Travel Light in Life...

...take only what you need.....a Port-a-crib. Bouncy chair. Car seat. Base for car seat. A dozen blankets. Cloth diapers to wipe his face. Disposable diapers for the rest of him. Baby wipes to wipe any area covered by the dispoable diapers. Baby bath gel. Baby Wash Cloth. Baby bath tub. (In my parenting years the baby bath tub doubled as the kitchen sink in it's off duty hours.) Special dishwashing detergent to wash his bottles. Clothes. Many, many clothes. (which grew exponentially in number once I decided he needed the next size up. Of everything.) Pacifier. Auxillary pacifier in case the unthinkable happens and the preferred plug is lost. Shoes. (His feet have never touched the floor, but shoes are an essential part of the outfit.) Hat. Toys. (Like we're going to distract him with anything beyond our own leering grandparent faces.)

We just unloaded the last of the baby stuff from the car last night and already it's time to start packing up for the Return The Baby trip tomorrow. His parents are still, obviously, in the starry-eyed newness of parenting since they want him back.

We won't leave until early tomorrow morning, but the ritual of Packing Up The Baby's Crap Necessities began in earnest tonight. How can one little baby need so much stuff? Shouldn't there be some sort of weight to baby ratio? Two pounds of stuff for each pound of baby?

Forget buying a puppy for this kid; he needs a pack mule.