Toddler OCD

Nora has a thing for making sure objects are in the "right" spot.

When she plays, she makes her share of messes, but a lot of times, she'll pick up after herself--because she likes putting things away as much as she likes taking things out. Sometimes, she'll be playing in the cupboards in the kitchen and the next thing I know, I look down and there is no sign of her having been there at all. I have to a double take and make sure I'm not going crazy--she really WAS just playing there, right?

She was; she just cleaned up all of the evidence.

Nora was given the Fisher-Price Little People Zoo for Christmas, and when Michael first opened it and put it all together for her, he put the gorilla in the tree swing. Now, Nora can't handle it if the gorilla is NOT in the tree swing. If she walks over and finds him anywhere else in the zoo, she immediately moves him to the swing, then will often just walk away again. It's like--as long as the gorilla is in his place, her job there is done.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, this is what it looks like when someone--AHEM!--tries to put your lens cap back on while you're busy taking her picture. Because, you know, the correct "home" for a lens cap is--you guessed it--on the end of a lens. God forbid that it's lying on the floor somewhere; that's a situation that needs to be immediately rectified.

All of this is hilarious and adorable. I get a huge thrill out of this behavior, because it demonstrates just how observant she is and how her brain is sucking things in like a little sponge. My kid is SMART, y'all. And as her parent, it's so fun to watch her learn before my very eyes.

After all, we all have some OCD tendencies, don't we? I could name a few of my own. How about your kids? Do you notice that there are things they HAVE to have a certain way?