Mama Monday: The Diaper Bag Transition

I love my diaper bag. I know a lot of people don't, but I have been really happy with mine.

But it's time. I just don't need that much space anymore and I'm ready to not immediately be branded "mommy" by my bag. Sometimes I feel silly hauling my huge diaper bag with nothing in it but a spare diaper and my phone and wallet.

Then, my super awesome little brother got me a purse for Christmas!

So this week I started transitioning over to using that instead of the diaper bag. But I still want to be prepared when I head out, whether it's running errands or to church or to the park, so I'm trying to figure out what should be standard in the new mommy purse. Here's what I've got so far:

• Diaper essentials: extra diapers, a wipes case, and a plain changing pad. My criteria for a changing pad was cheap and small, so this one fit the bill.
• Snacks, for mommy and baby- I always keep a pouch and a clif bar in my bag as go-to emergency snacks.
• A change of clothes - Mine is the child at the gym child care who insists on playing in the water fountain. She's totally soaked 9 times out of 10 when I go to pick her up.
• Wallet
• Pen (and yet I can never find one when I need one!)
• Crayons - always a good thing to have for restaurants. I usually have a page of stickers, too, but she used those while we were out running errands yesterday.
• Table mats - I love these sticky mats to put on restaurant tables, especially outdoor dining. I got a bunch of these ones off amazon months ago and I'm still working through them. Really helps contain the mess and I've even had servers thank me because it made the clean-up easier on them.
• A bib - These Aden & Anais ones are my favorite because they are huge and cover whole front and shoulders. We don't use it often now, but it's always good to have on hand.
• Hair ties. Millions of hair ties. You know you're the mother of a toddler girl when...

It all tucks away nicely, isn't too heavy, and I still have room to toss in my camera and anything else I might need. Tell me mamas, what am I missing? What is a must-have item in your supermom bag?

Side story on the gift: I have been joking with my brother for months that for Christmas I wanted a new couch for the living room. Since he thinks he's hilarious, he got this bag and on the gift box, he crossed out the A in "Couch" and wrote in a U above it. Oh, so funny. But seriously, he picked this out himself. The guy has impeccable taste. And ladies, he's currently single. Just sayin'.