Not as easy as it looks...
Packing for Maine is quite complicated. You see it can be in the upper 50s in the morning and 90 and humid by mid afternoon. A few T-shirts, shorts and bathing suits are not going to cut it. I need to be prepared for the 4 seasons! I need to make sure that everyone has all their bathing suits and I need to make sure that we have all their fleece jackets and sweats. We need raincoats and rain boots, sneakers and sandals. We need nice clothes and play clothes. We need shorts and pants and shirts, long and short sleeves. We need underwear and socks. And backups for everything in case of spillage or getting caught in a sudden rainstorm without the proper apparel. The Tide, Shout and Bounce are packed. But it is vacation after all and I may not feel like doing laundry every day. I can not make a few basic lists that say 6 T-shirts, 3 jeans, 3 shorts, 3 bathing suits. Nope. That would be wayyyy too easy. I have to be incredibly specific. My kids have certain articles of clothing that have to come. They are incredibly fussy and incredibly fashion conscious despite the fact that they are little slobs. If I forget Rebecca's Hello Kitty T-shirt I wouldn't hear the end of it. But the pink bedazzled (not really but it looks it!) Hello Kitty needs to be worn with her white Jersey knit skort that looks a lot like a tennis skirt. And Christopher and Alexander have so many bold patterns and plaids and colors and stripes in their wardrobes that my packing lists for the boys need to be like a set of Garanimals. I need to pack by outfit as opposed to by item of clothing. So Christopher's list might look like this:
1. Orange cargo shorts,
multicolored RL polo shirt
2. Blue and white seersucker shorts
with blue and white Lobster graphic T
3. Madras Crew Cut shorts with
navy Polo shirt
4. Navy cargo shorts with
multi colored Gap T
and so on and so on and so on....
Alexander's List is very difficult because he is the most particular of all three.
He will need all of his bathing suits -- he has 6 or 7, I need to count.
He hates, hates to be wet so as soon as he gets out of the water I will change him in to something dry. And yep, you guessed it, he will run back into the ocean with the dry bathing suit I just a second ago put on him!
He has a new favorite pair of shorts. They are nylon board shorts or something like it and can be worn as a swimsuit and are a fun light Nantucket Red. We recently got them from Land's End. But he has to wear these shorts with his pink Gap polo. Nothing else will do! He does carry the look off nicely though!
And because in a normal day Alexander easily blows through 3 or 4 outfits I will need an entire suitcase just for his stuff. And he's small. Remember he's not even 3 yet!
Not sure what I will do about his shoes. He has a ton. Too bad I can't find any of them! The only pair of shoes he has worn the past couple of days are a pair of flip flops he got from Land's End. He won't take them off. The first night he insisted that they stay on his bedside table so he could look at them as he was falling asleep! They are pretty cute though.
Then there is me. I usually end up forgetting something. I am always so so concerned that the kids are well taken care of that I don't do the same for myself. Because I never put the laundry away the other day I did myself a favor. Everything is clean and in laundry baskets in their rooms. I will pull from the baskets and make my lists as I pack. Ok, I realize this may seem a bit backwards but it does help. I can see what I am packing and document it all. I bring my lists with me so that when we have to gather everything up to leave I can go over my very specific lists to ensure that nothing is not forgotten!