“Wheel”? Will? Leo! (1)

All along we have thought one of Evan’s best friends’ name was Will as Evan told us his name was “Wheel”. Since we know it is not unusual for kids at his age to not be able to pronounce everything precisely and one’s name can not be “wheel”, we guessed it must have been Will then. So I have said “Hi, Will! “ “Bye, Will!” many times when I saw the little boy, and most of the time right in front of his mom. Will would just smile at me so I never thought there was anything wrong until this past weekend.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a birthday party invitation for Leo who turned four this past weekend. I remember very clearly I was puzzled at the time as the only Leo I know in Evan's class is going to Kindergarten this fall so he can’t be just turning four.

Last Friday on my way to pick up Evan, I bumped into Will and his mom in daycare. I overheard his mom mentioning something about “tomorrow’s birthday party” to him. I knew I had a birthday party to go to the next day but who the party was for didn't quite come to my mind at the time. So for a split second, I thought he was probably the birthday boy and I wanted to be nice. So I said, “Hi, Will, happy birthday! We will see you tomorrow!” Will smiled back at me as usual, and so did his mom.

But within seconds after I said that, I came to my senses.  I remembered it is LEO's birthday tomorrow, not Will's.  "What was I thinking ?"  And I told him Happy Birthday in front of his mother too! “Oh, gosh! What did I just do?!”

After we got home, I asked Daddy whether I should apologize to Will’s mom the next day at the party. Daddy shook his head and said that I should just leave it alone as it may 越描越黑 (worse than it is already) if I try to explain. “But Will’s mom probably thinks you are a crazy Chinese woman though” Daddy teased me.

The next day, just as I was trying to follow Daddy’s advice when I saw Will and his parents at the party, I “shockingly” discovered that Will was wearing a name tag with “Leo” on it!

Wow! For a second, I just stood there feeling 哭笑不得 (found something both funny and annoying). I didn’t know which one was worse, saying happy birthday to Will who was not the birthday boy Leo or calling Leo “Will” all these times right in front of his mom!

Thanks Evan !  Looks like we need to work on your pronunciation skills, buddy!  :)