reminds me of the one I love: Bedford

We were all excited to hear that timing had worked in such a way that my maternal grandma was going to be able to make an unexpected trip down to Bedford (from St. Louis) on Memorial Day weekend. With Sean being swamped with work, Josephine and I left him home to recuperate and headed up to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday (one month early).

It'd been a year since we'd seen her; last summer the Haigler girls headed up to St. Louis, and obviously with a toddler, there's such a difference in a year! So it was really great to visit-- I'm glad it worked out.

"Quite A Pair" would describe each of the last few pictures well:

First up, Josephine and her "Aunt Girl".... I can see how to a toddler the words "girl" and "Darla" would sound similar. Plus, Darla consistently wears sundresses and accessories around Josephine-- and that is the archetype of the ladies who, when Josephine sees them, she proudly pronounces a "GIRL" while pointing and showing me (in case I need a reminder what a girl ought to look like. :-/ ) Anyway, it's pretty cute. I hope Darla doesn't mind such a generic sounding name, when, knowing Josephine, it is meant in a very impressed and admiring way.

On the topic of names... I have been referring to my grandma as "Great Grandma" to Josephine. Since she calls me "Bah" and generally picks up on last syllables of people's names (Janell is "Aunt Nell", Grandpa is "Pa", Mama Jo was first "doe", etc.) it isn't surprising that she calls my mom "Bah", too, even though we refer to her as Grandma. Bah just equals Ma in her head, and that's the last syllable of Grandma. It might also be that she hears me call her Mom, and so she makes her substitution based off that.

Well, Josephine took this stubborn little quirk a step further while we were up there that weekend. The child who can repeat back all kinds of phrases and sentences-- rather than learning my grandma's name as "Great-Grandma," promptly started calling her "Great Bah." She did again today after seeing me uploading these pictures. So it is official. She now has three Bahs.

Aunt 'Nell and Great Bah... inseparable!

My dad loving Josephine's nightshirt, which reads, "My hedgehog is smarter than your president." :-) Courtesy of Mama Jo. (Note how when my dad knelt down next to her to take a picture, she knelt down too.)

Josephine and her grandma tickling the ivories, right before Josephine told me, "Bah, flew 'way." (Mom, go away). I've decided I'm not going to teach her "go away." I prefer to be told to fly away. Like an angel or butterfly. So I took one more picture and then fluttered along.