For any parent, one of the most ironic stages of a child's development is talking. You wait and wait to hear those first words. Every word is logged in a baby book somewhere with pride. Soon those words turn into short phrases and then to full sentences. Conversations between parent and child begin. Oh how wonderful it all is.
But then one day you are trying to perform some ordinary task such as paying bills or reading an important article or letter and it hits you. Your kid will not shut up! They never stop talking, not even for one minute.
Such a moment occurred in our house when Hooper was 3 1/2. Hooper wanted to talk ALL day long. He would ask questions about every topic and then once he had run out of genuine questions he would ask the ones he already knew the answer to. Shiloah would come home from work and while eating dinner he would see this behavior and look at me as if to say, "Does he do this all day long?" My answer would always be, "Welcome to my world."
The really annoying thing is that Hooper is smart enough to know when I was trying to ignore him. If he was talking to me and I wasn't participating in the conversation he would get right up in my face and say, "Mom! I'm talking to you!" If I replied in a slightly annoyed, "What?!", he would say, "Mom are you not happy? Are you cross?" Oh course I was always happy and that made him happy. It's what I deserve for ignoring the obvious, he was talking to me! I did my best to always talk back because I know some day he will stop talking to me and stop wanting my answers to the questions he has. Make no mistake, when he decides to stop talking to me I will be right up in HIS face saying, "Son! I'm talking to you!"
