I thought I'd share with you some glimpses of my son Christopher's love of talking, which is an activity that often needs no audience! And much as it sometimes makes me nuts (jeez, silence already), it's a big part of what makes him who he is.

***

When Christopher was a baby and learning to talk, he loved to yammer (as he still does). One thing he did which was different from his sister was to put "filler babble" in between the actual words of his babbling, e.g.,

"Truck! Kamenanana train!"

In retrospect, kind of alarming. Nowadays, it manifests itself in random mouth-noises and repeated phrases that never stop. ;)

*

One of his sister Lauren's favorite stories about him is from when he was two. I was giving him a haircut, which went like this:
Christopher: Yak yak yak yak yak yak.
Me: Honey, don't talk while I'm cutting your hair.
Christopher: Yak yak YAK yak yak yak.
Me: Christopher. Don't talk.
Christopher: Yak yak yak yak— Hey. I have hair in my mouth...

*

In Kindergarten, the class rotates the "Star of the Week." When it's a given child's turn, he or she brings in an "All About Me" sheet and special toys and such.
Teacher: It says here that one of your favorite things to do is sleep.
Christopher: Yes.
Me: *say what?*
Teacher: I wouldn't have guessed that about you, Christopher. I'd have thought you'd be the kind of boy who wants to just be doing something all the time...

Months later, we were all having some conversation in the car that touched on the topic of sleep, which inspired new input from Christopher.
Christopher: "Ooh, I hate to be asleep! Because then I can't talk!"
Me: *Now THAT I can believe*

*

Recently, HalfshellHusband was driving Christopher home from school (Christopher is 8 1/2 now). They'd been in the car for maybe a minute, and then,
Christopher: It's too quiet in here. So I'm going to talk...
*60 seconds later*

And I'm going to slap my leg! *thwack-thwack-thwack*

People, how am I not nuts already? Or has it already happened and I just didn't notice? :0