Stuff

I wish I had kept all of our "packing lists" from when Sam was a baby.  Before each trip we took, we'd take almost a whole day just making a list of stuff to bring for Sam. (In the early days, I'd start the list a week ahead of time and I'd be adding things each day until we left.)  We always set aside an entire day to pack.

We still make a list, but it's so much shorter now.  It still changes every time, though.  At first, we needed to bring dozens of baby washcloths and burp cloths, but as that need fell away, we started needing to bring baby food, spoons and bowls.  Now we don't need to bring baby food, but we do need Sam's toothbrush and toddler toothpaste.  Depending on where we are going, we might bring diapers for the entire trip, or we might plan to buy some at our destination.  In the past, we always had to bring Sam's "white noise machine" which she only recently gave up, plus a CD player and CD's, and the baby monitor.  Sometimes we might need the car seat, sometimes a stroller, and we always need the Pack 'n Play, except when we go to Adam's parents' house, where they have one waiting for her.  Most of the time we bring some children's Iboprofen, but we used to bring her whole "medical kit"  which included her baby nail clippers, an aspirator, and a thermometer.  I can't even remember all the stuff we used to need to bring along, but I remember that it would fill a whole sheet of paper.  Now, it's down to half a page.

Her needs change so quickly.  I think it would be fun to have a history of all the "stuff" of babyhood, and a record of how it evolved.

Maybe next time...