Sink or Swim

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Packed? Who, Me?

At our travel group lunch on 1/28, one woman in our group said "I could leave tomorrow if I needed to." I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or doubt her truthfulness. I think I'm choosing to laugh. I know it's important to have a packing list, but I don't have a spreadsheet or anything hugely formal. And I have somewhat started to pack -- mostly involving putting baby meds, potions and lotions into ziplocs. And I've started stacking things I plan to bring for DiDi: long- and short-sleeved onesies, socks, Robeez, lightweight sleepers for playing, warmer sleepers for, uh, sleeping, two sweatsuits with soft pants and jackets, a pair of overalls and one special outfit. Otherwise, I'm planning to shop for her in GZ when I know her true size. She was @19 lbs at 11 months, and her SWI is pretty on target for weights. I'm expecting her to be 20-21 lbs and pretty much a 12 month clothing size. I'm bringing a couple of 18 month things, but not much. In terms of packing for myself, the ever-changing Guangzhou weather is making that tricky. Every day that I check online, I get a different story -- temps have ranged from 65-90 degrees in the past 7 days, and the upcoming forecast has wavered from mid-70s to mid-80s for daytime highs. Packing for 65-75 degree weather is going to look different than 85-90 degree highs. Just like I'm doing with DiDi, I guess my clothes are going to assume layers, and that when it comes right down to it, no one is going to be looking at me in the photos! This is my long-winded way of saying, "no, I'm not packed yet." And I probably won't really concentrate on packing until a couple of days before we leave. Anyone have any great insights to share on what they brought that they didn't need, or what they wished passionately they had brought, but did not? Please share...

2 Comments:

Blogger Nikki said...

I remember not wanting to over-pack, so I ended up under-packing(for myself). I was HOT. Needed more spring/summer clothes. As far as baby stuff, it sounds like you have the right idea. Bring the necesseties and EVERYTHING else you can buy once you are there. They have the best, cutest, cheapest clothes...you are gonna love it! They have grocery stores and everything you will need, so don't sweat it too much.
How fun! Are you getting sooo excited!?

2/14/2007 11:07:00 PM  
Blogger kikalee said...

You should see my house right now. I've been taking everything out of its packaging to make things easier when I arrive. Did you know you can fit three DVDs into one DVD case? I'm cramming every orifice with ziploc bags of Cheerios. I got good advice from someone who returned last week: she put the amount of $$ needed for each appointment in individual snack sized ziplocs and put it in her money belt. Helped a frazzled new mama brain. I just realized I don't know a speck of Mandarin. Lousy American tourist I am. I've had over two years to do this! I'll ping you as I think of anything (I borrowed AmFam's list, she posted last week, really helped.) Good luck! See you soon!

-kika

2/18/2007 06:23:00 PM  

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