Packing list for a two month old:
Diapers
Desitin
More diapers
Baby Bjorn
Sling
Swaddling blanket
More diapers
Breast pads
Clothes so tiny a whole pile of them takes up approximately the same room in the suitcase as a single paperback book
Gymini, which takes up approximately the rest of the huge suitcase
Packing list for a one year old:
Diapers
Sling
Baby backpack
More diapers
Board books
More board books
Trucks
Durable puzzles
More board books
Sippy cups
Small utensils with rubber handles
Pull toys
Lullaby CD – just one, he won’t listen to any other
More diapers
Clothes that take up approximately the same size as two hardcover books
More diapers, just in case
Packing list for a four year old:
Picture books
An array of stuffed animals to scatter across the bed and remind him of home
Trucks
Frogs
More picture books
Lullaby CD – same one, he still refuses all others
Computer to play it on
Computer games
Favorite videos
Fold-up portapotty for inevitable emergencies
Diapers just in case
Puzzles
Sippy cups with straws
Playsets (school house, construction site, anything else you can jam into the no longer so huge suitcase)
More picture books
Packing list for a six year old:
Agent X (stuffed red eyed tree frog, the nighttime companion of choice)
iPod and portable speaker set containing the MP3s of three favored lullaby CDs
Henry Huggins
Alice in Wonderland, the pop-up chapter book version (now on its third reread)
Bob Books early readers, set B part 2
Juice boxes and sippy cups with straws for the car
Computer games
Favorite DVDs for the long car ride
A select few rubber frogs and perhaps White Mouse too
Kid Knex because, well, why not
No other toys “Because they’ll have toys there”
Clothes that are now approximately half the volume of my own, folded neatly alongside mine. Socks practically indistinguishable from Mommy’s. Buzz Lightyear underpants. “Don’t forget my pajamas!”
Development as measured by the contents of a suitcase.
There was a brief giddy moment in time when my children required almost no packing to go anywhere. They'd outgrown the huge plastic toys, travel cribs, booster chairs, etc... And they were still small enough that their clothes took up almost no room.
For a short time there, I could pack all their stuff into one backpack.
But now... They require almost as much clothes as I do, and they need their own backpacks, and pillows and blankets and masses of outdoor survival clothing and suddenly we're right back where we started.
It's neat to see how it changes, though!