Be Prepared

[naomikritzer]

Kiera has always liked carrying toys around. A week or two ago, she discovered a small backpack made of see-through vinyl, and started carrying that around all day long. She's wearing it right now (I'm nursing her as I type this). Inside she has:

Her sunglasses
A flashlight
A plastic doll from a plastic dollhouse
A baby hat that neither kid has ever worn
A Polly Pocket
A Beanie jellyfish
A stuffed monkey
A stuffed blue something that came out of a Happy Meal last year
Two ponytail holders
A baby doll
A tiny purple plastic hippo
A toy cell phone that beeps out "Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits" every time it gets moved

You'd think that would be enough for one toddler to carry around, but no. Yesterday she stumbled across a pink mesh zippered tote bag and another clear vinyl tote bag, and filled those, too.

In the clear bag, she has:

Another baby doll
A stuffed dog
A maraca from Tijuana
A plastic fan-like gadget that came out of a Wendy's children's meal yesterday
A dinosaur finger puppet
A tiny photo album
A tiny plastic duck
A plastic treasure chest.

And in the pink mesh bag, she's carrying:

A stuffed Strawberry Shortcake doll
Yet another baby doll
A small plastic Dora the Explorer
A plastic giraffe
A plastic zebra
A bathing suit
A plastic firefighter
Two My Little Ponies
Another small plastic doll from the plastic dollhouse
Two key rings with keys on them (all defunct -- we let the girls have the old keys)

She is also trotting around with a larger Dora doll in a doll stroller, and hanging the tote bags from the back of the stroller.

She is taking this stuff with her EVERYWHERE. You probably don't realize what a pain it is to get a toddler on and off the potty when she's wearing a backpack and won't put down her two tote bags stuffed with toys, unless you've done something similar. Not to mention the hassle factor of getting her in and out of a car seat.

Clearly, this child wants to be a bag lady when she grows up.

Comments

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Or a gypsy! She can trade up to a brightly painted, horse-drawn wagon and bring even more stuff wherever she goes.

[naomikritzer]

Ooooooooooooh, she'd be all over that.

[naomikritzer]

Come to think of it, maybe this is all due to a past life as a gypsy, which would also explain why she likes to wear floor-length skirts despite their inherent impracticality when you're a toddler.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Or she may be a gypsy soul, reborn or not. Not a bad thing to be.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Classic! My co-workers want to know why I'm sniggering back here.

Mine also likes to carry bags of things around. Yesterday she went "shopping" in the kitchen and hauled around the apartment two containers of applesauce, one My Little Pony, a packet of fruit snacks, two containers of rainbow sprinkles, and a hairbrush.

They had show-and-tell yesterday at daycare. DD's show-and-tell item of choice? The Monkey Family (the large Mama Monkey, the small Sister Monkey, and the even smaller Baby Monkey, three unrelated stuffed animals from disparate sources that look nothing alike at all). That's a lot of monkeys to shlep an hour there and an hour back by public transit, let me tell you.