Packing uhhhhh!

We used to be last minute people when it came to packing. You'll often find us packing the morning of our flight. We figure that if we forget something...oh well just improvise!

Well that's until baby came along...

I have a week to go before our trip to Japan but I'm already feeling frantic about forgetting something. My fridge door is littered with sticky notes crammed with "to bring" and "to buy" items. I'm adding things on the list as I sleep. I'll wake up in the middle of the night realizing that I had forgotten to buy this that and the other, half asleep I'll crawl over to the fridge and scribble it on my list. I think I'm crazy! Things have obviously changed.

I'll be frank, there's alot more planning and packing involved when travelling with children and it can be daunting to the point that you wonder if all the trouble is worth it but as Mastercard would say "the experience is priceless" or something like that...I'm too tired and packed out to google it. You get what I mean!

So if any of you are interested to read my crazy list here's how it goes:

• Take & Toss sippy cups, plates, bowls
• Disposable bibs (great if you have no access to laundry machines)
• On the go first aid kit, insect repellent and afterbite (we're going to a tropical island) her creams and medication
• Lots and lotsa toys & books for the flight
• 20 hours of Backyardigans episodes on DVD
  
• Cookies and snacks with NO sugar as the last thing I need is a hyper toddler on flight
• Powdered formula since I hear some kids have a hard time adjusting to the different flavor of the milk in Japan
• CARES safety harness in replacement of the heavy bulky car seat. It's quite a neat innovation and it's passed all FAA standards. I haven't tried this out yet but I'll let you know how it goes. Here's the link if you're interested http://www.kidsflysafe.com/
• 1 suitcase pre-packed with summer clothes, swimming floaty thingy, beach cabana shade and another with warmer clothes. (We're staying in the big city for 2 weeks and then spending our last week in tropical Okinawa)

And at the very end....our meager belongings taking up a very small corner of our fully packed suitcase.

I'm sure we can do with a lot less stuff and again like the pre-baby days we can improvise but when your soon to be 1.5 toddler is having a melt down, the last thing you want to be doing is running around looking for a sippy cup shop in a foreign country. That's my take anyways!

So if any of you experienced moms (and dads) are reading this and can offer some insight, I'd love to hear from ya!

OK gotta go add more things to my "to buy" list...