On Sunday Esther missed her morning nap before church. As she slept in my arms in the mother's lounge at church, I realized I couldn't move an inch or she would wake up. Not a problem then, but my mind zoomed forward to our upcoming trip to Japan and realized that really wouldn't fly (no pun intended...really) if Autumn or Heidi needed my help on the plane. If she could just sleep at my feet...

Then I remembered something called a "Moses basket" -- essentially a bassinet for the floor.

That would've worked perfectly....except for the fact that it was too big to stuff in a carry-on and too bulky to carry AS a carry-on. So in true Boatright fashion, or more specifically "Miriam Boatright fashion" -- I started thinking about how I could make one that would fold up. Mom has always found ways to adapt things to our needs. She tailored them to fit our needs perfectly. (A special table for our tiny TV; a trundle bed to fit a crib mattress; a kitchen table made out of a HUGE piece of wood with normal table legs from an older, smaller table (for our family of 9); making curtains out of sheets...the list goes on and on.)

Using some fabric I had on-hand, I sewed a crude basket with panels for some type of hard plastic -- panels so that it could be folded up & hard plastic so that the sides would stay upright when it was open. I wasn't really sure what to use for the panels and considered buckram (the stiff stuff used to make hats) and mylar (even stiffer stuff used to make signs).

Today I went to Lowe's and a very kind sales associate walked around with me showing me all the different "plasticky" sheets they had that could be cut into the sizes I would need. I decided to use light covers -- you know, the clear sheets that cover florescent lights in businesses & schools? I wonder what that'll look like on the x-ray at the airport....

I used a pillow -- a very FLAT pillow for someone's head, but perfect as a mini-mattress for a baby -- for the mattress. I have to squish it a little to fit it in, but it works. Here's how it turned out. (I know, the picture quality is awful...I don't know where the cables are to unload pictures from Eric's camera and he's at work...so these are from our webcam...)