn't in the mood for paparazzi, and the reporter was asking questions like "What do you think you'll take away from this experience?" That's a pretty puzzling question to a five year old with autism. I should've asked the reporter to tell me what she knew about autism, I bet she would've been equally puzzled! In the news clip, they just show Gavin at the beginning talking about jumping over the waves, his new favorite thing to do at the beach.
I guess Oprah's crew was there too, she's going to do a series on Izzy and Danielle Paskowitz and Surfers Healing. That's some good exposure for this awesome cause!
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...
As always, Surfers Healing was awesome this year. It was huge turnout, bigger than ever! Gavin even had his own little fan club there to "Ooh and Aah" over him! It was an unforgettable day, especially since Sara was starting to go into labor with Bodie! We knew from the previous two births that she labors slowly and methodically, so we felt it best to spend the beginning stages of labor at the beach! It sure beats staring at the ceiling in a hospital room!
Gavin did pretty well this year. I was worried he would be scared, because he's been a little bit leery of things lately. We had a bad experience at the waterslide in town this summer. I spent ten minutes talking him into trying it with me, and he loved it! That is, until the very end when we flipped off the tube under the water. I felt pretty awful about that. He was only submerged for a second or two, but he got a nose full and came up screaming. I lost a little bit of his trust on that day, I think. When it came to surfing, though, he was prepared. We showed him lots of surfing videos and home movies of a younger Gavin surfing in prior years. He really loved it, but he wouldn't let his feet touch the board. The poor surfer had to hold him up the whole time!
It was a perfect day at the beach. Gavin's entourage included his Grammy and Papa Geno, Aunt Mollie, his school counselor, teacher and developmental therapist. All of these awesome, caring people got such a kick out of seeing Gavin's happy face while he rode the waves. We feel lucky that Gavin has so many people in his life that love him. It takes a village to raise a child, and Gavin's village is full of the best.
If you haven't seen the "tribute to Surfers Healing" video we made, you should go watch it. On our home page, click the "learn more" in the green box, and it'll take you to a page with the video. Or, here's the address: http://www.snugfits.com/Surfers-Healing.html
As always, Surfers Healing was awesome this year. It was huge turnout, bigger than ever! Gavin even had his own little fan club there to "Ooh and Aah" over him! It was an unforgettable day, especially since Sara was starting to go into labor with Bodie! We knew from the previous two births that she labors slowly and methodically, so we felt it best to spend the beginning stages of labor at the beach! It sure beats staring at the ceiling in a hospital room!
