Items to make being out and about with a toddler a little easier.

                                     

If you are a mom with toddlers or preschoolers, you know, life is messy, and often unorganized. If you have more than 1 of them (like I do), it's downright crazy. There are some things that just make life with a toddler/preschooler easier. I have found a few of these that have come in hand many times for our family. 

 The first would be wet wipes (never mind that both of my children are fully potty trained. Wet wipes have so many more uses than just wiping baby butts. They are probably one of my favorite things. I always have a thing of wet wipes with me, in the car, in my purse, in our park backpack. They are awesome for cleaning dirty hands at the park (and dirty faces). They rock at cleaning sticky 3 year old boys when eating out (let's face it, napkins just don't hold up the stickiness that young boys seem to always create when eating). Peanut butter hands? A wet wipe will fix it. They are a quick fix for cleaning up spills, in the car, in the house, on the train, and so much more. They are also a money saver for us, I know they sell Wet Ones, but since I buy the just the cheapo store brand of wipes, they end up saving us $$$$. I will probably never stop buying wet wipes because I use them for EVERYTHING.

On the same note as wet wipes, flush-able wipes for the bathroom. This never occurred to me until I attempted to wipe Sophie's butt the first time she pooped in the potty. Toilet paper was just no match for the mess she had created. It took 10 minutes to get her butt clean with regular old toilet paper. So, we went out and found flush-able wipes. That was almost 2 years ago now and we still use them when the kids go number 2. It's much easier and quicker than using toilet paper to wipe those butts. We love them and will probably be buying them for years to come, I even use them sometimes. 

The travel Kleenex packs are a must. I know they sell those boogie wipes things, but they are so overpriced, and unless your kid's nose is raw and sensitive, Kleenex tissues work just fine. I have a pack in my purse, the car, and the park backpack because my kids get runny noses at the drop of a hat. If your child's nose is sensitive or raw (from a cold), you know what works just as well as the boogie wipes and is much cheaper? Regular old baby wipes, again, another use for those things.

Hand sanitizer is also a must for us. A lot of restrooms in Japan don't have paper towels or hand dryers (you are expected to have your own hand towel, and in some cases even soap). For us that is just an extra hassle, so I always have a little thing of hand sanitizer for those situations. We also keep a large one on the desk at home for the kids. We use it a ton during flu season, because I get crazy about that stuff.

Last, we have a collection of water bottles for the kids. They have outgrown sippy cups, but when out and about regular drinking cups just aren't practical. We always fill them each a water bottle before leaving the house. It's easy because we don't worry about spills in the car, if they drop them no harm done really, and they always have water with them when they are thirsty.