Ever since we’ve been coming down to Australia for Christmas with Kaia in tow, packing to go back to New York has always felt stressful. It’s not actually like we have more luggage or more stuff, but it feels like it’s more stressful, and I’m not sure how to explain that. Before she existed, Chris would mostly pack the large suitcase coming back with lots of his favorite Arnott’s biscuits and crackers, Australian wine and gin. We’ve had to cut way, way back on all of that in favor of all of Kaia’s gifts. In the last two years, Kaia actually hasn’t received that many gifts quantity wise, but somehow, some way, they manage to fill up the large luggage pretty quickly. There’s really no polite way to tell friends or family in Australia that if they’d like to gift Kaia something on the larger side to please just have it shipped to New York, huh?

I have lost count of the number of stuffed animals she has been gifted. Luckily in the last year or so, she’s grown fond of some of her stuffed animals, like Peter Rabbit. But even he has lost his charm with her. She pretty much doesn’t even acknowledge him anymore. Now, she seems into certain stuffed animals in the moment. Chris’s friend gifted her a little monkey we named Simon (after the friend), and she seems to like him for today, so I guess we’re bringing him back with us. Chris’s cousin got her a huge koala stuffed animal that was customized with her name on its belly. I cannot believe how much space this koala takes in this suitcase!

I’ve told Chris this a number of times, and I will say it here: I would really, really love to one day, take an international trip somewhere, and only walk through the airport with just my purse; no backpacks, no other carry-on roller bags or luggage. In that event, I’d just check a single roller bag, and that would be all my stuff. I would love to not have to deal with packing a super-stuffed suitcase and having anxiety about it being over the weight limit when we get to the airport to check in. But alas, I do not think that international trip will ever happen coming back from Australia, and it’s unlikely to happen while traveling with Chris, who wants to always check as few (or no ) bags as possible.