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OCD, Junior
 I'm not going to lie. I have a few little quirks that might be viewed as slightly obsessive-compulsive. The only one that's stuck with me over the years (or the only one I'm aware of, at least) is my compulsion about the microwave.
Here's an example: I drink a cup of chai tea every morning. First, I fill a mug with either water or milk and heat it up in the microwave. Next, I get out a spoon and the tea powder. If I notice that the timer is close to zero, I have to run around like crazy to finish before the timer goes off.
Why, you ask? What will happen if I don't do that, you ask? I shudder to imagine.
I also have a weird thing about using repeating numbers when setting the cooking time. I almost always use 1:11 for my tea water.
Yeah. It's weird. I get it. But it doesn't seem to affect my life much, and it doesn't bother others though I do get a strange look from Frank occasionally (though he has his own rituals).
When I was a kid and noticed something off-kilter or out of place, like if someone accidentally skipped a belt loop or left a long strand out of their ponytail, it would irk me and I could feel my imaginary hands reaching out to fix it. I seem to have gotten over this type of thing (unlike my mom who I can gaslight by walking a few steps ahead of her in a store and surreptitiously arranging display items somewhat off-balance and then laugh as she unconsciously fixes them as she walks by. good times).
All this to say that I hope Christopher outgrows his own tendencies as well. He's had some strange ones:
For a very long time, he was afraid of the credits on tv shoes or movies. He would run to the TV to turn it off. In the movie theatre, once he could tell that the final conflict had been resolved and that things were starting to wrap up, he'd get all twitchy until he couldn't stand it anymore and demanded to be taken out of the theatre.
He also obsesses over whether the power is actually turned off on his portable DVD player before he closes it, lest the DVD player "watch itself."
Sometimes he shakes his hands strangely when he's excited, but thank GOODNESS that one is disappearing.
One of his cutest ones is more of a comfort motion than OCD; he has this puppy (below) that he's worn smooth over the years because he rubs it on his lips when falling asleep. Just the other day he told us that Puppy "doesn't quite feel the same anymore" on his lips now that the fur is pretty much gone. It's very, very sweet.
The most recent OCD behavior happened when I was flossing his teeth. I flossed them all except between his front teeth, which have a slight gap and don't need flossing. When I took the floss out to throw it away, he grabbed my arm and said urgently, "floss the front!" When I told him I didn't need to, he looked a little desperate and said "floss the front!" again. A little light bulb went on in my brain and I asked, "Is it because I started and now I have to finish?" and he sort of frowned and said, "I just need to feel it."
Poor kid. In so many ways, he's so laid back, adaptable and agreeable. I hope he's able to outgrow these little quirks like I (mostly) have.Labels: OCD
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I'm with him on the flossing teeth. You can feel when you've missed one.
At least he's not boring!
I HAD NO IDEA.
i could use more OCD up in herre...please to lend me yer fabulous son for a few days.
i need to floss my teeth now after reading that. thanks CCL.