Hokkien for Z

Z asked,”Does X feel paiseh when he hold a girl’s hand?”

I did a double take and asked Z to repeat.

Z asked,”Paiseh means shy right?”

We laughed and agreed. We asked which other words he remembered. 

He said “Siam” was for “Excuse me.” I corrected his pronunciation and went,”第四声”. 

We laughed. He even applied Hanyu Pin Yin to dialect but he was not wrong.

It was so cute to see him use dialect. Anyway, we went to explain how “paiseh” had different meanings when used in different situations such as…

“Paiseh la, traffic jam.”
“Sorry to be late, there was a traffic jam.”

“Don’t paiseh me, ok?”
“Don’t embarrass me.”

“I feel paiseh about holding her hand.”
“I am shy about holding her hand.”

This reminded me of the time when Mr H used English to define and make sentences for all the different Hokkien phrases such as “Wah lau”, “Wah Biang”… 

Reading out loud

X showed an interest in learning to talk. 

He would mimick Z when he talked to us.

He would mimick me when I lectured Z.

He would echo Mr H when he read.

  
My little ball of infinite stubbornness was getting more and more vocal.

He might be slower to speech but his atheleticism was unparalleled.

Because we can never get tired of birthday cakes

Everyone was so busy that we continued to enjoy birthday celebrations when it was very much belated.

We were such creatures of habit that we headed back to Gyu Kaku for a 3rd consecutive time over a span of 2 weeks. Some of the staff recognized us by then.  

We also patronized Jumbo 3 times within 6 days and the staff recognized Mr H when he bought takeaway crabs too.
 

It was a year with many cakes, many crabs and many slices of marbled beef. 😋

It also meant dieting season should be round the corner soon.

More On birthday celebrations

When it was Mr H’s actual birthday, we were both busy with work. It was a simple fanfare of going for lunch and dinner.

We were such fans of Gyu Kaku that we returned to the restaurant to celebrate. My boys loved the U.S. Tare beef and boy, did they chomp down all the barbecued meats.

We also picked up a lovely cake from Chef Yamashita.

As usual, X blew out the candles and insisted on cutting the cake.

   
    
    
    
   

C & C

  
I thought this was such a cute note because our family comprised of 2 Capricorns and 2 Cancers.

I might not believed the stereotype but it tickled me to know our boys were in the same frequency in “theory”.