A few months ago, Josie started carrying around a collection of junk with her at all times. She stores it in a variety of places, the pink princess bag in this picture, a purse, a kitty that zips up, and most recently, her closed up umbrella (!). Last night, she slept with this collection at the bottom of her bed. This particular collection includes: a knitting needle, two spoons, one of my scarves, a broken jewelry box, a kitchen clip, two headbands, one ballet slipper, a stuffed pig, etc, etc. If you attempt to take ANY of this stuff away, there is a giant freak-out. A couple of weeks ago, I found her in her bedroom. She had arranged all of her junk in a circle and was curled up in a ball inside of it. She called it her "nest". Also, her teacher recently asked that I please not let her come to school anymore with rocks in her pockets (safety issue!). She says the rocks are very special to her and she needs them. She doesn't play with any of these toys normally, she just likes to spread it all out and look at it. If you ask her what exactly is inside her bag on any particular day, she tells you "it's a surprise".
I fully expect to see her on an episode of Hoarders one day.
