Though I don’t know which was my first language, I certainly remember that I can speak both tagalog and bicol even as a young child. Today, in addition to english, I still switch from those two dialects without any problem.

But with Raine, I never spoke to him in Bicol. Since he was born in LB, it was just automatic that i spoke to him in tagalog (with some english) so that when a family member is visiting, he or she too has to speak to Raine in tagalog.

Before we came home the only bicol words that Raine already knew (courtesy of his lolo) were: udo, lubot and buto for poop, butt and penis respectively. So each time I would unconsiously say a bicol phrase to him, I always get this answer:ha?! ano sabi mo? (ha?! what did you say?)

It has been a month since we came home, Raine who only knew 3 bicol words now knows a bunch and its really funny hearing him say tagalog phrases with bicol insertions like: (bicol word highlighted)

Ayoko na ngani!

Hindi ako hadok sa spider.

Kaskasun yung car!

Can you guess what he meant?

And a bunch of others I don’t remember right now. As I am the only person talking to him in tagalog these days, Raine will be speaking all bicol before I know it.

Added May 5: 

Here’s some more I finally remembered:

Halika dini.

Kanino ini?

Asan na yung saday kong bear?

Ha ha. Really funny when you hear Raine speak these days.