No offense to the family on our flight who successfully recreated a domestic oasis among the benches at Heathrow using their Orbit Stroller and massage-table-sized folding travel crib, but we like to travel as relentlessly light as possible. One carry-on item per person was our strategy before the latest Al Qaeda idiot blew his nuts off with a flaming tube of toothpaste.
Since the shoulder strap broke a year or so ago, I've been dropping my laptop bag deep into a LL Bean camo tote bag. This trip, I used the even taller, sturdier, black-on-blacker, Steele Canvas Tote that Andy from Reference Library commissioned for his Kiosk mini-shop last spring.
My wife chuckled at my lonely laptop, book, and Hulger way down at the bottom of my bag next to--what's that? A folded vinyl shopping tote for the Hyper U? Sure you don't want to leave that in the car? The house is full of them.
Well, my comically large, empty tote soon filled right up with all the castoffs: coats, hoodies, scarves, panda backpacks, free-range dolls and blankets. I am very pleased with this decision.
Reference Library Tote Bag, $75 [kioskkiosk.com]
I know you're not as militantly anti-stroller as I am, but the RL tote is also effective as an impromptu child carrier:
http://www.sweet-juniper.com/2009/07/butt-these-are-your-15-minutes-enjoy.html
of course. and combining them means it's the perfect solution for sticking the kid in the overhead bin.