Registrar: What's your name?
S: Sophia.
Registrar: What's your last name?
S: (silence)
Registrar: What's your last name?
S: (awkward silence)
Me: Say your last name, honey.
S: (whispering to me) I forgot.
Me: (mortified, I whisper to her the prefix of her family surname to give her a clue) Roze—
S: Roze. (the registrar begins looking down the list of names)
Me: (still mortified, I whisper to Sophia the second half) —boom!
S: Boom!
Registrar: OK, Sophia Rose. At least you remembered your middle name! I'll look for Boom on the list.
Me: It's Rozeboom. Her last name is Rozeboom...
Seriously? Where did I go wrong? She knows her numbers and letters, her colors, her address...But her last name she forgets?
Later, when I pick her up, I ask what that was all about. She shrugs: "I forgot."
For the record, my adopted family name means "rose tree" in Dutch. If it helps, just picture a rose blowing up.
Rozeboom!
