• Austin Brimley looking at Shawn Brimley's grave outside DC
    Holidays

    Shawn’s Birthday

    My kids always seem to have a knack of knowing when important dates are coming up.  They are too young to use calendars, so they don’t usually recognize when something is about to happen.  But somehow, in the past six months, they’ve known when a big event is on the horizon.  Maybe that’s because I become anxious, and they can feel it in the air. Father’s Day was like this.  The kids didn’t know exactly when it was, but they seemed to be just a little more on edge in the days leading up to it.  And so, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when they were totally wild…

  • Austin Brimley playing at the river in Rock Creek Park
    Family & Friends

    The Little Hand on My Back

    My middle child, Austin, is not the extrovert like his older sister and younger brother.  Though he doesn’t hide from a crowd, he’s most happy at home, reading books, riding his bike in the alley, and cuddling in our big chair with me. He’s always been this way.  Shawn and I spent a painful year watching Austin scream and cry every single day when we’d leave him at the preschool doors.  The next year was less dramatic, but he still shed many tears.  Finally in kindergarten he could walk into the classroom without crying, but he would still turn around the entire time and watch us, running into his classmates…