



DE WITT, NEW YORK: Caitlin signs across the dining room table as the Seamans' finish dinner. "Eat," she signs, but Brennan is restless. His energy spikes and falls throughout the evening without any distinct pattern. Brennan's siblings, 6 year old Ellie and 7 year old Weston, laugh as Brennan fools around, ignoring his mother's signs to finish dinner.​
A few moments later, Brennan gets upset. He doesn't want to finish dinner, he wants to play. Because Brennan is deaf, and as a result, largely non-verbal, his emotions can change rapidly. Caitlin explains that it’s because he needs to express things with his body, physically, rather than being able to do so with words.
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As the emotion passes and dinner ends, Brennan's sister Ellie whizzes by on roller skates, passing a sign above the sink reads “Let Them Be Little” as Weston yanks himself up into the handles of a pull-up swing hanging in the doorway. Shrieks of happiness tear through the house as Ellie picks up speed and Brennan and Weston start to play together on the swing. It's chaos, overwhelming and hard to think or speak without some loud interruption -- but Caitlin just smiles, her eyes full of love as she watches over each of them, ready at a moments notice to kiss boo-boos or wipe away tears.​​