How many planets in our solar system - 8, 9, 12, more?

I've grown up knowing that there were 9 planets in our Solar System, in fact I could recite them in order when I was just 4 years old! But now there is a proposal by the International Astronomical Union to change the number of planets to 12. (See: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14364833/). This would include Ceres, one of the larger, rounder asteroids orbiting between Mars and Jupiter; Charon, currently Pluto's moon; and 2003 UB313, a Pluto sized object a bit further out (its currently nicknamed Xena). Trouble is, when more similar sized objects are discovered these could be defined as planets and therefore there could be hundreds of planets in our solar system!

So there needs to be a method of defining exactly what a planet is. Here's what I think. A planet should be a round object, of a particular size (don't know what the would be), which orbits a star. This would then give us 8 planets. A satellite (or moon) is an object that orbits a planet. So what do we do with Pluto? Pluto is smaller than some of the satellites in our solar system. Pluto is out in the Kuiper Belt where there are other objects of similar size (or even bigger). And to add to the confusion is Pluto's "moon" - Charon. Charon is about half the size of Pluto and apparently they orbit each other! So would this then be a "double-planet"?

The IAU will vote on the proposal on August 24 so it will be very interesting to see what comes out of this.