Any Other Name

I have officially decided that we have TOO MANY CHILDREN.  Keeping track of the times/schedules/activities for three children (plus baby!) has become worse than keeping up with a highly stressful job.  I am not sure how the house would function without G o o g l e calendar.  The laundry is a fright.  If I fall behind on dishes, clutter, and the laundry, I start panicking about ending up on some hoarders' TV show.  The baby has absolutely NO bedtime routine to her life because we have a different schedule from one day to the next on who/when we're picking up from what activity.  NO ROUTINE.  So, no, Dr. Mrs. Pediatrician, I am not surprised (and frankly not even gonna worry about) the fact that she does not sleep through the night yet. 

Oh, but she's such a delicious baby!  So happy and cheerful!  Smiles for almost everyone (except ONE of my friends--LOL!).  NO.  I refuse to worry about the sleeping thing.

It would be nice if she had her own room, though.

Admitting to the world that Sophia's name just doesn't seem to suit her was a nice thing to get off my chest.  And I know that Swistle is RIGHT.  It really isn't that hard to change a baby's name.  Really.  And I think that if it really bothered me THAT much--if I REALLY wanted to do it, I would.  But I decided not to, and I guess it's mainly because the whole BABY THING in general was somewhat new to us and getting used to having a baby around the house was enough of an adjustment.  Maybe it wasn't just the name, but still--even months later--the CONCEPT of another baby around here I wanted to wrap my brain around.  So, no, I'm not changing her name.  But I am making more of a conscious effort to call her by her name--even in my head--to help get used to it.  (I'm having a very foggy memory of trying to get used to Mary and Izzy's name, too.)  And I think that the biggest reason for not changing the name is that for several weeks Sophie has been at the age where SHE knows her name.  She looks up and responds when we say her name.  How can I change it now?  :-)  So I'm using it more often when speaking to/about her, and I only cringe when I see reference to the million other Sophia/Sofia's born this last year (top girl's name of 2011!).  Or when I tell it to the obviously-Italian-descent folks who frequent my grocery store.  (Yes, I stole your culture's name! LOL)

Sophia had her six-month appointment last week, and she is now a "whopping" 14 pounds 4 ounces.  She's still a peanut weight-wise, but length-wise she is exactly at the 50 percentile.  The doc is quite pleased.  Sophia is already bypassing Mary in the weight/height aspect.  Poor little Mary.  She will always be the first and most peanutty of our peanuts!

Speaking of Mary, she got to officially babysit (for money!) for the first time last week.  She watched the neighbors' five- and seven-year old kids when the parents were at their Curriculum Night.  She only ended up there an hour and they paid her $15 (!--well, you see, the parents were accidentally told the wrong curriculum night by the 2nd grade teacher, so they did not have to stay, so they paid Mary for the "intended time out" instead of actual time).  The kids were good, and Mary came home saying that she hoped babysitting would always be that easy!

John is now a Major League coach for the little league.  Draft was last week, and while he (and Keith--whom John picked for his team.  heh) are excited about a few winter practices and getting things started up in the spring, John was a bit bummed to go back over his picks and realize that he's going to be short pitchers.  It might be a tough season!  Ah well.

Izzy has taken to the swim club very well and absolutely loves it.  It's wearing her out beyond believe, though.  She has been sleeping like a log at night.  And I've noticed several more "slips" of forgetting homework, etc. than she has ever done in the past.  We may need to go down to two nights of swimming a week instead of three.

Since school has started Keith has remembered to bring home all his homework, planner, and reading log ONCE (and that wasn't even on the first day of school!).  It's been worse than usual.  The teacher sent me a kind note the yesterday to ask me to check his homework and planner since he's not been turning it in.  Ah, sweet teacher.  I sign the planner EVERY TIME I SEE IT.  If my name's not on there, HE DID NOT BRING IT HOME.  That kid is driving me absolutely NUTS.