One of these bulges is not like the other...

Pregnancy takes some explanation.  Especially when you're two and are wondering which mound on your mama's mid-section houses what, and for what purpose.

My mom, Jude and I had stopped at a Red Burrito joint in Iowa on the way back from a visit to the town where I grew up.  Mom had gone to the bathroom and I was cleaning up the remnants of dinner and corralling Jude so that he wouldn't get tripped on by a crew of about 12 men who had arrived after what I'm guessing was a football game.

After feeling the usual twinge of guilt at tossing the packaging from a rare fast-food meal on the road, I bent down to talk to Jude, who was pointing at my stomach and trying to ask me something.

"Is your baby in here?" he asked, addressing the firm bulge of my belly with his short, pudgy finger.

"Yes, he is," I answered.  "He's your baby brother."

"My baby brudder?" he said.

"Yep," I replied, noting how irresistible he is when he replaces "th" with "d". 

His bright eyes moved further up my torso and he pointed again, this time at my chest area, his fingertip burrowing into my flesh.

"Is your baby in here?", he asked.  (I swear he had a twinkle in his eye.)

"Nooooo..." I replied, redirecting his curiosity from my chest back to my belly.  "He's in here, remember?"

"Oh," he said.  "Huh."

Having been in our own world together for a few moments, I looked up to see a 20-something guy with shaved black hair, sagging jeans, and a huge smirk on his face.  He wasn't making eye contact, but it was obvious he had overheard Jude's questions.  My mom had returned from the bathroom just in time to witness the tail end of Jude and my conversation, and the look on the guy's face.  We laughed all the way to the car.

Since then he asks me daily if I have a baby in each of my boobs.

"Is your baby in here?" (pokes one boob).  "No."

"Is your baby in here?" (pokes the other boob).  "No."

"Is your baby in here?" (pokes my stomach).  "Yes!"

I tried to help him make sense of mama's changing landscape by introducing him to the concept of nursing.  Babies are in tummies, whereas these other two things have a different purpose once the baby is born.  When the routine guessing game is over, he reminds himself of the facts by saying, "There's no baby in there.  There's milk in there for the baby to drink."

It's a good thing their brains are so malleable at this age, because otherwise these concepts would seem ridiculous.  In some ways, they're still strange to me.