9-year old Pia is our favorite neighbor. She’s the grandchild of my twin brother Fred who regularly straddles between the two houses and on meal times, would choose the house that offers the better bite for her palate. If both are good, she calls to have the other sent over.

The younger Pia, who is bi-lingual, when she was still learning both Tagalog and English, would never fail to entertain us with her quips. Some of her few-liners:

Me: Pia, are you going somewhere?

Pia: 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.

Lola Rissa (in the car): come with us!

Pia: 𝘕𝘰, 𝘸𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.

Pia: 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘢 (𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘩)?

L. Rissa: Of course not!

Pia: 𝘖𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦.... 𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵?

We would play hide-and-seek in the car and pretends she can’t find us: "𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵, 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦!"

She always shows up in our front door bringing her brand of laughter. And wit. One day, she came over with her iPad, bluetoothed it to the speakers and played her playlist of soothing instrumentals. Baffled, we asked why. "𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘺 𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦. 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦. 𝘚𝘰 𝘐 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 '𝘭𝘰-𝘧𝘪' 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦."

Aww. Don’t kids grow up fast?

I raise this cup to my fave neighbor. Cheers!

#MyCafeNotes