A Man of Few Words

So much for the strong, silent type. N used to be the poster child for thoughtful reserve, for pensive introspection. You could say that his actions spoke louder than his words—that's mainly because he tended to like to bang on anything loudly, but my point still stands.

Not so any more. Over the last month some internal switch closed and verbosity ensued. He's been talking for 9 or 10 months now in a little stream of mismatched nouns and verbs, but what we have now is a verbal flash flood. It is ceaseless. If the eyes are open, the tongue is wagging.

I am generally a man of few words; if there ever is a large outpouring, it's usually written down rather than spoken. I had relished the thought that one of my children would actually allow a thought to brew in their heads long enough to have discernible content and poignancy before being blathered out, but alas, N seems to have followed in his sister's "speak first, think later" modus.

Notice how careful I am being to not say where our children may have picked up this trait. Notice how I have gone way out of my way to avoid suggesting that perhaps it might be due to one side of the family rather than the other. As you might imagine, it is typical of my character (and far wiser) for me to ponder my thoughts on this matter privately and simply not say them...