Disappearing Act

If this little boy weren't so cute...

Little Z has a funny way of losing things. Mostly items in the store we're purchasing. He insists on carrying things, which is the bulk of the problem right there. At the library, he found a book about trains that he was ga-ga for. Z would not let us carry it, and so when it came time to check out, he had misplaced it and we couldn't take it home. He needed a new toothbrush the other day, so he picked out a Cookie Monster brush (surprise, surprise) and demanded to carry it. And what happened when we got to the counter? You guessed it... it was gone. He set it down somewhere in the store. I don't know how he does it. I keep checking on what he's holding in his hands, and only at the last minute is it AWOL. Yesterday we were at Target getting odds and ends. We are completely out of coffee, so I put some coffee in the cart with Zinabu. I kept a close eye on it the entire time, making sure it made it to the cashier and into a bag. Success! But somehow between the store and our car, it disappeared. How does he do it?

Meanwhile, there is no coffee in the house right now and I am debating chewing on a tree trunk.