Once More, With Talking!

Little Man is about literally talking me to death. He is a nonstop talker!! His mouth is moving before his feet hit the floor in the morning, talks himself to sleep at night AND talks IN his sleep...

It's just amazing how exhausting the talking is. Most days I feel harassed to death by 8am. He is so nonstop that I'm unable to even think. I totally get the "can't even hear myself think" bit now.

I do have patience for about the first hour of his nonstop talking... but then I lose my patience. And then I go beyond losing my patience and have to just walk away and try as hard as I can to ignore it. I've tried just about everything. I go along with him for a while, I ignore him for a while, I threaten him for a while.... I give time outs, I ask him nicely to be quiet for a while "But I am being quiet mom. I'm not talking anymore. See I'm being quiet." I demand that he be quiet for a while... by 4pm I'm yelling. And around that time is when my husband and tweenie get home. By then I've lost all patience and just want some silence.

I have tried giving him things to do to occupy his time. Coloring books, construction paper, reading books, leapfrog tag books, pre-k worksheets, puzzles, games... his favorite DVDs...all to no avail. He remains a constant running status updater. If he was on facebook you'd start hiding his updates after about 30mins ;)

Of course not all of it is non-productive. He's at the point now where he's wanting to know how to spell everything, and we have nice discussions about topics such as opposites and whatnot... so I absolutely cherish those conversations. But the rest of it? I feel so badgered. And I just have no idea how to handle it.

My kids are totally cabin fever crazy right now. They are bored to death and ready to go running. Fortunately we got a decent used minivan with our tax refund, so now I have a little freedom and we aren't stuck at home! I took the kids to a playgroup yesterday and they had a blast. But sadly, Little Man was still coming over to me about every minute to let me know exactly what he was doing. "I'm throwing the ball now, I'm running with the ball now." etc.

Any suggestions for relief?? Do you have a nonstop talker? How do you handle it? Please tell me they outgrew it! ;)