I recently posted my portrait, drawn by my granddaughter H, as a new cover page on Facebook. After lots of positive feedback, I decided to repost the blog below from 2016.
What’s in a name? I blogged a while ago that I have never had a nickname. It is as glaring a deficit in my personal history as not having a tattoo would be for today’s millennials. Somehow, I have learned to live as “Les”. And my full name, “Lester”, has taken on a bit of a cache since Leicester City, F.C. won its remarkable 5000-1 championship in the British Premier League Football. Yes, “Leicester” is pronounced “Lester” (and “British Premier League Football” is pronounced “Soccer.”)
But now I have a special name! I have had it for several months, and like most special names it is one that no one could predict. What makes it super-special is that it came from my granddaughter H. I am proud to be Baa-Baa.
It is always fun to guess what children will call their grandparents. When H was a newborn, Barb and I played that game. Barb was hoping for “GlamMa”, defined by Urban Dictionary as “the new Grandma, a woman with a sense of self and style. ” Yes, that would fit Barb. I had no special preference, but we both agreed that we did not want to be Bubbie and Zaydie, names we still feel are a little too old school.
So how did I become Baa-Baa? Every Friday morning while Barb is babysitting for H the three of us spend a few minutes Face Timing. On one of those morning calls, I gave H an iPhone tour of my office, including the row of bobbleheads on a high shelf above my microscope. There was a one-armed Robin Ventura, a stern Carlton Fisk, Detroit Tiger star Miguel Cabrera, and even White Sox groundskeeper Roger Bossard. H was fascinated as I bounced their heads up and down. Soon all our Friday calls started with H calling out for the bobbleheads. “Baa-Baa, Baa-Baa” was her greeting to me. And that’s what I became. Not Robin, or Carlton, or Miggie–but I will take Baa-Baa any time.
As for Barb, both of H’s grandmas became Na-Na. But now that H is a little older and wants to differentiate between her two wonderful grandmothers, Barb has become Na-Na-Baa-Baa. It works!
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