The makings of a bag lady

I no longer have to wonder how a bag lady gets her start. I believe there's one in the making right under our roof.

It started innocently enough with a bag fetish. Gift bags, grocery bags, purses and totes. Anything she could chuck full would do. Knowing her Grandma Butterbean has always taken a liking to a nice bag (we're talking shopping bags here), I wasn't too concerned when it first started. And let's face it ... kids like taking things in and out of other things.

However, it's now gone mobile. What was once a leftover gift bag or two filled with stuffed animals is now overflowing and gotten wheels. First it was her babydoll stroller. Trusty Mr. Hopper use to get taken for rides, then came a blanket, then a stuffed bear, a pair of sunglasses, a baby bottle, a toy laptop computer in the basket below. The evolution has been both quick and mysterious. It leaves you shaking your head.

After the stroller grew short on space, the grocery cart annex came into play. First there were the toy grocery items that came with the cart ... plastic broccoli, fake fruit and a cash register. Then she went Wal-Mart Supercenter ... greeting cards, socks and books. The cart is now a mound of miscellaneous items only she is allowed to touch.

A shrine to the word "mess," the stroller, grocery cart and two brown grocery bags now take up a sizeable area in our home, yet I don't dare suggest we pare down her possessions or even worse, organize it. The most fascinating part is that she has a mental inventory of everything.

Unable to look at the mess anymore I sorted through the rubbage during a recent nap. Hoping to thin out the merchandise just a bit without my intrusion being detected, I managed to sneak out junk mail from two weeks ago, an empty sippy cup from only God knows when, a lone dirty sock and a pair of pajamas that had already seen her bed.

I'm curious to see how long this phase lasts, or better yet, how it evolves. In the meantime, whenever I find I'm missing something, you can only guess where I start my search.