"Sheldon, I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to want to hold Rory as much as you have been," commented Penny after Bernadette passed the three-week-old to him during dinner.
Looking at the blonde-haired, green-eyed infant in his arms, he shrugged slightly before answering, "I've never spent much time around a baby this small. I figured it would be good practice for when Amy has our baby. Besides, I'd rather drop your child than mine."
"Someone take Rory from him," Leonard exclaimed from across the room.
Amy reached for the newborn. "He didn't mean that."
"Do we want to have a girls' night Friday? Leonard offered to take care of Rory for the night if we want to go out?" Penny changed the topic.
"Yes!" Amy enthusiastically agreed. "Who knows how long it will be before we're able to have one once I pop, so we're definitely having a girls' night while we can."
Max looked around the room before commenting, "I could babysit Kathryn so you can have a girls' night and dad can have vintage video game night. I'd be okay skipping a video game night once in a while to babysit."
Grimacing, Sheldon hesitated, "I don't know, Max. You've never babysat before, let alone a newborn. Maybe you could watch Rory a few times first. After all, Rory will be almost two months older than Kathryn."
"Can I watch Rory for you?" Max asked Penny and Leonard.
The couple exchanged a look and both shrugged their shoulders before Leonard replied, "I guess that would be alright. Maybe we start with you watching him during a video game night here, so I'm still around if you need something."
"You're really going to let him babysit? Now Amy and I don't have a reason to say we're not comfortable with it because he's never babysat before," Sheldon accosted his best friend.
Raj had been quiet most of the evening, but finally spoke up, "So, we're just ignoring that they've been calling their baby Kathryn all night? When did you pick a name?"
"We decided to wait on picking a name until after we moved, then since it was only about another month until Penny's due date, we decided to wait so we didn't get our hearts set on a name, only for Penny and Leonard to pick that same name. We discussed it after we went to the hospital when Rory was born," Amy explained. "I guess we forgot to mention it to you guys. We weren't keeping it a secret on purpose. Our daughter's name will be Kathryn Elizabeth Cooper."
"Kathryn Elizabeth," Bernadette repeated. "I like it."
"Why are you so hesitant to let me babysit?" Max questioned from the backseat as Sheldon drove the family home from the Hofstadter house.
Amy glanced over her shoulder. "We'll let you babysit Kathryn, eventually. Grandpa was the only person that watched you when you were a baby, and even then, it was only if I had a work event in the evening. Grandma didn't start watching you until just before I met Sheldon, and it took a while after that before anyone besides either of them watched you."
"Really?" Max perked up.
Sheldon agreed with Amy, "You've only been staying home alone for more than an hour after school for less than three months. Maybe once Kathryn is a little older, you can watch her from time to time. You've never given us a reason to not trust you, but hopefully, you understand our hesitancy to let you babysit?"
"Will I get paid when I babysit?"
"We can discuss that when the time comes," suggested Amy. "But we can probably work something out."
Even though their daughter's room had been ready for her arrival for a few weeks, Sheldon and Amy frequently found themselves spending time in the evening there, either debating if they should change the way they had the room laid out, sorting any last-minute baby gifts they had received, or simply enjoying one another's company while listening to Max in his room across the hall. Standing from the rocking chair next to the window, Amy stretched, "I think I'm going to take a bath before bed."
Sheldon quickly shifted his attention from the children's book in his lap. "Are you okay? You haven't wanted to take a bath in weeks. You said it's too hard to get up out of the tub now."
"Yes," Amy nodded. "My back's been hurting a little, but that's normal at this point in pregnancy. I'll call for you if I need help getting out of the tub."
"Okay," Sheldon smiled, watching his wife walk out of the room. Placing the books he had been looking at back on the shelf Max had donated to his little sister's room, Sheldon checked the time on his phone before standing and crossing the hall to his son's room. Max was playing a video game on his computer, so Sheldon sat on the bed behind him, waiting for his presence to be noticed.
It didn't take long for Max to notice someone had joined him in the room. Slipping off his headset, he twisted around in his desk chair. "Oh, hi, dad. What's up?"
"Nothing. Your mom went to take a bath before bed and I thought I'd see what you were up to. How are the video games going tonight?"
"Not good," Max closed the laptop and moved away from his desk. "Noah kicked my butt tonight. Was mom serious when she said in the car that I could babysit once Kathryn's a little older?"
Pausing for a moment, Sheldon thought back to Amy's expression during the conversation in the car before nodding. "She was. You should know this is a weird time for all of us. Your mom and I are about to have a newborn, plus an amazing preteen. We're excited for the baby, but also want to give you the space and independence a twelve-year-old should have. We don't want you to feel like you're obligated to babysit or help take care of Kathryn all the time."
"I won't mind, really. She's my little sister. Aren't big brothers supposed to look out for their little sisters?"
"Yeah," Sheldon nodded, "You know, sometimes I'm not sure when you grew up and became such a thoughtful kid. There are still times I think of you as the two-year-old who heard his mom throwing up and came to check on her in the middle of the night."
Max moved to sit next to Sheldon on the bed, "That was the first time I met you. Mom talked about you a lot before that. Or so she tells me, I don't really remember her saying anything, but I'll take her word for it."
I probably won't be able to update until sometime the last week of October. I'm finally moving on Monday and will be spending the beginning on vacation with my mom before we start the cross-country drive and won't update until I get to Wisconsin. I might be able to sneak in a Max Moments update over the weekend, but I'm not sure. I feel like this move has been in the works for so long and it's finally here. I've got so many thoughts about it, but I'm excited for my next chapter to start.
