As promised..................

The diaper bag. Yes, the dreaded bag. Or at least it was for me. There was something about "going back to carrying that bag" that I dreaded and fought. Boy did I fight it. But after one gastrointestinal event at the store where I was forced to buy, disposable underwear, pants, socks and shoes; I got the bag.

Now here is an admission. I am a card carrying handbag junkie. Yep, I am one of "those" women that has a closet full money all in the shape of purses. I have all the boys, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Brahmin, Prada, Cole Haan, all the boys are represented. This is impressive when you hear I live in a town with VERY limited shopping opportunities. My girlfriends and I play "Name that Handbag", you know the old tv show, I can name that Handbag in 4 designers, I can name it 3, etc. Sad but true.

Once I became accustomed to the idea of going back to carrying a diaper bag, I realized a handbag shopping trip was required. Oh goodie, that is me, the eternal optimist always looking for the silver lining. So off I went and I found a lovely bag, unfortunately it was not quite right for a diaper bag, but was beauuuuuuutiful.

I finally settled on a nice backpack style bag. It is comfortable, allows me to hold onto my dad as it is hands free while still carry my fashion statement (or handbag). I love this bag. It is not the most expensive but it is soo practical and fits us perfectly. I have learned through trial and error the perfect "Dementia Bag" will contain:

1. Disposable underwear (at least 3 pairs as sometimes what you think is the main event, is just a warm up.
2. Socks, gravity my dear, gravity.
3. Pants, sometimes the underwear just doesn't hold everything it should.
4. A snack. Very important as you never know when the munchies will strike and I have used candy as entertainment. I was refinancing the house and you know how long that paperwork takes! Dad was with me and I would sign, unwrap a candy, hand it to him, sign, unwrap a candy, repeat.
5. A drink as the snacks can make you thirsty.
6. A shiny toy. Sometimes Dad gets fidgety, if I can give him some sort of one piece puzzle to manipulate it will keep his hands busy.
7. An appropriate magazine to read aloud with lots of pictures. Once I realized that Dad's short term memory is gone, so if I find a magazine issue he likes I buy a few and keep that one around.
8. A pair of glasses. These glasses are for comfort as he wears his glasses, but he likes to know they are there. I pull them out, show them to him and he is happy.
9. They have disposable lens cleaning pre-moistoned cloths. I keep a few in there as the snacks make our glasses dirty.
10. Breath mints, halitosis seems to be an issue these days.
11. Diaper wipes in a ziploc baggie, see number 1.