Levi's birthday story

My wife received an email of a birthday invitation for a kid named 'Levi'. Without looking up the pronunciation of the name, I asked my son whether he knew 'LEVY' from the school. The invitation had Levi's photo on it. I thought even though my son was not very good at names, he surely could recognize the kid's face. My son stared at the photo for a few seconds and said he didn't know any 'LEVY'. Ok, then it must be one of his preschool buddies, I thought, proudly, my son must be so popular as to still be missed by his preschool buddy. My wife, however, was sceptical about her son's popularity. She told me to ask the teacher at the school whether 'Levi' was at the same class as my son. But I had a better idea. I directly texted Levi's mom, asking if her son had gone to Lavender lane (the preschool's name).

Levi's mom replied quickly, "Yes, he did. Did Connor go there as well?" Well, I was certain it was a rhetoric question -- She was just looking for something to say.

Me: "Yes, Connor did. Connor said Levi was his preschool buddy, not his school buddy. So I just wanted to confirm. :) "

Levi's mom: "Oh that's so lovely!!! They seem to have become good little buddies. "

Ok, that seemed to settle it. Levi was my son's preschool buddy, all right.

Before we went to the party, my son had a look at the birthday card that he would give to Levi. He remarked on the name's spelling, "LEVY looks very similar to LEEVI". "Oh", I said, "I'm pretty sure LEEVI is a different person... "

At the car park, we ran into Ricardo, his classmate at the school. What? Did Ricardo happen to go to Lavender Lane as well?

Then at the entrance of the zoo, where the party was held, we saw another school classmate of my son's. Before I could wrap my head around what was going on, the birthday boy, Levi, suddenly appeared in front of my son, shouting "Is this my gift?" while eagerly grabbing the gift bag off my son's hand without waiting for an answer. All I heard was my son murmuring, "It's not LEVY. It's LEEVI."

I felt the need to clarify with Levi's mom what I meant by 'Connor is not Levi's school buddy'. I attributed the incident to my mispronunciation of her son's name and apologized. She laughed about it. We went on to talk about our kids for a while and I was very pleased that she didn't mention the largest puzzle of the story which still remains unaccounted for -- why did my son fail to recognize his classmate from a photo?