First, there's the diapers, 6-8 diapers a day for 3 kids for 10 days. Just bringing a whole box. Wipes? We use a box of 700 each week. I guess I'm bringing a whole box. Laundry detergent, well thank goodness we can do laundry because then I don't have to pack 10x3 kids worth of laundry. Then there's the weather unknown. Is it going to be hot every day? Do we finally get to wear out the summer clothes that fail in San Francisco weather? Or is it going to be rainy some day, foggy ever, whatever?
Then there's the equipment. We have to bring toys, but how many? Books, videos, cameras, computers, pack n plays to sleep in, I mean why not just pack up the whole house? I do have a pretty large minivan. Then there's strollers, wagons, highchairs, baby pools, sand toys, life jackets......
I suppose the older they get the less we will have to bring. I have this fantasy that this house we are renting will be so great that we'll return year after year but I wonder. I hope they can play in the river, that would be a great change of pace. I hope the town is nice to wander through and has a park or two for the kids to play in while we eat lunch or something. I hope I get some time to read the apparently 8 books I will be bringing to read. I'd better not stay up late reading and make myself exhausted though.
I really hope this feels like a vacation. We will still have to cook for ourselves, clean, entertain the kids, put them down for naps and bedtime, bathe them, soothe their nightmares, and generally run a household, it will just be a different one. With fewer stairs. Let's hope that makes all the difference....
