Let’s play "What’s in my handbag today?"

My bag, and Charli having a snooze in the sun…

• Turquoise eel skin wallet (purse) – a birthday present from my mum, bought new off eBay. The eel skin is so soft and surprising durable.
• Inside is my wallet is: drivers license; credit card; bank card; Medicare card; health insurance card; Entertainment Book gold card; Priceline card; JJ & my library cards; two expired Taronga Zoo membership cards; self-researched info on which additives / preservatives / artificial colours etc to avoid; pocket guide to buying sustainable seafood; pocket guide to safe eating seafood whilst pregnant; a couple of receipts that need throwing away; and cash.
• Kindle (e-book reader) inside my home-made cover (tutorial coming later). Currently reading Book 1 of the Game of Thrones series.
• Motorola Backflip android phone (with a cracked screen).
• Notepad, two pens and four Crayola Washable Markers – this is the only type that I’ve found so far that are mostly non-staining. The first few pages of the notepad have been ripped out and are filled with the blog plan – only about half of the To Do list is ticked off so far. Various other pages of the notepad are filled with JJ’s scribbles.
• A Huggies wipes box that has been refilled with Aldi wipes – I like the Huggies hard packaging, but prefer the Aldi wipes, as the Huggies ones rip too easily as you pull them out of the pack.
• Huggies toddler size disposable nappy. I’m not brand loyal – we alternate between various brands, depending on what fits her best at the time.
• “Circus Colours” by Beaver Books. This is a 4 page cardboard “book” that is blank when dry and colourful when wet, returning to blank when it dries again.  We’ve used this so many times to keep JJ occupied for a few minutes at a restaurant table. She just dips her finger into her glass of water and starts “painting”. It was only about $10 or so from Riot Arts and Crafts and has been a real life saver.
• Two large tubs of Play-Doh (purple and pink).  This is a new addition to the handbag – why didn’t I think of it before though! Just last night this was brilliant at keeping JJ occupied at a restaurant, especially now that she is old enough to be able to use her imagination a lot more.
• Lunch box with lots of crumbs from morning tea in the top sections.  The bottom section has three muesli bars, a ziplock bag of puffed cereal (aka ‘popcorn’) and a set of Bunnykins metal toddler utensils, minus the fork that I left at a restaurant last week and haven’t yet popped back to pick it up.
• An unused 100ml tube of Gaia Skin Soothing Lotion – JJ has dry skin, but refuses to put on moisturiser. I put this in my bag in a deluded attempt to moisturise her while we are out and about, which obviously hasn’t worked out the way I’d planned. Instead we’ve been adding Baby Oil to her bath and this has been working well.
• A hot pink baby hair clip with non-stick grip glued inside (so that the clip will stay in her super fine hair) is randomly clipped onto the handbag strap. I might just leave it there so I have an emergency clip on hand…
• A Mount Aqua bottle of water, refilled with tap water, is in one of the two outside pockets. The other outside pocket is currently empty.
• Inside the “sealed section” (aka the zipper compartment that JJ doesn’t seem to know about yet) is: a comb; tissues; 50ml hand sanitiser (refilled from a larger bottle); tube of Bonjela teething gel; two little packets of Listerine oral care strips; tube of Paraderm Plus first aid cream (magic stuff – all in one antiseptic, anaesthetic and anti-inflammatory); a band-aid (plaster strip); Forehead thermometer; Children’s Panadol (paracetemol or acetaminophen) + dispensing syringe; and tube of apple-red lip gloss.

Here’s what’s inside…

All packed up again…

What’s NOT in my bag today? Ah, that’d be my house and car keys. They, unfortunately, are sitting in Nathan’s pocket, along with his set of keys. And unluckily today he had to go into the office, rather than working from home as usual. But it was a nice excuse to get a bit of gentle exercise, wandering around our neighbourhood this morning – especially on such a nice sunny Winter’s day.

And yes, I can close it.  But most of the time I leave it open for easy access…

(JJ does also have her own small backpack with emergency supplies, which lives in the car boot, or is taken whenever she goes out without me.  The contents are intentionally very limited so that it is still light enough for her to carry.  It has two disposable nappies, a Huggies wipes box, a couple of scented nappy disposal bags, a hand towel (that doubles as a change mat if need be), a pair of thick stockings, a long sleeve top, a sun hat and a sippy cup half full with water.)