Puh-see Is My Pre-schooler’s Favourite Word
Published May 19, 2011 | My children, though born and raised in Canada, have acquired accents. I blame my husband. He moved here almost 15 years ago and still retains a slight Serbian twang—just enough to seem exotic and sexy, but not so much that you can’t understand what he’s saying—whereas my kids sound Bostonian.
Fortunately they’re more John Kennedy than Cliff Claven, but it’s still cause for concern, particularly for my daughter. To recap, my 3-year-old daughter has the looks of a flaxen-haired cherub and the mouth of a 50-year-old lounge singer. Her favourite things in life are her daddy, Lightning McQueen cars and Thomas trains, all of which she likes to dress up in doll clothes.
Nothing makes her happier than a good fart joke during a tea party. Like many girls with older brothers, she is an enigma. Her current crush is a little green train named Percy. Unfortunately, due to my daughter’s enunciation situation, she pronounces his name as Puh-see. This has proven to be…not great.
In the beginning it was hilarious:
- I wanna puh-see cake for my birthday.
- Where’s my puh-see?
- I love green puh-see!
- I’m going to play with my puh-see now…
Then she lost Percy, which was very sad for her, but still pretty funny for us:
- I’m so sad about my puh-see.
- Has anyone seen my puh-see?
- I think I left my puh-see in the car.
- I need a new puh-see!
When she started asking strangers if they knew where her Percy was, we knew it was time to buy a replacement. Of course, the day we gave her the new Percy, the old one showed up. This caused her to practically convulse with joy and she bellowed the following phrases at the bank, drycleaner and grocery store:
- I have TWO puh-sees!
- I found my puh-see!
- Now I have a puh-see for me and a puh-see for mommy!
- I. Love. Puh-see!
Now, the Serb and I adore a good beaver joke as much as the next guy (actually, maybe more), but not when it’s our pre-schooler doing the delivery. She sounds like she belongs in a Marky Mark video, circa 1992.
I fear that the worst is yet to come: my daughter hasn’t been to pre-school since she doubled her Percys. I think I’ll just leave a printout of this blog outside the teacher’s door (along with a brick of chocolate…or maybe just some cash).
Have you ever seen such a beautiful puh-see?
37 Responses to Puh-see Is My Pre-schooler’s Favourite Word
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Thing Two had enunciation issues too. He couldn’t pronounce a hard K sound. It always came out as a T sound instead. His brother’s name is Eric…which he pronounced Ewit (couldn’t do R’s either). My ex had great fun asking Thing Two to say “Schick” and “kick” in front of the neighbors. (Sigh).
Fortunately, after years of speech therapy, Thing Two now has all his sounds in the right places, but for a while we were never quite sure what he was talking about. He would get so frustrated. One day, he told me, “You just don’t speat my wangwage!”
HA – it reminds me of classic Elmer Fudd: Kill da wabbit!
I just spit coffee all over me and my desk because I was laughing so hard at this post. Thank you, thank you for sharing. You have made my day!
Then my work here is done
“Fortunately they’re more John Kennedy than Cliff Claven.” Great line.
At least she has one for you now. This type of thing is what makes having kids enjoyable. Awesome post.
Thanks! And yes, without my kids I’d have zilch material for the blog
Hahahaha! So I can totally laugh at this because I have no kids of my own to do/say embarrassing things yet.
I may not be laughing in a few years, though… 
You will be laughing…through the embarrassment…
Hahahahaha!!! Loved this!
When my kid was about 2, she would point to her feet to show people “F-ck you!” The vast majority (ie. All) of adults didn’t realize she was showing them “Sock Shoe!!!” Took a while for me to figure it out!
Our kids could be in a gang…they’d terrorize the pre-school set…
Now that you mention it, I think we went thorugh something similar with our first and Percy. Now she knows to call him vagina.
HILARIOUS!!!
okay I’m dying……….DYING. I haven’t laughed yet today until right now.
the Green puh-see…too much.
When my green puh-see can make you laugh, it makes me happy…
Awesome. Simply awesome!
Now please, allow me to recap a similar story of child-induced mortification…
So I have a bad habit of calling all slimy, juicy, yucky looking substances “jizz.” In my world, tomatoes have jizz. Unidentifiable food in the fridge is covered in jizz. “Jizz” and “tapioca pudding” are synonymous.
Well, I don’t know if I really ever thought about the more common connotation of the word. Until after my kids had heard me using it, and decided to use it themselves. There we were, Lake Tahoe last summer, with my son frolicking all over the beach and yelling at the top of his lungs, “Look, Mom, I’m jizzing all over the place.”
He had a water gun that was full of sand and water, and he was squirting it at his sister.
I’ve never been so mortified in my life…
Ah, kids. Gotta love ‘em, right.
Best of luck with your daughter’s puh-see…
You are so fricking funny – I fully spit water on the keyboard reading this!
My son couldn’t pronounce truck. It started with the f sound. My husbands family liked to make him say “dump truck.”
That. Is. Awesome.
Thanks for that. Ba.D. and I shared the laughs together
Glad I could oblige!
I am DYING.
That is so many kinds of awesome. For me. Less for you, probably.
Ah, Puh-see. He kept the motor running.
Also, the girl had a span of time where she mispronounced fox. Yes. Just like that. Amazing how often that word would come up.
Too bad are kids don’t go to the same school – they could enjoy detention together…
Oh wow – that is so funny! So hard when kids say funny things like that because it’s impossible to keep a straight face!!
Giggles of absolute joy.
What I want to know is, how do you even go about trying to explain why you’re giggling to a stranger who was looking at you in horror when confronted with the “have you seen my puh-see?” question?
They all get a “look” that I recognize well when she drops the p-bomb. That’s when I pipe in with, “Oh – you do have a green percy train, don’t you?” Then they usually just walk away.
Hilarious! So very very hilarious!
My 3 year old cousin refers to me and my sisters as ‘Da Gowls’, with that same childish accent it sounds like your daughter has… which sounds an awful lot like ‘the ghouls’. Then again, my nick-name ‘Ali’ also gets transformed into “Owie!”, so i guess I can’t complain about being a ghoul… better than being a bruise
Come to my house and I’m sure my daughter could find a MUCH worse mispronunciation of your name…
My son says “puh-see” too. Which makes him just sounds dirty and creepy.
Love this post. And who doesn’t enjoy a good beaver joke? Good times.
We are like a secret society of beaver joke lovers.
Ah yes, I remember those days. We decided early on to teach our kids the real names for their genitalia. Thus, my daughter spent a year referring to her privates as, “my china.” Kind of apt, actually…
For a while, my son’s favorite snack was Pirate Booty (white cheddar popcorn), which he called “Captain Boobies.”
Captain Boobies shall be my porn name.
Laughing in Calgary…
I’ll be in Calgary this August…can we do a word bitch coffee/drink and all laugh together???
Oh how I’ve missed you!!!!
I wish we were neighbors! Awhile ago my son really loved these two black trains (Donald and Douglas) of his but he’d lose them constantly and would then proceed to tell strangers “I can’t find my blacks.”
TONYA! I’m so happy you’re online…I’ve been lurking around AdHoc (me: “Helllooooo…anybody home…?”) – you were missed
I think you’ll like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osK2qKA5pZw&NR=1
OMG I LOVE THIS!!!! (and the twin beds…ha!)