Ft. Worth Children's Museum

My child hoards things. I'm not sure what to do about it. I think I've mentioned it here before, and I'm not sure how concerned to be about it. He has sought out matching items for a long time - for example, he is happy holding a ball, but he is happiest if he has another similarly sized ball to hold in the other hand. We aren't sure if he is seeking balance, or what the deal is.

Lately, this need to balance has grown into a need to hoard similar objects. This was in full force Saturday when we visited the Children's Museum in Ft. Worth. As I looked through the pictures, his arms are full of whatever object he is currently playing with.

We began our museum trip by playing with the trains:

Boys love trains.

How many trains and cars can he hold?

Still holding on - after moving to another room in the museum.

Then, G-Man moved on to a ball funnel. There were five whiffle golf balls. He had three in one hand and two in the other and walked around for a while until we saw that another kid was trying to play with the funnel. He didn't give up the golf balls without a fight though...

Luckily, we have photographic proof that he tried to play with the funnel the right way.

At the fake grocery store, he made a beeline for the plastic tomatoes and held three of them in his arms at once.

Tomato number one!

Driving with the fruits and veggies

Amanda tried to pose for a picture with G-Man when he was sitting in the car, but G-Man kept crying every time I snapped the picture. So, Amanda joined in with the sad face...

We ended the day in a completely white trash manner. The museum's air conditioning was broken, so we stripped the boy down to his diaper and made him run through the fountain in front of the museum.


Then we went to cruise the mall (anyplace with air conditioning) and G-Man transferred his hoarding skills to shoplifting at the Disney Store. (If you look in his stroller, he is sticking toys and baseballs in the stroller with him. We put everything back when he had filled the stroller.)


So, is this hoarding behavior normal? Am I raising a future packrat? Or perhaps a shoplifter?