THE SCENE: Our dining room, last night.  We are finishing up a dinner of Honey Baked Lentils and baked butternut squash.  Nicholas, age 7, has gobbled two chunks of squash but only a few bites of lentils.

NICK: Okay, I’m done.  Can I have dessert?

MAMA: (noting lentil level) Hmmm.  You could have Bean Fudge.

NICK: (emphatically) I said DEE-sert, not DUH-sert!

Both parents found this hilarious, even though we weren’t exactly sure what he meant.  My best guess is that it was a distinction between the kind of indubitably treat-like food he wanted and the sweet-yet-healthy kind of thing Mama allows when one has not eaten enough dinner.  I had no idea it was a distinction of pronunciation, though!

(He ate some more lentils and then had some of his candy left over from the Fourth of July parade.  We’ve got to get rid of that stuff before Halloween!)