Packing lightly for the parks with a 1 yr. old

[MyAdonai]

I am torn as to what I should bring. My dh and I are going to have dd's stroller, diaper bag, digital camera, and cooler. I'm going to try my best to pack them light but then I was thinking how awesome it would be to have our sony camcorder. Since...she's not going to remember it and I always love to record her first everything. Any tips for this?

[Shanrich96]

I am torn as to what I should bring. My dh and I are going to have dd's stroller, diaper bag, digital camera, and cooler. I'm going to try my best to pack them light but then I was thinking how awesome it would be to have our sony camcorder. Since...she's not going to remember it and I always love to record her first everything. Any tips for this?
What kind of stroller will you be bringing? If it has storage you will be able to store things there if not I have seen some great things that attach to the back of an umbrella stroller for storage purposes. I know that it is economical to bring your own stroller, but we found it convenient last time to rent the ones they had in the park. I do have 2 kids, but one was old enough to be out of the stroller and we went with a double stroller so we were able to store everything in the other half. It worked out real well.

You could always store your camera in your camcorder case and pack diaper bag stuff in a back pack that you could carry with you or hang over the stroller (Depending on what you pack there may even be enough room for the camera and camcorder) That leaves you with just a cooler.

Good luck. I am one who hates lugging things around the park and am always trying to find creative solutions.

[Lil Simba]

I agree with Shanrich. Try to condense as much as possible. Carry a backpack on your back as a diaper bag, and put the camcorder case in the stroller basket or around the stroller handle. If there's room, carry your camera in the camcorder case.

DH and I are taking our DS in December. He'll be 9 months old. I'll be carrying my big diaper bag onto the plane, but I am packing my backpack diaper bag for the parks. I'll carry that on my back and that will leave the stroller basket free for the camcorder and other stuff.

[OKWTink]

However you end up packing things on the stroller, be sure you can easily grab and go with the cameras. You'll not want to leave them dangling off the stroller when you are on attractions or occupied elsewhere.

Be careful with loading the back of an umbrella stroller. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen one tip over backwards because it was overloaded. Quite often the child is still in it! :eek:

Streamline everything as much as you can. The Childrens Stations (Baby Stations) available in each park are very nice and make changing and feeding a very young child quite nice. There are high chairs and microwaves...

Try to carry flatpacks of wipes instead of the hard plastic and bulky containers.

If you can't fit your camera in your camcorder bag, consider buying one that will hold both. This should be sturdy, and again, easily accesible to carry with you.

Carrying things on your back is fine as long as you are not going during a hot time of the year. A backpack will become unbearably hot if you are in the Parks during the hottest months. The cooler months shouldn't be a problem, but don't overload it. You'll tire very fast!

Think, thin, flat, and not bulky. I know that's challenging with a little one, but if you can reduce the bulk of some of the things you carry that will help.

If you do rent a stroller? Bring a pillow. Those things are wicked hard and the back doesn't recline, so the little ones are forever slumped over when they fall asleep. I really dislike the Disney strollers.