Pretzels

For as long as I can remember, Jude has pronounced the word pretzels as prenzels.  Except, it sounds very nasally when he says it.  I hope this is translating well.  Are you still there?

I cannot give you a good reason why I’ve let this go on so long, but I’ll try anyway: 1) he didn’t care much for pretzels so it didn’t come up very often and 2) it’s easier not to correct him, I mean, I understood what he meant.

Well, obviously reason #2 is pretty lame – even for my standards – and with kindergarten rapidly approaching in ONE month, I figured it was time for me to straighten up and fly right.

Last week we were eating lunch around the table together, and I got the pretzels out if for no other reason than to fill up the empty reservoir in the three-compartment kids plates.  Something about filling up those three trays with three different foods gives me a sense of accomplishment.  Feigning a balanced meal, maybe?  Yeah, something like that.

Anyway, I wasn’t sure if Jude was going to go for the pretzels but he did.  And when he pronounced them prenzels like I was sure he was going to, I swallowed hard and began to correct him.

“Jude, honey?” I said, “It’s actually pronounced preT-zels, not preN-zels.  Here, look at the bag.  See?  Sound it out… no “n” in the word, just a “t” instead.”

“Oh, preT-zels!  Then what are prenzels?”

I replied, “What do you mean?  There is no such thing as prenzels.  They don’t exist.”

“They are extinct?”

“No, they just never were a real thing.  Prenzel is just you mispronouncing pretzel.”

“What’s mispronouncing?” 

“It’s saying a word the wrong way.”

…after some pensive thinking, he held up a pretzel and asked:

Then what do they call this in Egypt?

***

Trying hard not to end this story with “kids say the darndest things”.

Ooops.