dat hot?

Jude is suddenly very concerned about the temperature of things. At first he used the phrase appropriately. When he saw us cooking, he'd ask, "Dat hot?" He'd also ask when he pointed to my coffee cup or walked on our stone patio during the day. Jude would take a bite of warm food and question, "Dat hot?" after which we'd show him how to blow on the bite to cool it off.

Apparently Jude's decided that the words "hot" and "cold" are interchangeable. "Dat hot?" he asks when I hand him a cup of cold milk, open the freezer, or hand him a grape. Even though I'm excited that Jude is putting two words together and that he understands that hot things hurt to touch, we're working on differentiating between the words "hot" and "cold." At the moment, it's one of my favorite things he does. The sweet bug points to something, looks up at us with his big blue eyes, and questions the temperature. I know this is extrapolating more than necessary, but I love that I see trust in his eyes when he asks. He's learned that Mommy and Daddy ask him not to touch hot things because he'll get hurt, and he's learned that he can trust us to keep him from getting hurt. It does my heart good to see that vulnerable trust in his eyes.

In other news, our week without Shawn has thus far gone surprisingly well! I made a ton of plans each day in order to keep both of us busy, and it seems to be working. Jude and I went swimming with one of my precious small group girls - Brittany - yesterday. This was Jude's first time in a big pool, and he loved every second of it. I actually dunked him under water several times, and was so excited that he didn't freak out. I'm sure it helped that Brittany was cheering for him as he came up out of the water and distracted him from the fact that he couldn't breathe for a second and now had water in his eyes. I had so much fun catching up with Brittany, and Jude had fun trying to "get" her with a toy shark. Since birth Jude has loved water - I foresee many swim meets in our future!

Beyond just missing Shawn, the only real difficulty of him being gone is how easily I get physically worn out right now. Shawn usually gets Jude in and out of his car seat, and is very often the one to carry him in and out of stores. I guess I didn't realize how taxing it is to do all those things (along with constantly picking up toys, crumbs, thrown sippies, and Jude himself when he wants to be held) and be eight months pregnant. I've started having contractions more often in the evenings and my back just about kills me by the time Jude goes down for the night. But seriously - if a sore back is the biggest thing I have to complain about this late in my pregnancy while Shawn's gone for a week, then I feel like things are going pretty dang well!

We miss Shawn a lot, but Jude and I are going to visit camp for a day soon, and then he'll be back home before we know it. Until then, I'm filling my time by keeping Jude busy, sewing, spending time with friends, and watching Gilmore Girls (my guilty pleasure after Jude goes down for the night). Somehow watching an entire season of a show that Shawn can't stand makes his absence slightly more bearable. At least that's what I'm telling myself.