Third vs. First Tone

I am not a big fan of birthday parties. I am not a big fan of Chinese tones.
Both of these things got me into trouble today.

"Mom, I forgot to stop and buy a gan en kai pian after school!" Miriam said to me in tears as soon as we got home from school today.

"Honey, you know how I feel about going back out once we are back home." I said back (not very nicely to be honest) as we pulled the electric bike into the elevator at our apartment.

"Mommy, I need a gan en kai pian TODAY." Miriam said

So, I dropped her off, and headed back on my electric bike to the small stationary story next to the school.

The whole way there I kept going over in my mind what in the world a gan en kai pian was. I know gan= means to dry and kai pian = a card. So I just assumed it was some type of art supply for a craft she needed to do at home but bring to school the next day.

I parked my bike next to the bookstore and headed inside. The nice lady knew exactly what I needed once I said- I need the gan en kai pian for the third graders. She pointed me to a
collection of greeting cards. And then it hit me, gan third tone, not gan first
tone . Gan third with en= thankful. Gan first= dried. Miriam needs a thank you
card. (which we have A TON of at home!!!).

I asked the nice lady why in the world do the third graders need a thank you note?"

She needs to write you a thank you note for all the work you have done to get her to her tenth
year. Oh, and you need to write her a card for her birthday."

Suddently it all made sense. The tenth birthday party thing. Miriam had told me about this- but I had totally tuned it out as something I did not need to bother with. She had told me that her entire class would be "celebrating" turning ten this next week. Now, you might remember Miriam just turned nine, so why in the world are we thinking about ten? That is because in Shanghai you are born at age one. So really Miriam (and most of her class) are really ten.

So, Miriam will write me a card (in Chinese) telling me about how great a sacrifice I have made
to keep her all these ten years. And then I in turn will write her a card (Miriam says Enlish is fine for me) about how great a girl she is at age ten. And thus, her tenth Birthday will be celebrated.

So, I zoomed home and when I gave her the thank you cards I said to her "Miriam gan en kai pian is a thank you note!"Miriam replied with "Yes, Mom, I knew that!"