especially lining stuff up in rows by color or size ( sometimes his cars he lines up by make & model to his own squirrelly plan). Usually just when I start getting freaked out by it, the phase works it way out & a new one emerges to take it's place. Don't worry. It is perfectly normal for a three year old to fixate on things being "just so". Heck, it's normal for everyone. just look in your cupboards... are the glasses lined up just so & doesn't it just drive ya nuts when someone puts things away in the wrong place? Everything you describe sounds right as rain in my book, but if you have concerns that linger...I always say that a mamas gut reaction is worth asking about at the next pediatrician visit, or at least a good search at ask Dr Sears.

He has actually improved a bit, but will do that crying and yelling thing if we didn't do stuff exactly right and in the right order. I thought it was pretty funny actually.
How can I get this off of my finger without betraying my cool exterior? --Fox Mulder

as a kid, but it didn't start until I was at least 6 - that's my earliest memories of it anyway. I'm pretty mellow now, except when I get really stressed I still have a few rituals that I need to stick to.

Anyway, I checked with our ped. when my chicklet started doing some pretty funny OCD stuff - not quite as complex as your three year old of course, but enough to get me worried. Our ped. assured me that its just my girl's job to put everything together in a logical way, and not to worry. She also said OCD (the real disorder), is generally stress-induced, and is usually triggered by a major stressful family/life event - which was certainly true for me.

I don't think he *really* has OCD, but I had that little nagging voice in the back of my head. Its good to hear everybody's stories. Toddlers are a hoot.

Max is the same way. Everything has to be a particular way. I think its very normal.

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. - Chinese Proverb

I think that all toddlers go through things where they kind of obsess over things. It might be the way something is arranged, it might be obsessing over a toy or over a certain kind of toy. My boy, much to my chagrin, is constantly on about blood/monsters/mummies/scary stuff. Something he's sort of been into for a couple of years now, though I do try my hardest to steer his imagination to gentler, yet still "cool", images. I prefer robots/aliens (cute ones)/space ships/little white ghosts over scary monsters, so I try to compromise with this. If it's something that doesn't seem to be disrupting the harmony in your home, let it play out, otherwise perhaps try some of your own compromises and see if it will satisfy him.

at almost exactly the same age as yours is doing it now. Lining up shoes toe to heal, books, trucks in order of size, etc. Also had very specific ideas about color order. And the most insane requirements for, say, which direction I should hold the towel when he got out of the tub. I think it's totally normal.

I have a cousin whose son is OCD and my understanding is that it is very rare for a child to exhibit symptoms at the toddler age. When they do they are generally very, very severe symptoms that interfere with normal functioning. That's my understanding anyway, I am not an expert by any stretch.

Sounds like your little guy is just a regular crazy toddler like mine.

my impression is that most toddlers go through a stage like this - could be trying to assert some control over their surroundings, could be a fascination with the new (to them) concept of order, showing off their brilliance, etc. All taken together it comes across as OCD. Sebastian lines things up obsessively - he gets upset if there are an uneven number of blocks at his disposal when he is lining them up into squares and rectangles. And bedtime, especially, has to flow exactly right - pink cup for milk, green for water, kiss, goodnight, first one light off, then another, he must have his clown pillow and big bunny and baby bunny... until recently the covers could not touch an inch of him and he absolutely *had* to be wearing pants.

Tomorrow it will likely be something different. I praise him for his efforts to put things in order - and then I drop it. I keep an eye on the things that make me go "hmm" but try not to worry too much. Becoming a person is hard-ass work and I expect him to go through some weird stages.

Keep an eye on it - but don't worry. If it turns out your little guy is OCD, you will have time to help him work through that and manage it - by not making a big deal about things like this he will not feel like he needs to hide or feel shame and (IMHO) will be more likely to accept whatever help he needs down the road.

a tangled path

but reportedly when I was a toddler I would line everything up, even Halloween candy to organize it before I would even consider eating it. And I would separate my mixed vegetables into groups before I ate them; I would eat each of the vegetables, it wasn't that I was being selective or picky, I just liked them ordered first. I think some kids just tend to be more anal-retentive than others, ya know?

"I have no country. As a woman, I want no country. As a woman my country is the whole world." - Virginia Woolf

When my son was two or three-ish he would line up all of his hot wheels cars biggest to smallest. Then he'd line them up by color and one day he asked "where's boo car?" He noticed that one of the blue ones was missing!
I thought he did this just to take inventory of his things?

He also did this with dinosaurs at the age of four and books at the age of five. He's nine now and as messy as can be, BUT he always knows when something is out of place!

As for the cup label thing...maybe he just liked the label? Or could he be exercising his will?
Either way, sounds like a bright little guy!

Wow, what a smart little guy- organizing things by size and color at 3?? It's hard to say when he's so young if this could be OCD. I'd keep an eye on it. OCD is a progressive illness so if this is what that is then it will get worse. The demands for order will also become consistent- that is the nature of OCD. He won't sometimes organize his blocks in a certain way- he will ALWAYS systematically do it the same way and become very upset if he's not able to do so. For now it sounds like he's ok... I'm still just impressed by how bright he is!