OCD Anyone?

I think Collin may have OCD, or he's using his toddler-wily-ways to poke fun at the fact that I'm probably veering towards slightly neurotic myself. I once dated a guy who couldn't get out of the car without touching all the radio station buttons in the car in ascending order, while thinking good thoughts about his dog, Cuddles. I think that blows my need to have a non-stinky dishtowel at ALL times way out of the water.

Still, having a toddler, especially THIS toddler has taught me two things:

1. I can't be anal

2. He is anal

See, he makes a royal mess out of everything he touches. Case in point below. I left an envelope on the table, which is now, suddenly within his reach. When did that happen. Six seconds ago, he was too short to reach anything. Crap, that's right, I bought him a step stool so he'd stop whining incessantly about not being able to see the counter while I cooked dinner. How'd he figure out how to drag it over to the table? Does this mean he'll soon realize he can reach EVERYTHING in the house that I formerly thought safe?!

Anyway, he got my envelope down and with it, a napkin, which he then proceeded to shred to bits so he would have something to put in and out of the envelope, OVER and OVER again. He was perfectly content with this pursuit for nearly an hour. While it was a mess, I figured, what the heck, he's quiet. He once did the same thing with an entire roll of toilet paper while we lived in Alabama and I actually didn't open the door to housekeeping that day, for fear of total humiliation.

Apparently, putting things (ANYTHING) in and then taking them out of any container at hand is his favorite pastime. He'll spend eons dumping and replacing his Lego's. Today, I took him all the way to the freaking park, with the added treat of chalk, only to watch him not color with it, but take it in and out the box for forty minutes. We could've done that at home! It's a good thing I put his rear in the stroller and walked all the way there for that...not to mention all the time I spend trying to get him to draw or even hold the chalk! We go through the same thing with crayons.

Needless to say, my tolerance for messes has gone up considerably. I have taken to leaving bins around so he can just dump and sort himself. At the end of the day I throw things in them and voila, the room is clean. I have a system for which bins collect which toys and it suits us. He has a system for wrecking my system, of course. But, we're coping.

The thing is, he seems so determined during all this sorting, like it's a mission, and he's total anal about it. If you try to get in there and "help" or show him maybe the green blocks could go here or anything like that, whoa! back off lady. He's got his own mental process going on. I just wish I understood it. I just have to wonder if this is something all kids do.