How much stuff can a tiny person need??

After shopping for everything left on my list yesterday, I was feeling pretty good about being prepared for travel. (Thanks Lacretia for your help in making sure we finished EVERYTHING in one day!!)

So, today my job was to get all my paperwork organized and packed in an expandable folder for the trip and then to get far enough on the suitcase packing to have a plan.

The paperwork is done except for one document that needs to be notarized and a few pages I need to print after I get a new ink cartridge. I've gone through 2 already this year given all the paperwork, guides, and other documents!

Then I tackled getting everything ready to be packed. Baby clothes are washed and those going on the trip are folded and ready. All the assorted stuff is unpacked, compacted as much as possible, and put into ziplocks. My lists are checked off and everything going on the trip outside of my clothes is in one room. Good start...

I then tried to put everything (outside of my clothes, paperwork, electronics, etc) into one suitcase. Guess what... it fit! But it weighs 50 pounds! This would be great if I was just on the international flights or Delta where I can have 50 lb. But, this is 10 pounds over the "inter-China" flight weight limit. This will be our flight from Beijing to Guangzhou (one little flight). Also, the carry-on limit is 10 pounds which doesn't allow for my usual carry-on suitcases either... hmmm.

Back to the drawing board... It's crazy and a bit ironic that I who can take a 1.5 week international business trip with just a carry-on (albeit a 35-40 pound, very dense and tightly packed carry-on) am over-packing so much for this trip.

So, I'll need to go back to the drawing board for a plan B. This will be my puzzle for the next days...