"Did you hear that, James?" Jude shrieks from the back-seat. "Milton speaks human!"

Milton, quarantined to the cargo area, lets out a little yelp.

"What did he say?" Matt asks.

"He said 'ow,'" Jude translates.

"Ow?" I repeat, chuckling.

"Yeah, I'm infinity serious about it!" Jude declares, thinking my chuckle means I don't believe him.

Jude's new word is infinity and he uses it like Jewel might use an exclamation point, for example.

When he's hungry, Jude asserts that he is infinity hungry, when cold he's infinity cold.

This morning at breakfast, Jude asked: "Mommy, if I ate an infinity mountain of brown sugar would I get sick and die?"

"Probably," I answered. "If it really was an infinity mountain of brown sugar."

Perhaps it's because he's the youngest that Jude feels compelled to add emphasis to everything he says. He ratchets his voice up 10 decibels to be heard over his siblings and he's infinity serious about everything he says.

Maybe Milton does speak human. There have been times when I've thought the same thing myself. More than that, though, Jude needs to feel validated. And that is something even I can be infinity serious about!