Today my Pink PoshPouch came. So NOW I am ready to bring Addison home. Just in time for snow. Ever since I found out that it is not safe to have a kid wear a big heavy coat while in a car seat, I've been shopping for alternatives. Apparently those car seat covers that go inside the car seat are also unsafe. What's a Midwesterner to do? Enter: PoshPouch. It simply goes on top of the car seat, a practice considered safe by car seat safety advocates. So she will stay warm under her furry cocoon but will remain safe. And also? It is so so so cute!!!!!

In other preparing-to-travel news: I started packing today. Like actually packing. Once I started I pretty much could not stop which was frustrated because I had to. But I'm excited about the progress made. Can you all give me some feedback? Does 3 checked bags and 2 wheeled carry-ons plus 2-3 smaller carry-ons seem excessive for the 5 of us (plus the baby)? I don't want to be one of those obnoxious over-packed families with 1000 pieces of luggage but I am having a very hard time reducing the amount of luggage considering the amount of people we are traveling with. So be honest - is this just too much?

I started organizing my medicines into Ziploc bags by age-of-recipient: one bag for us adults, one bag for the kids, one bag for the baby. Then I have a bag of first-aid items plus a tiny bag of keep-close-at-hand items for one of the carry-on backpacks. Stuff we will need during the flight. Here's my problem....I am paranoid about losing these drugs in transit so I want to bring them all carry-on. I'm weighing my options: be a total pain in the butt at security by declaring some and doing the 1-quart-Ziploc for the others or just take my chances and store them all in checked luggage. I could lose everything else but it is the meds that I am most concerned about. I know there are some meds readily available in Vietnam but if one of my kids is sick, I'd prefer to rely on tried and true remedies at my fingertips.

And finally to those incredibly rude people who commented about my vacuum obsession - haha - here's the story: I have a great floor cleaner. It's new. but it's big and heavy. And I have two shed-y dogs and 6 shed-y kids. So I need something a little more convenient for everyday sweeping. I finally decided to get a stickvac, cordless, lightweight. So I was going to get the Dirt Devil Broomvac even though it has spotty reviews. But when I got to Target, they had another As Seen On TV (which means it MUST be good) floor sweeper and it was $15 cheaper and had a lot of really cool functions that the BroomVac did not. So I bought them both so I could try them both and RETURN (thankyouverymuch) the one I dislike more.....since you know neither will be Just Right. I've only tried the As Seen On TV sweeper and it is *ok*. I really love some of the features but it isn't strong enough to pick up the individual pieces of dog hair - just the big clumps. I'm not sure the BroomVac will fare any better though. So now it all makes sense, right?