I've always been a talker. With the right friends or family members I can gab for hours, but I hate it when people don't really listen to me. My mother recognized this need for me to share from a very young age and we started having regular one on one talking time. It was a special time when I could tell her almost anything without my siblings interrupting. In the beginning it mostly happened right before bedtime. As I got older it became a once a week affair, usually while speed walking with my mother around the neighborhood. I can't tell you what we talked about, if solutions to my teenage drama were found, or if great wisdom was ever learned. I do remember feeling important though.
A few weeks ago as Nick went to kiss Alec goodnight the little man asked,
"Daddy, can I talk to you?"
Alec has started talking time. We did not instigate this activity. He just decided one night that he really wanted to talk and wanted us to listen. So now almost every night before he goes to bed Nick or I sit in his room and talk to him uninterrupted for 10-15 minutes. (We still talk lots and lots during the day, but this is the time he knows he has our undivided attention.) The little Prince does most of the talking. We just ask the occasional question.
What do we talk about? I ask him about his day. I ask about his favorite activities, things he did with friends, things he's looking forward to, etc. This never lasts long though. The little man has a one track mind, and it's a race track. For Cars. Yes, what Alec wants to talk about is Cars. He starts from the very beginning of the movie and recount every single little detail, just not in chronological order. It's like the movie is running in his mind constantly and when he's not acting it out with his little vehicles he's talking about it, line for line verbatim.
I love that Alec has found his voice and wants to carry on regular conversations with me. This is one of the fun positives to having an early verbal child. I just wish he had a little more variety in his favorite topics. :-) You can only hear about Cars so many times before you're brain goes numb, but still I try very hard to listen and pay attention. Cars won't be such a big part of his life forever, but I will. I know talking time won't last forever (after all, he is a boy and at a certain age all boys seem to stop talking to their mothers) but I want to make sure he always knows that I will give him my undivided attention and love him and think his thoughts are important.
So I keep listening as Alec talks about the Piston Cup breaking, The King crashing and turning into Doc and then back into The King all dirty and beat up, Lightening saying "It's just an empty cup.", Wingo saying "Hey DJ! We've got our selves a nodder!", or Mac saying "One should never drive while drowsy!" Want to know the specifics of any scene? I'm sure with Alec's fine tutelage in time I will be able to recount the entire film for you.
5 comments:
I love it!
Cute! I can relate to the "cars" thing. It's the first thing Kathryn asks for when she wakes up, and she has to watch it at night with Daddy too! In fact, she just now came up to me and said "Cars?" Cute new look for the blog, by the way :)
Talking time was one of the coolest ideas our mother ever had. I loved how even when we had been fighting she still turned off angry-mom mode and listened peacefully at the end of the day. I think you're saintly for listening to the entire story of Cars every night. I can't even get through the movie. ;-)
What a lovely post! Talking time for me was on walks with my mother as well. I'm so glad that Alec loves to talk and tell what's on his mind, even if it's a lot of Cars. Cute kid.
I love your new family blog picture! And hurray for talking time:-) I think in time the topics will change, and maybe Alec will not stop talking to you when he turns 12. It will always be at an inconvenient time, though, so be prepared!
Post a Comment