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First Day of School

First Day of School

Officially, Anthony starts 11th grade and the twins start 10th grade today. Although grades don’t really mean much to us.

None of us were too happy to get up early this morning, especially Mom who has to get up at 4:30am in order to get all of the boys up, fed and off to school on time.

I still get that first-day-of-school-sick-to-my-stomach feeling every September from my own school days. Aaron and Eric were both stressed out about who the van driver would be, who would be on the van, who their aides would be, etc. Anthony was just happy to be going to school:-)

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Aaron Anthony Eric | cindy | | 6 Comments |   first day school

Play Ball!

Growing up, I was a tomboy. I loved sports, especially baseball. I hate to brag but honestly, I was a better ball player than most of the boys in my neighborhood. Every spring when the little league had it’s parade and the baseball season started, I was so jealous of the boys, because back then girls were not allowed to play baseball. All I could do was watch the games from the bleachers.

As I got older, I did play some girls softball in school and even made the varsity team in my first year of High School. But it wasn’t the same and it was short-lived, since I had to get a job and could no longer play after-school sports.

Years later, when I found out I was pregnant, I was hoping for a boy, so that I could teach him how to play baseball and maybe I would even coach little league. Even if I had a girl, that would be fine too, at least she would be allowed to play, if she wanted to. When I found out I was having twin boys, I was thrilled! Surely one of them would like baseball.

Well, things didn’t work out the way I’d planned. Aaron has absolutely no interest in sports of any kind. I think Eric would have liked sports, but that didn’t work out quite the way I expected either. Eric knows nothing about baseball, but rather than teaching him how to play, he taught me that it’s not whether you win or lose or how you play the game, it’s having fun that counts:-)

Eric at Bat
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Eric | cindy | | 4 Comments |   Baseball little league softball Special Olympics

In The News

Here is a scan from this weeks Grafton News. Hard to believe the twins are 16 years old. I think they were about 18 months old in this photo.

16 years and we are still wondering what their full potentials will be. I guess that is true for all parents, although the expectations and possibilities are quite different. That said, parents of children with special needs usually learn early on that as long as their children are healthy and happy, the rest is just icing on the birthday cake.

16 years ago the twins were born on July 28, 1993; three and a half months too soon. Their due date was October 31, so more of a trick than a treat for their parents. But still amazing how far they have come. Had they been born just 10 years earlier, they would have been a miscarriage, so I suppose whatever they accomplish in their lives is just more frosting. But for myself, I would have missed out on so many valuable lessons. My life would be very different now and quite dull, I’m sure.

We took the twins to Six Flags for their birthday. Cousin Nick came along too and we had a fun time. Happy Birthday Eric and Aaron!

Six Flags New England
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Aaron Eric | cindy | | 4 Comments |   birthday Marvin the Martian Porky Pig Six Flags Special needs twins

Public Access TV

In 1984, a piece of legislation called the Cable Franchise Policy and Communications Act became law. This Legislation requires U.S. cable television companies to fund local organizations to provide training and access to media technology and cable distribution on the local cable systems. Public access TV is an excellent example of democracy and a vehicle for free speech for all citizens. Any member of a community may take advantage of public access TV.

Here in Grafton, MA, we have many resources available free of charge, including a TV studio, trainings, and all the equipment needed so that anyone can produce a TV show, either live or pre-recorded. Grafton Community Television manages three channels, 11, 12 and 13. Channel 11 is for general interest (public access) programming, Channel 12 is for local government programming, and Channel 13 features school programming and high school sports events. Three channels are fairly common on public access television and is called “PEG access”, short for Public, Educational, and Governmental.

Aaron is very interested in film making and spends much of his free time making movies, including filming, acting, and editing his own movies for youtube. He would like to eventually work in the film industry. Last summer he took the GCTV Kids Summer Video Class and he really enjoyed the class.

A couple of times a year the station also offers adults a producers class. Aaron wanted to take this class too, but since he is under 18, he needed an adult to be responsible for him and he also had to get special permission from the Grafton Cable Television Oversight Committee, as well as several references. Permission for Aaron to take the class was granted and last fall Aaron and I took the course together. We both had a great time and we learned so much about television producing. Now, Aaron has is own TV show on Grafton Public Access and I think he is the youngest producer with a regular programing slot. His show is called “Dark Nights of Grafton” and it airs 3 times a week.

The same show airs 3 times a week for 2 weeks, so he has to have a new video every two weeks. Since he is such a prolific film maker, this is not a problem. He just dropped off episode #17 at the studio yesterday.

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Aaron Local Community | cindy | | 1 Comment |   "Dark Nights of Grafton" GCTV Grafton GraftonTV.org lightscameraaaron lightscameraaaron.com MA Public Access TV Television