My Chatterbox Boy

And it don't stop. I snapped these pics over about a 20 second time frame. I started in the middle of an adventurous tale about a car race. What's an adventurous tale about a car race without sound effects? 

"...and then they CRASHED?! and there was really, REAllY!! a lot of smoke but the cars KEPT!! RACING!! and they were like vrooooom, vroooooooom..."

My son talks a lot and mostly about any topic involving cars. I recently blogged about the history of his deep interest in cars HERE. 

He's five and also an only child and perhaps is age-appropriately still pretty self-centered. He loves running around and playing silly games with friends, but when the playing stops, he assumes that everybody wants to hear about and/or discuss cars. Occasionally he will talk about the animal kingdom or ask questions he already knows the answers to like is vigintillion a real number--it is. But ninety seven percent of the time, if he's talking (which is ninety seven percent of the time) it's about cars. 

I guess the only person who actually hears him talk about cars (or whatever) all the time is me. Everyone else he encounters is charmed or impressed by his car knowledge--waiters, grocery store clerks other little kids we might run into when we're out. Maybe it's actually a good thing. Maybe I should just get on the car train with him and ride it 'til the wheels come off? I'm actually on the car train with him, I just want him to spend more time in the quiet car. 

I do my part making sure his life is full of non-car-related experiences, books and documentaries--he loves those. My hope is that at some point, he will develop (O_O) and hone his skill to hold a two-sided conversation, and his repertoire will be more diverse. Maybe that's too much to expect from a five year old? I take him out to eat pretty frequently to remove him from distractions found at home or outside and encourage him to keep his body in one place in order to facilitate and encourage two-way conversations. He seems to be en route to being like his dad, knowing a LOT about one thing and a little something about everything, which is a great quality for a guy to have. For now though, he's that kid who just talks about cars all the time. All. The. Time. 

Do you have a chatterbox kid on your hands? How do you manage?